The Lord of the Rings: All 9 Members of the Fellowship, Ranked by Power

Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy collected 17 Academy Awards from 30 nominations — including Best Picture for The Return of the King — across a three-year theatrical run that grossed roughly $2.9 billion worldwide and converted an already-beloved book series into one of Hollywood’s biggest franchises. J.R.R. Tolkien had published the novels in three volumes between 1954 and 1955, constructing a legendarium deep enough to sustain decades of academic study. Still, it was Jackson’s adaptation that placed the nine members of the Fellowship of the Ring in front of a global audience large enough to make each character a cultural touchstone. With The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, directed by Andy Serkis and produced by Jackson, arriving in theaters on December 17, 2027, that mythology is expanding once again.

The Fellowship remains the most recognizable ensemble in fantasy history. The nine walkers chosen at the Council of Elrond represented every free race of Middle-earth, which means they brought vastly different physical capabilities, spiritual histories, and combat records to the road. Ranking them requires measuring mortal warriors against immortal beings, hobbits of extraordinary will against elves of superhuman endurance, and a divine entity who once fought a demon of ancient fire against the greatest king of the age of Men.

9) Peregrin Took

Peregrin “Pippin” Took is the youngest and least battle-tested member of the Fellowship, a hobbit who joins the quest out of friendship and a stubborn refusal to be left behind. Pippin is also remembered for the many times he accidentally put the Fellowship in danger. In the Mines of Moria, his accidental dislodging of a skeleton down a well alerts a full garrison of orcs to the Fellowship’s position, nearly collapsing the mission before it crosses into Rohan. Pippin later gazes into the recovered palantír despite being explicitly forbidden to do so, allowing Sauron temporary access to his mind and forcing Gandalf to personally extract him from danger.

That said, Pippin’s oath of service to Denethor gives him access to Minas Tirith’s defenses at a critical hour, and The Return of the King records him killing a cave troll at the Black Gate before the armies of the West. Still, a single desperate kill in his final battle does not close the gap between Pippin and every other member of the nine.

8) Meriadoc Brandybuck

Meriadoc “Merry” Brandybuck ends above Pippin primarily because of a single act that reshapes the entire War of the Ring. Tolkien records in The Return of the King that when the Witch-king of Angmar, Lord of the Nazgûl, advanced on the fallen Théoden during the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, Merry rose and drove his Barrow-blade into the back of the Ringwraith’s knee. That weapon, forged specifically to oppose the Lord of the Nazgûl, broke the spell of invulnerability surrounding the Wraith and allowed Éowyn to deliver the killing blow. 

Without Merry’s strike, Tolkien’s text is explicit that Éowyn’s sword alone would not have been sufficient. Merry is knighted by King Éomer as “Holdwine” for his bravery, a title from Old English meaning “faithful friend,” which Tolkien reserves for warriors whose deeds warrant formal recognition. The Black Breath costs him weeks of recovery and permanent diminishment compared to what he would have been, but the assist on the Witch-king’s destruction is a feat that no other hobbit in either novel comes close to matching.

7) Frodo Baggins

Frodo Baggins is physically the weakest of the hobbits, and Tolkien describes him as slight even by hobbit standards. However, over the course of The Lord of the Rings, Frodo displays the endurance to carry the One Ring to the fires of Mount Doom. The Ring was forged by Sauron to dominate the will of every creature in Middle-earth, and it bent every member of the Fellowship who encountered it directly, including Boromir, who attacked the Ring-bearer when exposed, and Galadriel, who described the temptation she felt as a certainty she could not fully trust herself to resist. Frodo bore it for months across hostile terrain without respite, which Tolkien treats as extraordinary, given that far more powerful beings refused to touch the One Ring. 

The cost of carrying the Ring slowly wears down the Ringbearer, while the challenges he faces along the way keep testing his resolve. By the time Frodo reaches the Crack of Doom, he has been stabbed by a Morgul-blade, stung and partially dissolved by Shelob, tortured by Orcs, and drained of nearly every reserve he has. The Ring is also the reason he ultimately fails at the last moment, choosing to claim it rather than destroy it, which Tolkien structures as the inevitable consequence of carrying something no creature was meant to hold for so long.

6) Samwise Gamgee

Tolkien stated in his letters that Samwise Gamgee is the true hero of The Lord of the Rings, a fact the fandom has come to agree with. For starters, Sam is the most robust of the four hobbits, the one who carries Frodo up the slopes of Mount Doom when Frodo’s body has nothing left to give. Sam also faces Shelob, one of the most ancient surviving evil creatures in Middle-earth, a descendant of Ungoliant who had consumed the light of the Two Trees. While he is alone, terrified, and operating entirely on instinct, Sam manages to defeat the giant spider and save Frodo from certain doom. He also briefly holds the One Ring after Frodo falls to the Orcs of Cirith Ungol, and resists its influence long enough to return it voluntarily, a remarkable feat given how the Ring defeats nearly everyone who touches it. 

Sam has no immortal physiology, magical weapon, or divine origin. What he brings to the Fellowship is a resilience that keeps him pushing the limits of his own body, enduring exhaustion and starvation to ensure Frodo reaches Mount Doom. His courage makes Sam one of the best members of the Fellowship, and the most impressive hobbit in Tolkien’s legendarium.

