The Lord Of The Rings: Who Are Frodo's Parents?

Family matters in Middle-earth. Frodo and Bilbo are cousins (yes, cousins, not uncle and nephew). Frodo, Pippin, and Merry are all connected by blood in different ways, as well. Galadriel and Elrond end up in-laws (and yes, that makes their non-canonical kiss in "The Rings of Power" a bit awkward). Even Aragorn and Arwen are ever-so-distantly related if you go back far enough.

Everywhere you look, family history influences events in Tolkien's world. The author even gives us some glimpses into family details that don't directly impact the main story, even if they're critical in setting the stage for it. For instance, we know who Frodo's parents are — and we know about their tragic fate, too.

Frodo's mom and dad are Miss Primula Brandybuck and Mr. Drogo Baggins. These are Bilbo's first and second cousins, respectively, which explains why Frodo initially got onto the Hobbit bachelor's radar as a potential heir. Frodo's parents both come from well-respected Hobbit households. The Baggins are down-to-earth, practical Hobbits who never go out of their way to hunt down the unordinary. The Brandybucks are a bit more exotic. They live on the edge of the Shire, closer to all of the troubles of distant lands. This proximity to the outside world means they also do very un-Hobbit-like things, like boating on water. Most Hobbits hate water, which is why when Drogo visits his wife's region, it leads to some risky watercraft activities, followed by their untimely demise.

J.R.R. Tolkien opens up "The Fellowship of the Ring" book with an account of how Bilbo brings a twenty-something Frodo to Bag End to live with him as his adopted heir. Frodo is adoptable at this point because his parents have both died, and not from old age, sickness, or disease. Their young lives abruptly ended due to a boating accident.

In the early pages of the book, Sam Gamgee's dad, the Gaffer, tells the tale to a mesmerized crowd over a pint, starting with the Hobbit-ish line, "A decent respectable hobbit was Mr. Drogo Baggins; there was never much to tell of him, till he was drownded." Here's the story in a nutshell.

Primula's father is Master Gorbadoc Brandybuck. Gorbadoc is the Master of Buckland (the leader of the Brandybucks), and his house is famous for its feasting and good food, an obvious prerequisite for Hobbit life. After Drogo and Primula get hitched, they regularly visit the in-laws. While they're in the area for the food, they also use the occasion to do some non-Bagginsish boating. At one point, they go out on the Brandywine River, and both husband and wife drown in a boating incident. The thing is, while the Gaffer is convinced the event was little more than poor boat handling (and thus proof that boats are as dangerous as they say), there are darker rumors about what was behind the "accident."

In "The Fellowship of the Rings" book, when the Gaffer tells the story of the death of Drogo and Primula, multiple people interrupt to share other dark rumors surrounding the tragedy. One is simple enough. They went out after dinner in the moonlight, and Drogo's enormous weight was too much for the boat to handle — a cautionary tale for other overweight Halflings.

However, the local miller goes in a darker direction, sharing that he heard Primula pushed Drogo in, and he pulled her in after him. This double-murder version is quickly shot down by the Gaffer (who is fiercely loyal to the Bagginses), but it does leave the incident shrouded in uncomfortable mystery.

To be clear, everything up to here has been in the books, written by Tolkien's own hand. However, the author doesn't give us closure on the fate of Frodo's parents. They drown, and it isn't explained if it's actually an accident or something that happened on purpose. This has led some fans to theorize about other things that could have happened. One of the juiciest ones is an exhaustive Reddit thread that suggests Gollum, not Primula, was the murderer. The idea is that in his search for "Shire, Baggins," Gollum actually did reach the edge of the Hobbit homeland, killed a "Baggins" named Drogo, and then was drawn away to Mordor afterward, where Sauron catches and tortures him.

To be fair, this theory is riddled with holes and has plenty of counterpoints. However, from our research, it isn't completely impossible. If only Tolkien had tried to connect those dots, imagine the implications of Frodo being orphaned at the tender age of 12 years by the very guide who later leads him to the Cracks of Doom and bites off his finger. While we'll learn a lot more about Gollum's activities during this time in the upcoming Warner Bros. movie centered on Sméagol, this fan theory isn't likely to make the cut.

While Frodo's parents die young, they leave him in a very populated and supportive extended family. The Bilbo Baggins connection is obvious from the jump. However, Frodo's Brandybuck side is important, too.

The appendices at the end of "The Return of the King" include family trees for the Baggins, Brandybucks, and Tooks (Pippin's family) — and Frodo shows up on all three. He is a cousin of Merry through his mother's Brandybuck stock. His maternal grandmother, one Mirabella, is also a member of the Took aristocracy, a fact that connects Frodo with Pippin.

This makes Frodo an ancestral crossroads in Hobbit society. It is more than family tree mumbo jumbo, too. Frodo's backstory is a key part of how his story plays out. On the one side, his direct connection to Bilbo through the Baggins makes him a perfect candidate to inherit the One Ring. On the other side, his other Hobbit family connections form the core of his friends (including some who didn't even show up in the movie) who go with him on his journey. While Frodo's story is most closely connected to Samwise Gamgee — who is ironically not directly related to him — Tolkien still managed to weave the ring-bearer's family connections into the heart of Frodo's story, starting with his unfortunate parents.