The Two Towers

by

J.R.R. Tolkien

Frodo, a hobbit from the Shire, is the main protagonist of The Lord of the Rings epic. In The Fellowship of the Ring, the first book of the series, he accepts the dangerous task of carrying the One Ring into Mordor to destroy it in the fires of Mount Doom. By the end of the novel Frodo decides to part ways with the rest of the Fellowship and travel to Mordor alone, followed only by his beloved friend and servant Sam. Though not overtly gallant or courageous, Frodo is a heroic figure because of his disinterest in the Ring’s power and his simple willingness to undertake the quest. Frodo’s humility and kindness endear him to his friends. This earns him the devoted loyalty of Sam, whom Frodo treats more as an equal than an employee, and the adoration of Gollum, who is drawn both to Frodo and the Ring he carries. Frodo’s decision to not kill Gollum and, instead, to protect him and show him kindness, reveals a change in Frodo from The Fellowship of the Ring, during which he told Gandalf that Gollum deserves death. Since that conversation, Frodo’s experience bearing the Ring has allowed him to better understand and pity Gollum. The burden of the Ring, far from corrupting Frodo, has only made him more merciful. However, as The Two Towers progresses, the Ring puts more and more of a mental and physical strain on Frodo. He finds himself at times so exhausted that he’s unable to stand and so depressed that he struggles to make important decisions. He depends on Sam to care for both his bodily needs—food and rest—and his spiritual and emotional needs. When Frodo is consumed by despair, certain his quest will be meaningless, Sam is there to comfort him and make him laugh. Frodo’s desire to trust and rehabilitate Gollum leads him ultimately into danger in Shelob’s lair, capture by the orcs of Cirith Ungol, and perhaps worst of all, separation from Sam. Though one of Frodo’s most heroic qualities is his ability to inspire loyalty in others, that loyalty can’t compete against the Ring’s hold over Gollum, and kindness alone can’t combat evil.

Frodo Baggins Quotes in The Two Towers

The The Two Towers quotes below are all either spoken by Frodo Baggins or refer to Frodo Baggins. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Decline and Decay  Theme Icon
).
Book 3, Chapter 1 Quotes

Boromir opened his eyes and strove to speak. At last slow words came. ‘I tried to take the Ring from Frodo,’ he said. ‘I am sorry. I have paid.’ His glance strayed to his fallen enemies; twenty at least lay there. ‘They have gone: the Halflings: the Orcs have taken them. I think they are not dead. Orcs bound them.’ He paused and his eyes closed wearily. After a moment he spoke again.

‘Farewell, Aragorn! Go to Minas Tirith and save my people! I have failed.’

Related Characters: Boromir (speaker), Frodo Baggins, Aragorn, Meriadoc “Merry” Brandybuck, Peregrin “Pippin” Took
Related Symbols: The Ring
Page Number: 4
Explanation and Analysis:

‘Let me think!’ said Aragorn. ‘And now may I make a right choice, and change the evil fate of this unhappy day!’ He stood silent for a moment. ‘I will follow the Orcs,’ he said at last. ‘I would have guided Frodo into Mordor and gone with him to the end; but if I seek him now in the wilderness, I must abandon the captives to torment and death. My heart speaks clearly at last: the fate of the Bearer is in my hands no longer. The Company has played its part. Yet we that remain cannot forsake our companions while we have strength left. Come! We will go now. Leave all that can be spared behind! We will press on by day and dark!’

Related Characters: Aragorn (speaker), Frodo Baggins, Meriadoc “Merry” Brandybuck, Peregrin “Pippin” Took , Gimli, Legolas
Related Symbols: The Ring
Page Number: 11
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 3, Chapter 5 Quotes

‘I have spoken words of hope. But only of hope. Hope is not victory. War is upon us and all our friends, a war in which only the use of the Ring could give us surety of victory. It fills me with great sorrow and great fear: for much shall be destroyed and all may be lost. I am Gandalf, Gandalf the White, but Black is mightier still.’

He rose and gazed out eastward, shading his eyes, as if he saw things far away that none of them could see. Then he shook his head. ‘No,’ he said in a soft voice, ‘it has gone beyond our reach. Of that at least let us be glad. We can no longer be tempted to use the Ring. We must go down to face a peril near despair, yet that deadly peril is removed.’

