The Scouring of the Shire

Painting by Alan Lee

November 3 3019 TA

Having roused the Shire to fight, the Hobbits proceed to set a trap for the 'big folk'. Some fighting ensues and Merry kills the leader "a great squint-eyed brute like a huge orc". 

"At last it was all over. Nearly seventy of the ruffians lay dead on the field, and a dozen were prisoners. Nineteen hobbits were killed, and some thirty were wounded. The dead ruffians were laden on waggons and hauled off to an old sand-pit nearby and there buried: in the Battle Pit, as it was afterwards called. The fallen hobbits were laid together in a grace on the hill-side, where later a great stone was set up with a garden about it.So ended the Battle of Bywater, 1419, the last battle fought in the Shire, and the only battle since the Greenfields, 1147, away up in the North-farthing."

"'This is worse than Mordor!' said Sam. 'Much worse in a way. It comes to you, as they say; because it is home, and you remember it before it was all ruined.''Yes, this is Mordor,' said Frodo. 'Just one of its works. Saruman was doing its work all the time, even when he thought he was working for himself. And the same with those that Saruman tricked, like Lotho.'"

Saruman is sent away, but as he passes Frodo, he stabs him. Fortunately, Frodo is wearing his mithril shirt, and the blade breaks. The other hobbits, enraged, are about to kill Saruman, but Frodo stops them.

"No, Sam!' said Frodo. 'Do not kill him even now. For he has not hurt me. And in any case I do not wish him to be slain in this evil mood. He was great once, of a noble kind that we should not dare to raise our hands against. He is fallen, and his cure is beyond us; but I would still spare him, in the hope that he may find it.'Saruman rose to his feet, and stared at Frodo. There was a strange look in his eyes of mingled wonder and respect and hatred. 'You have grown, Halfling,' he said. 'Yes, you have grown very much. You are wise, and cruel. You have robbed my revenge of sweetness, and not I must go hence in bitterness, in debt to your mercy. I hate it and you! Well, I go and I will trouble you no more. But do not expect me to wish you health and long life. You will have neither. But that is not my doing. I merely foretell.'"

Saruman forces Wormtongue to reveal that he killed Lotho at Saruman's bidding. Then he teases and mocks him, driving Grima to stab him. The hobbits shoot Grima in an attempt to stop him, but in the end both Grima and Saruman wind up dead.

Thus ends the War of the Ring.

 

(Lest there should be any confusion or matter of rights and whatnot, all quotes in this post are from The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien, unless otherwise mentioned. There may be slight errors, misspellings, or alternate punctuation in the quotes, and if you notice such, please inform me so that I can speedily remedy them. But I think the fact that I made this blog proves that I would never intentionally change something of Tolkien's in the transcribing of it.)