Staying with the good guys, your Lord of the Rings journey starts out with Gandalf the Wizard at the battle of Helm's Deep.
Hobbit Pippin is with wizard Gandalf as they reach Minas Tirith, the capital city of Gondor, which leads the war against Mordor.
Early on in Bilbo's adventure traveling with the twelve dwarves and the Wizard Gandalf, they run afoul of a trio of trolls, who pop all the dwarves in bags.
The freed dwarves, Bilbo and Gandalf locate and search the trolls' den, and find three impressive blades, Glamdring, Orcrist and Sting.
Gandalf appropriates Glamdring to be his own sword, and the leader of the dwarves, Thorin Oakenshield, takes Orcrist to be his own.