Related Characters: Gandalf (speaker), Frodo Baggins, Aragorn, Sauron, Gimli, Legolas
Related Symbols: The Ring
Page Number: 108-109
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 4, Chapter 1 Quotes

I do not feel any pity for Gollum. He deserves death.

Deserves death! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give that to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends.

‘Very well,’ he answered aloud, lowering his sword. ‘But still I am afraid. And yet, as you see, I will not touch the creature. For now that I see him, I do pity him.”

Related Characters: Frodo Baggins (speaker), Gandalf (speaker), Samwise “Sam” Gamgee, Gollum (Sméagol)
Related Symbols: The Ring
Page Number: 246
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 4, Chapter 2 Quotes

‘About the food,’ said Sam. ‘How long’s it going to take us to do this job?’

[…]

‘I don’t know how long we shall take to—to finish,’ said Frodo. ‘We were miserably delayed in the hills. But Samwise Gamgee, my dear hobbit—indeed, Sam my dearest hobbit, friend of friends—I do not think we need to give thought to what comes after that. To do the job as you put it—what hope is there that we ever shall? And if we do, who knows what will come of that? If the One goes into the Fire, and we are at hand? I ask you, Sam, are we ever likely to need bread again?’

Related Characters: Frodo Baggins (speaker), Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (speaker)
Related Symbols: The Ring, Lembas
Page Number: 257
Explanation and Analysis:

‘No, no! Not that way!’ wailed Sméagol.

‘Yes! We wants it! We wants it!’

Each time that the second thought spoke, Gollum’s long hand crept out slowly, pawing towards Frodo, and then was drawn back with a jerk as Sméagol spoke again. Finally both arms, with long fingers flexed and twitching, clawed towards his neck.

Related Characters: Gollum (Sméagol) (speaker), Frodo Baggins, Samwise “Sam” Gamgee, Sauron
Related Symbols: The Ring
Page Number: 268
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 4, Chapter 3 Quotes

‘It was an evil fate. But he had taken it on himself in his own sitting-room in the far-off spring of another year, so remote now that it was like a chapter in a story of the world’s youth, when the Trees of Silver and Gold were still in bloom. This was an evil choice. Which way should he choose? And if both led to terror and death, what good lay in choice?’

Related Characters: Frodo Baggins (speaker), Samwise “Sam” Gamgee, Gollum (Sméagol)
Related Symbols: The Ring
Page Number: 281
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 4, Chapter 4 Quotes

Gollum disappeared. He was away some time, and Frodo after a few mouthfuls of lembas settled deep into the brown fern and went to sleep. Sam looked at him. […] Frodo’s face was peaceful, the marks of fear and care had left it; but it looked old, old and beautiful, as if the chiseling of the shaping years was now revealed in many fine lines that had before been hidden, though the identity of the face was not changed. Not that Sam Gamgee put it that way to himself. He shook his head, as if finding words useless, and murmured: ‘I love him.’

Related Characters: Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (speaker), Frodo Baggins, Gollum (Sméagol)
Page Number: 291
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 4, Chapter 5 Quotes

‘Not were Minas Tirith falling in ruin and I alone could save her, so, using the weapon of the Dark Lord for her good and my glory. No, I do not wish for such triumphs, Frodo son of Drogo. […] War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend: the city of the Men of Númenor; and I would have her loved for her memory, her ancientry, her beauty, and her present wisdom.’

Related Characters: Faramir (speaker), Frodo Baggins, Sauron, Isildur
Related Symbols: The Ring
Page Number: 314
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 4, Chapter 7 Quotes

‘I’m afraid our journey’s drawing to an end.’

‘Maybe,’ said Sam; ‘but where there’s life there’s hope, as my Gaffer used to say; and need of vittles, as he mostways used to add. You have a bite, Mr. Frodo, and then a bit of sleep.’

Related Characters: Frodo Baggins (speaker), Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (speaker)
Related Symbols: The Ring, Lembas
Page Number: 348-349
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 4, Chapter 8 Quotes

‘All is lost. Even if my errand is performed, no one will ever know. There will be no one I can tell. It will be in vain.’ Overcome with weakness he wept. And still the host of Morgul crossed the bridge.