5) Boromir

Boromir is the Captain-General of Gondor and the eldest son of Denethor II, which means he has spent his entire adult life commanding the armies of the last great kingdom of Men against the growing forces of Mordor. Tolkien establishes him as the most formidable human warrior on the road, and his combat record through the journey to Amon Hen reflects that status. At the Breaking of the Fellowship, Boromir holds the Uruk-hai assault on Merry and Pippin alone, fighting until his body simply could not continue after being shot by successive arrows.

Despite his formidable martial skills, Boromir carries no power beyond the considerable reach of a well-trained mortal man. Furthermore, the One Ring’s corruption of his will, which causes him to attack Frodo at Parth Galen, shows his vulnerability to the corrupting magic of Sauron. Nevertheless, the fact that Boromir fought through the influence of the One Ring to defend the hobbits with his last breath is proof of his value and justifies his role as part of the Fellowship. 

4) Gimli

Gimli is the son of a veteran warrior of the Quest of Erebor, Glóin, and the only Dwarven representative in the Fellowship of the Ring. Tolkien places Durin’s Folk among the most resilient combatants in Middle-earth, a race whose endurance is described as being closer to the stone from which they were made than to ordinary flesh. Gimli makes the most of that resilience, carrying a battle axe that slashes through the thick armor of orcs every time the foul race threatens the Fellowship.

Gimli famously kills 42 Uruk-hai at Helm’s Deep while tracking his count against Legolas in real time, a figure that underlines the scale of the battle and the precision with which he fights through it. He subsequently battles through the Pelennor Fields and stands at the Black Gate for the final confrontation with Sauron’s armies, accumulating a war record matched by few others in Tolkien’s novels. Over the course of three books, Gimli offers himself to the Fellowship as a warrior who never breaks, never retreats, and never stops fighting. 

3) Legolas

Legolas is the son of Thranduil, King of the Woodland Realm of Mirkwood, and his presence in the Fellowship helps to showcase the incredible feats Tolkien reserved for the Elves in his legendarium. As a Sindar Elf, Legolas does not tire in the way mortal members of the company do, does not feel the weight of cold or fatigue, has an almost supernatural agility, and possesses sensorial abilities that no human warrior can replicate. This impressive skillset makes Legolas one of the most powerful members of the Fellowship.

Tolkien first demonstrates this during the crossing of Caradhras, where Legolas walks across the surface of snow that buries his companions entirely, treating terrain that stops the Fellowship dead as no obstacle at all. Furthermore, Legolas’s archery throughout the Three Battles of the War of the Ring makes him the most consistently effective ranged combatant in the novels, while his ability to perceive threats at distances beyond normal sight functions as the Fellowship’s primary early-warning system through some of its most dangerous passages. 

2) Aragorn

Aragorn’s power comes both from his Númenórean heritage and decades of Ranger service. As a Dúnedain of the North, Aragorn’s body ages at a rate that makes him 87 years old during the Fellowship’s journey while appearing no older than a man in his prime, and the same heritage allows him to reach the age of 210 before his death, as we learn from Tolkien’s appendices. Aragorn also possesses the hands of the king, the healing gift of athelas that Tolkien connects to his divine authority over the men of Gondor. As if that wasn’t enough, he commands the Army of the Dead at the Paths of the Dead, exercising sovereignty over oathbreakers who answer to no living power but the legitimate heir of Isildur, and uses that army to break the siege of Gondor. 

Wielding Andúril, the legendary Flame of the West reforged from the shards of Narsil, Aragorn routinely leads the vanguard of every major military conflict in The Lord of the Rings. He’s able to do that because his 60-year career as a Ranger before the War of the Ring gave him combat experience across every terrain, making him arguably the most well-rounded fighter in the Fellowship. Add to that Aragorn’s tactical brilliance and deep knowledge of Middle-earth’s history, and it’s easy to understand why he’s the Fellowship’s leader.

1) Gandalf

Tolkien’s cosmology includes angelic beings known as Maiar, who possess powers being any mortal or immortal race of Middle-earth. The Balrogs, for instance, are Maiar corrupted by the Dark Lord, and even Sauron himself is a Maiar. The Istari, known as wizards, are Maiar sent by the Valar to guide Middle-earth’s free peoples in resisting Sauron. So, as an Istari, Gandalf is on its own power level compared to the rest of the Fellowship. In addition, he possessed Narya, one of the three Elven Rings of Power, which Tolkien associates with the kindling of courage and resistance to weariness in those around him.

Gandalf’s immortal nature becomes undeniably apparent during the confrontation in the Mines of Moria, where he single-handedly defeats a Balrog during a ten-day battle fought through the depths of the earth, through water, through fire, and finally across the peak of Zirakzigil. He also played a vital role in the War of the Ring, rallying Théoden, holding the pass at Helm’s Deep, directing the defense of Minas Tirith, coordinating the alliance of free peoples, and standing on the battlefield against Nazgûl during the siege of Gondor. Remove Gandalf from the Fellowship, and the quest ends before it reaches Moria.

Which member of the Fellowship do you consider the most formidable? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum! 

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