Three were given to the Elves, immortal, wisest, and fairest of all beings. Seven to the Dwarf Lords, great miners and craftsmen of the mountain holds. Nine rings were gifted to the race of Men, who above all else desire power.

In the land of Mordor in the fires of Mount Doom, the Dark Lord Sauron forged, in secret, a Master Ring to control all others. And into this Ring, he poured his cruelty, his malice, and his will to dominate all life. One Ring to rule them all.

Isildur of Gondor severed Sauron's finger and the Ring with it, thereby vanquishing Sauron and returning him to spirit form.

The Ring came to the creature Gollum, who took it deep into the tunnels of the Misty Mountains. And there, it consumed him.

Centuries of the Ring's influence have twisted Gollum's body and mind, prompting him to call the Ring "my precious", illustrating his perversion from loving another living being to loving an object of power.

Something happened the Ring did not intend. It was picked up by the most unlikely creature imaginable. A Hobbit. Bilbo Baggins of the Shire.

Gandalf reunites with his old friend Bilbo at the Hobbit's 111st (pronounced "eleventy first") birthday party. When Bilbo uses the Ring to vanish from his own party, playing a prank on his guests, Gandalf begins to suspect the Ring's true nature.

There and Back Again is a book recounting Bilbo's adventures with Thorin and Company and the quest to reclaim the Dwarf-realm of Erebor. Conceived as his memoirs, the book was begun by Bilbo upon his return to Bag End but not completed until his retirement in Rivendell.

Gandalf is delighting Bilbo's birthday guests with a pyrotechnic display when the two trouble-making Hobbits steal a giant dragon firecracker and set it off inside a tent. As penance, Gandalf forces them to wash dishes after the feast.

Normally, the One Ring appears perfectly plain and featureless, but when cast into fire the inscription appears in fiery letters inside and outside the Ring. Roughly translated, it reads: One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.