Then, at a great distance, as if it came out of memories of the Shire, some sunlit early morning, when the day called and the doors were opening, he heard Sam’s voice speaking. ‘Wake up, Mr. Frodo! Wake up!’

[…]

Frodo raised his head, and then stood up. Despair had not left him, but the weakness had passed. He even smiled grimly, feeling now as clearly as a moment before he had felt the opposite, that what he had to do, he had to do, if he could, and that whether Faramir or Aragorn or Elrond or Galadriel or Gandalf or anyone else ever knew about it was beside the purpose.

Related Characters: Frodo Baggins (speaker), Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (speaker), Aragorn, Gandalf, Faramir, Galadriel, The Wraith-king, Elrond
Related Symbols: The Ring
Page Number: 357-358
Explanation and Analysis:

‘Yes, that’s so,’ said Sam. ‘And we shouldn’t be here at all, if we’d known more about it before we started. But I suppose it’s often that way. The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of sport, as you might say. But that’s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually—their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn’t.’

Related Characters: Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (speaker), Frodo Baggins
Page Number: 362
Explanation and Analysis:

‘Why, Sam,’ he said, ‘to hear you somehow makes me as merry as if the story was already written. But you’ve left out one of the chief characters: Samwise the stouthearted. “I want to hear more about Sam, dad. Why didn’t they put in more of his talk, dad? That’s what I like, it makes me laugh. And Frodo wouldn’t have got far without Sam, would he, dad?”’

‘No, Mr. Frodo,’ said Sam, ‘you shouldn’t make fun. I was serious.’

‘So was I,’ said Frodo, ‘and so I am.’

Related Characters: Frodo Baggins (speaker), Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (speaker)
Page Number: 363-364
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 4, Chapter 10 Quotes

‘What shall I do, what shall I do?’ he said. ‘Did I come all this way with him for nothing?’ And then he remembered his own voice speaking words that at the time he did not understand himself, at the beginning of their journey: I have something to do before the end. I must see it through, sir, if you understand.

Related Characters: Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (speaker), Frodo Baggins
Page Number: 385
Explanation and Analysis:

He flung the Quest and all his decisions away, and fear and doubt with them. He knew now where his place was and had been: at his master’s side, though what he could do there was not clear. Back he ran down the steps, down the path towards Frodo.

[…]

‘I wonder if any song will ever mention it: How Samwise fell in the High Pass and made a wall of bodies round his master. No, no song. Of course not, for the Ring’ll be found, and there’ll be no more songs. I can’t help it. My place is by Mr. Frodo. They must understand that—Elrond and the Council, and the great Lords and Ladies with all their wisdom. Their plans have gone wrong. I can’t be their Ring-bearer. Not without Mr. Frodo.’

Related Characters: Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (speaker), Frodo Baggins, Elrond
Related Symbols: The Ring
Page Number: 390
Explanation and Analysis:
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Frodo Baggins Quotes in The Two Towers

The The Two Towers quotes below are all either spoken by Frodo Baggins or refer to Frodo Baggins. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Decline and Decay  Theme Icon
).
Book 3, Chapter 1 Quotes

Boromir opened his eyes and strove to speak. At last slow words came. ‘I tried to take the Ring from Frodo,’ he said. ‘I am sorry. I have paid.’ His glance strayed to his fallen enemies; twenty at least lay there. ‘They have gone: the Halflings: the Orcs have taken them. I think they are not dead. Orcs bound them.’ He paused and his eyes closed wearily. After a moment he spoke again.

‘Farewell, Aragorn! Go to Minas Tirith and save my people! I have failed.’

Related Characters: Boromir (speaker), Frodo Baggins, Aragorn, Meriadoc “Merry” Brandybuck, Peregrin “Pippin” Took
Related Symbols: The Ring
Page Number: 4
Explanation and Analysis:

‘Let me think!’ said Aragorn. ‘And now may I make a right choice, and change the evil fate of this unhappy day!’ He stood silent for a moment. ‘I will follow the Orcs,’ he said at last. ‘I would have guided Frodo into Mordor and gone with him to the end; but if I seek him now in the wilderness, I must abandon the captives to torment and death. My heart speaks clearly at last: the fate of the Bearer is in my hands no longer. The Company has played its part. Yet we that remain cannot forsake our companions while we have strength left. Come! We will go now. Leave all that can be spared behind! We will press on by day and dark!’

