In his youth, he returned from his journey with the Dwarves to the Lonely Mountain having found the One Ring by chance—or rather, by a dark coincidence. Though for years the Ring granted him a long youth that appeared as an immortal lifespan, it stretched his soul thin, like butter scraped over too much bread. Ultimately, on his epic 111th birthday, he managed to relinquish the ring with Gandalf's help and went to Rivendell in search of peace and poetry, leaving Frodo with the heaviest burden in Middle-earth.
