This Saturday at 5pm ET, we’ll be turning our attention back to The Return of the King in The Hall of Fire as we examine the very last chapter of the novel: The Grey Havens.
One evening Sam came into the study and found his master looking very strange. He was very pale and his eyes seemed to see things far away.
‘What’s the matter, Mr. Frodo?’ said Sam.
‘I am wounded,’ he answered, ‘wounded; it will never really heal.’
But then he got up, and the turn seemed to pass, and he was quite himself the next day. It was not until afterwards that Sam recalled that the date was October the sixth. Two years before on that day it was dark in the dell under Weathertop.
The Return of the King: Book VI, Chapter IX: The Grey Havens
The repairs after ‘Sharkey’s men’ go well: thousands of eager Hobbits work hard to rebuild their homes and homeland.
Each of the four Companions contribute differently: Frodo as Deputy Mayor, Merry and Pippin expel the last ruffians from the borders, while Sam busies himself travelling the Four Farthings of The Shire as he tries to make the wisest use of the Galadriel’s gift to him.
The following year — 1420 — proves marvellous in Shire history. The harvest is bountiful, numerous children are born and there is something in the air: a glimpse of a beauty beyond Middle-earth.
Yet for Frodo there is no lasting Peace this side of the Belegaer. In Autumn 1421, he sails from Mithlond with the bearers of the Three… and Bilbo.
Sam, Merry and Pippin watch the old world leaving the new, taking their close friend with it.
What does this chapter tell us about Hobbits? Why is Frodo not given the same fame as his companions? And what does the gift of Galadriel have to do with the year 1420 turning out the way it does?
Join us in #thehalloffire at 5pm ET as we examine the very last chapter of The Lord Of The Rings: The Grey Havens.
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