Related Characters: Aragorn (speaker), Frodo Baggins, Meriadoc “Merry” Brandybuck, Peregrin “Pippin” Took , Gimli, Legolas
Related Symbols: The Ring
Page Number: 11
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 3, Chapter 5 Quotes

‘I have spoken words of hope. But only of hope. Hope is not victory. War is upon us and all our friends, a war in which only the use of the Ring could give us surety of victory. It fills me with great sorrow and great fear: for much shall be destroyed and all may be lost. I am Gandalf, Gandalf the White, but Black is mightier still.’

He rose and gazed out eastward, shading his eyes, as if he saw things far away that none of them could see. Then he shook his head. ‘No,’ he said in a soft voice, ‘it has gone beyond our reach. Of that at least let us be glad. We can no longer be tempted to use the Ring. We must go down to face a peril near despair, yet that deadly peril is removed.’

Related Characters: Gandalf (speaker), Frodo Baggins, Aragorn, Sauron, Gimli, Legolas
Related Symbols: The Ring
Page Number: 108-109
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 4, Chapter 1 Quotes

I do not feel any pity for Gollum. He deserves death.

Deserves death! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give that to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends.

‘Very well,’ he answered aloud, lowering his sword. ‘But still I am afraid. And yet, as you see, I will not touch the creature. For now that I see him, I do pity him.”

Related Characters: Frodo Baggins (speaker), Gandalf (speaker), Samwise “Sam” Gamgee, Gollum (Sméagol)
Related Symbols: The Ring
Page Number: 246
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 4, Chapter 2 Quotes

‘About the food,’ said Sam. ‘How long’s it going to take us to do this job?’

[…]

‘I don’t know how long we shall take to—to finish,’ said Frodo. ‘We were miserably delayed in the hills. But Samwise Gamgee, my dear hobbit—indeed, Sam my dearest hobbit, friend of friends—I do not think we need to give thought to what comes after that. To do the job as you put it—what hope is there that we ever shall? And if we do, who knows what will come of that? If the One goes into the Fire, and we are at hand? I ask you, Sam, are we ever likely to need bread again?’

Related Characters: Frodo Baggins (speaker), Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (speaker)
Related Symbols: The Ring, Lembas
Page Number: 257
Explanation and Analysis:

‘No, no! Not that way!’ wailed Sméagol.

‘Yes! We wants it! We wants it!’

Each time that the second thought spoke, Gollum’s long hand crept out slowly, pawing towards Frodo, and then was drawn back with a jerk as Sméagol spoke again. Finally both arms, with long fingers flexed and twitching, clawed towards his neck.

Related Characters: Gollum (Sméagol) (speaker), Frodo Baggins, Samwise “Sam” Gamgee, Sauron
Related Symbols: The Ring
Page Number: 268
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 4, Chapter 3 Quotes

‘It was an evil fate. But he had taken it on himself in his own sitting-room in the far-off spring of another year, so remote now that it was like a chapter in a story of the world’s youth, when the Trees of Silver and Gold were still in bloom. This was an evil choice. Which way should he choose? And if both led to terror and death, what good lay in choice?’

Related Characters: Frodo Baggins (speaker), Samwise “Sam” Gamgee, Gollum (Sméagol)
Related Symbols: The Ring
Page Number: 281
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 4, Chapter 4 Quotes

Gollum disappeared. He was away some time, and Frodo after a few mouthfuls of lembas settled deep into the brown fern and went to sleep. Sam looked at him. […] Frodo’s face was peaceful, the marks of fear and care had left it; but it looked old, old and beautiful, as if the chiseling of the shaping years was now revealed in many fine lines that had before been hidden, though the identity of the face was not changed. Not that Sam Gamgee put it that way to himself. He shook his head, as if finding words useless, and murmured: ‘I love him.’

