Tolkien has him following a ring of gold around (5)
I believe the answer is:
frodo
'gold around' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot tell whether it can be defined by this definition.
'tolkien has him following a ring' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'him' could be 'rod' and 'rod' is present in the answer.
'following' could be 'f' (used when citing page numbers etc) and 'f' is located in the answer.
'ring' could be 'o' (letter resembling a ring) and 'o' is found in the answer.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'of' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for frodo that I've seen before include "Lord of the Rings protagonist" , "literary ring-bearer" , "Hero of The Lord of the Rings" , "In the sky" , "- - Baggins (Tolkein)" .)