Original artwork, not a still
The Fellowship of the Ring • 1954
It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
Bilbo's line is a hobbit's mock-serious caution against leaving home, and it is funnier because Bilbo was the one who went. Frodo repeats it just as he is doing the same, so it reads as joke and premonition at once. People quote it for the first step of any journey or project that may carry you somewhere you cannot predict, usually in the misremembered shorter form.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for The Fellowship of the RingShow the scene
The saying comes early in The Fellowship of the Ring, in Book One, chapter 3, "Three is Company". Frodo is leaving Bag End and the Shire for the road with Sam and Pippin, and he recalls what his uncle Bilbo used to say about the Road: it is like a great river, with its springs at every doorstep. Step onto it, Bilbo warned, and if you do not keep your feet there is no knowing where you may be swept off to. In the book the wording is "out of your door"; the common shortened form drops the "of".
Sources (2)
- Wikiquote: The Fellowship of the Ringsection "Three is Company"Reference checked
- LOTR Wiki: Three is CompanyPlotReference checked
Context reviewed