Related Characters: Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (speaker), Frodo Baggins, Gollum (Sméagol)
Page Number: 291
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 4, Chapter 5 Quotes

‘Not were Minas Tirith falling in ruin and I alone could save her, so, using the weapon of the Dark Lord for her good and my glory. No, I do not wish for such triumphs, Frodo son of Drogo. […] War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend: the city of the Men of Númenor; and I would have her loved for her memory, her ancientry, her beauty, and her present wisdom.’

Related Characters: Faramir (speaker), Frodo Baggins, Sauron, Isildur
Related Symbols: The Ring
Page Number: 314
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 4, Chapter 7 Quotes

‘I’m afraid our journey’s drawing to an end.’

‘Maybe,’ said Sam; ‘but where there’s life there’s hope, as my Gaffer used to say; and need of vittles, as he mostways used to add. You have a bite, Mr. Frodo, and then a bit of sleep.’

Related Characters: Frodo Baggins (speaker), Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (speaker)
Related Symbols: The Ring, Lembas
Page Number: 348-349
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 4, Chapter 8 Quotes

‘All is lost. Even if my errand is performed, no one will ever know. There will be no one I can tell. It will be in vain.’ Overcome with weakness he wept. And still the host of Morgul crossed the bridge.

Then, at a great distance, as if it came out of memories of the Shire, some sunlit early morning, when the day called and the doors were opening, he heard Sam’s voice speaking. ‘Wake up, Mr. Frodo! Wake up!’

[…]

Frodo raised his head, and then stood up. Despair had not left him, but the weakness had passed. He even smiled grimly, feeling now as clearly as a moment before he had felt the opposite, that what he had to do, he had to do, if he could, and that whether Faramir or Aragorn or Elrond or Galadriel or Gandalf or anyone else ever knew about it was beside the purpose.

Related Characters: Frodo Baggins (speaker), Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (speaker), Aragorn, Gandalf, Faramir, Galadriel, The Wraith-king, Elrond
Related Symbols: The Ring
Page Number: 357-358
Explanation and Analysis:

‘Yes, that’s so,’ said Sam. ‘And we shouldn’t be here at all, if we’d known more about it before we started. But I suppose it’s often that way. The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of sport, as you might say. But that’s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually—their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn’t.’

Related Characters: Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (speaker), Frodo Baggins
Page Number: 362
Explanation and Analysis:

‘Why, Sam,’ he said, ‘to hear you somehow makes me as merry as if the story was already written. But you’ve left out one of the chief characters: Samwise the stouthearted. “I want to hear more about Sam, dad. Why didn’t they put in more of his talk, dad? That’s what I like, it makes me laugh. And Frodo wouldn’t have got far without Sam, would he, dad?”’

‘No, Mr. Frodo,’ said Sam, ‘you shouldn’t make fun. I was serious.’

‘So was I,’ said Frodo, ‘and so I am.’

Related Characters: Frodo Baggins (speaker), Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (speaker)
Page Number: 363-364
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 4, Chapter 10 Quotes

‘What shall I do, what shall I do?’ he said. ‘Did I come all this way with him for nothing?’ And then he remembered his own voice speaking words that at the time he did not understand himself, at the beginning of their journey: I have something to do before the end. I must see it through, sir, if you understand.

Related Characters: Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (speaker), Frodo Baggins
Page Number: 385
Explanation and Analysis:

He flung the Quest and all his decisions away, and fear and doubt with them. He knew now where his place was and had been: at his master’s side, though what he could do there was not clear. Back he ran down the steps, down the path towards Frodo.

[…]

‘I wonder if any song will ever mention it: How Samwise fell in the High Pass and made a wall of bodies round his master. No, no song. Of course not, for the Ring’ll be found, and there’ll be no more songs. I can’t help it. My place is by Mr. Frodo. They must understand that—Elrond and the Council, and the great Lords and Ladies with all their wisdom. Their plans have gone wrong. I can’t be their Ring-bearer. Not without Mr. Frodo.’

Related Characters: Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (speaker), Frodo Baggins, Elrond
Related Symbols: The Ring
Page Number: 390
Explanation and Analysis: