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.)

A very long and uncoordinated rant.

I know that there are a lot of people who find it strange and even annoying, that Tolkien had the whole scouring of the Shire. It is a little strange. The whole story has been resolved and Middle Earth saved, and the Ring destroyed. And suddenly, there is a whole other climax and problem to be solved. But it is very realistic. The whole world is in danger, so why should the Shire get of with out a scar? It tends to remind one that even after you go off on an adventure and become a hero, there is still home waiting for you, with its own little problems and stories and adventures. A true hero never gets to rest on his laurels. Frodo could have reasonably complained that he had already saved the world and been through so much, so he shouldn't have to deal with this other problem. But he doesn't. He steps up and saves the shire (with the help of his friends of course. I mean, wasn't the whole point of his quest to save the Shire in the first place? Take, for instance, a man who is having financial trouble and feels unable to support his wife and children. He is then drafted into the army, and is a little relieved and happy in a way, because now his family will have some extra money. He then goes off to war. He is promoted, he helps save the country. He is a hero. Then he goes home and finds that his family is in even greater need than before. Does he sit back and say, "I have already saved the country. Work it out yourself, I have done enough"? What reader would read that and sympathize with the man? None. He is being selfish and silly and stupid, and anyone can see that in a moment. The man set out to save the country, but in a true soldiers heart, his family and loved ones are what he really sets out to save. And so, when he returns, hero though he is, he gets to work to help his family. For that, he will get little or no credit from his neighbors and fellow men. Likely, no one will ever know. But it would be in remaining true to his family that he would become a real hero.  And so Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin, proved themselves worthy of their already gained fame, by saving the Shire. 

A friendly visit, 2949 TA

I don't know if a I am the only one who gets sad towards the end of The Hobbit. Poor Bilbo. Some of his friends have died, and the others he will never see again. That is sad. But then you learn that Balin came to see him, and he went of on adventures with the dwarves many times. And the world is pleasant again.
So it was in the year 2949 TA that Balin and Gandalf came to visit Bilbo in the Shire.  A year after Theoden was born, and a year before Boromir's and Faramir's mother was born. That gives you an idea of how old dear Bilbo was. Very.