Vol. 06 · Misquoted ·Book ·214 of 348
"Not all who wander are lost."
They never said that.
What people say
"Not all who wander are lost."
What was actually said
"Not all those who wander are lost." Bilbo Baggins (in a poem about Aragorn) — The Fellowship of the Ring (1954), "Strider" chapter
Why it stuck
The word is "those," not "who." The misquote is grammatically smoother, and 98% of printed tattoos and Etsy prints use the smoother form.
The line appears in Gandalf's letter to Frodo, which includes a poem of Bilbo's.
Know another line by heart?
Play the duel and see how many you can spot. Or browse the whole shelf.