Summary — Chapter 8: The Scouring of the Shire
The hobbits find the bridge at Brandywine closed with
a large spiked gate. When they demand entrance, a frightened gatekeeper
informs them that he is under orders from the Chief at Bag End to
let no one enter between sundown and sunrise. Frodo guesses that
the Chief must be Lotho, his greedy relative. Merry and Pippin climb
over the gate. The four hobbits set out for Hobbiton and encounter
a large group of Hobbit Shirrifs, who inform them they are under
arrest. The four hobbits laugh and move on. One of the Shirrifs
quietly warns Sam that the Chief has many Men in his service.
Leaving the Shirrifs behind, the four hobbits find a half-dozen Men
who claim they do not answer to Lotho, the Hobbit Chief, but to
another mysterious boss named Sharkey. The men threaten Frodo, but
the other three hobbits draw swords. The men turn and flee. Sam
rides on to find Tom Cotton, the oldest hobbit in the region. Farmer
Cotton and his sons gather the entire village to fight. The band
of Men returns, but surrenders after a brief fight.
After the battle, Farmer Cotton explains that shortly
after the Hobbits first left, Lotho began to purchase farmland,
causing a shortage of food in Hobbiton. Cotton says that a gang
of Men from the south took over the town. The next morning, a band
of nearly one hundred Men approaches Hobbiton. Pippin arrives with
his relatives, and a fierce battle ensues. Seventy of the Men die
in the Battle of Bywater, as the conflict is forever remembered.
The three remaining companions lead an envoy to Frodo’s
home, Bag End, to deal with the new Chief. To their surprise, the
hobbits find Saruman standing at the gate to Bag End. Saruman—who,
it turns out, is the mysterious boss Sharkey—pronounces a curse
upon the Shire if any hobbit should harm him. Frodo assures his
friends that Saruman has no power, but he forbids them to kill the
wizard. As Saruman passes by Frodo, he draws a knife and stabs Frodo,
but Frodo’s armor shields him.
Frodo again demands that his companions show mercy on
the old wizard. Frodo’s clemency, however, enrages Saruman. Frodo asks
about his relative Lotho, and Saruman informs Frodo that his servant,
Wormtongue, killed Lotho in his sleep. Wormtongue, standing nearby,
cries out that Saruman ordered him to do so. Saruman kicks Wormtongue,
but Wormtongue stabs the old wizard. Wormtongue flees with a yell,
but three Hobbit arrows kill him. From Saruman’s corpse, a gray
mist rises and blows away.
Summary — Chapter 9: The Grey Havens
“It must often be so, Sam, when things
are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that
others may keep them.”
See Important Quotations Explained
The Shire’s brief police state overthrown, the Hobbits
rebuild the villages of the region. Sam opens the box Galadriel
gave him and finds a small silver seed, which he plants. In the
Party Field, a sacred tree springs up to replace the old one. Many
children are born that year. Merry and Pippin become heroes in the
Shire, but Frodo quietly retires. That spring, Sam marries Rosie
Cotton, Farmer Cotton’s daughter, and they live at Bag End with
Frodo.
Frodo decides to travel to Rivendell to see Bilbo. Frodo
entrusts to Sam a history of the War, written in part by Bilbo.
Frodo, Sam, and others set out. As they enter the Woody End, they
meet Elrond and Galadriel, who now wear two of the Three Elven Rings.
Riding slowly behind the two elves is Bilbo himself. Sam and Frodo
accompany the travelers to the Great Sea. When they reach the gates
of the Grey Havens, they find Gandalf waiting for them. Beyond him
is a great white ship, ready to sail to the West across the sea.
Pippin and Merry appear, wishing to be present at Frodo’s
departure. Frodo sadly bids farewell to his three friends and boards
the ship. Gandalf entreats the three hobbits to enjoy each other’s
friendship as they quietly return to the Shire. Sam enters his warm
home, where he finds Rosie waiting. She puts their young daughter,
Elanor, in his lap, and Sam draws a deep breath and says, “Well,
I’m back.”
Analysis
Although the final troubles of the Shire police state
may seem out of place in the novel, they reinforce the ideas of
corruption and temptation that Tolkien has frequently explored throughout
the adventure. Ever since Pippin learned to control his curiosity
after stealing the palantír from Gandalf, or since
Frodo was torn between desire and duty when debating whether to
put on the Ring or take it off, the ability to control one’s urges
and to understand oneself deeply has been of paramount importance.
In the crisis in the Shire, Tolkien explores the problem of corruption
on a social rather than an individual level. The hobbits have likely
assumed—and we along with them—that while they journeyed to Mordor
on their mission, the homeland they left behind remained quiet,
peaceful, and safe. This assumption proves to be untrue: the familiar
is just as open to corruption and danger as the faraway and the
exotic. We see that even the wholesome Hobbit race is subject to
the same failings as any other race in Middle-earth. In this episode,
Tolkien stresses the fragility of good and the effort and self-control
required to maintain it.
Sam’s brief closing words neatly encapsulate the nature
of the hobbits’ return to the Shire in the final chapters of The
Lord of the Rings. The hobbits are not home; they are “back.”
They have arrived at the place from which they started, but both
the Shire and they themselves have changed drastically. When Gandalf
leaves the hobbits to themselves—the first time the four of them
have been alone together since they left the Old Forest early in The
Fellowship of the Ring—they have only a vague feeling that
they are now somewhat out of place back in the Shire. However, the
Shire is indeed where they belong, and the new wisdom they have
gained on the quest enables them to rebuild and restore order to
their realm, just as they have restored order to Minas Tirith. The
hobbits show that they have gained a set of skills from living with
Men, Elves, and Dwarves. The hobbits speak with curt confidence
to the Shirrifs and to Saruman’s stooges and betray a knowledge
of military strategy in the Battle of Bywater. Sam has become more
forthright, and Merry and Pippin are actually taller. Later, Frodo,
in his encounter with Saruman, displays the grace and forgiveness
he has learned from Gandalf, from Sam, and in dealing with Gollum.
The Shire, much like the rest of Middle-earth, experiences
fruitful growth and renewal after the troubles are eradicated. Things gradually
return to normal after the police state is disrupted, and Sam proceeds
to live his life as if he had never left. Frodo’s sacrifice stands
in clearer relief than before, as we suddenly understand that his
adventure has been less about improving life than about preserving
it. Just as Frodo struggles upon the deposit of the Ring into the Cracks
of Doom, the hobbits struggle to understand the experience of a
journey for which the goal has been merely to allow Middle-earth
to remain the beautiful realm it has been for so long. Frodo explains
to Sam, “It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: someone
has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them.” Frodo,
for his part, has given up his normalcy and commonness by his contact
with the Ring’s great power. In the end, he must join those whose
lives are not common but mythic.
The company that boards the ship at the Grey Havens contains representatives
of many of the races in Middle-earth. Those who board the ship,
though different from each other, are now mythic heroes. According
to Gandalf, the next age—the Fourth Age of Middle-earth—will be
dominated by Men, led by Aragorn and Éomer. Tolkien uses the image
of the sea as it is frequently employed in literature—to convey
the notion of endless possibility, eternity, or obscurity. Just
as the group on the ship sails away into the misty, indefinite horizon,
so Tolkien attempts to imbue The Lord of the Rings with
the qualities of long-lost, prehistoric lore.
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