The Movie and the Book

Three Is Company

When Gandalf told Frodo to leave The Shire, he didn't leave straight away in the book. He spent about four months carefully preparing and settling his affairs. Before he left, he sold his home and pretended that he was moving to Crickhollow in Buckland, on the other side of the shire where Merry's family came from (and where Frodo's parents lived before they died). Part of the preparations included carts full of his furniture and belongings going off to the new home.

Gandalf on the other hand, did leave straight away and didn't set out with the hobbits. He didn't actually instruct Frodo to meet him at Bree. Instead the plan was for Frodo to make for Rivendell, though Gandalf did intend to meet them at Bree on the way.

When Frodo and Sam did leave, Pippin was with them from the start. The plan was to meet Merry and another friend, Fredegar Bolger, at Crickhollow.

The incident where the hobbits saw the black rider in the movie was a combination of two scenes in the book. At this point in the book, the black rider didn't actually dismount and Merry wasn't present at any point in this journey. Obviously the scene where they met Merry & Pippin in the field before this incident was not in the book, though there was a meeting with a Farmer Maggot in the next chapter. After the rider left, Sam told Frodo that a similar rider had spoken to his father the day before asking for Mr Baggins.

That night, they saw another black rider. This one dismounted and approached them as in the film. It only left when it heard riders approaching. The riders turned out to be a group of elves lead by Gildor Inglorion. This meeting with the elves was left out of the film. The hobbits travelled with the elves for a while and stayed the night with them at Woodhall. When Frodo told Gildor of their journey, he was disturbed by news of the black rider. He didn't tell Frodo what he knew of the riders but he warned him to avoid them at all costs.

At this point in the film, we see Gandalf set out to meet up with Saruman. This was described much later in the book when Gandalf related what had happened. Differences in that scene will be left for the part of the story where it was described in the book.

Useless Trivia

In early drafts of the story, the first rider on the road coming up behind them was going to be Gandalf. Then the scene was changed to replace Gandalf with the more sinister black rider.