Could there be any more fitting image to represent our departure from this three month journey through the books that make up The Lord of the Rings? Alan Lee’s depiction of the bittersweet parting of those going into the west perfectly embodies the mood of these final moments in the life-altering journey of four hobbits who left the Shire.

How can one’s heart ache and soar at the same time? No work of fiction makes me feel that as poignantly and as profoundly as does that of J.R.R. Tolkien. If anyone ever captured lightning in a bottle it was him. Little wonder that these books remain as beloved as when they were first launched upon a waiting public.

You can tell from my ramblings that I get a great deal of pleasure out of discussing The Lord of the Rings and although I am sad that this is our final post discussing The Return of the King, I am not too sad as there will be many more Tolkien-related posts in the years to come.

Andrea provided the questions for this final section of The Return of the King.

What do you think Gandalf was going to speak with Tom Bombadil about?

One of many reasons why I feel Tolkien’s work is so outstanding is that it is filled with vague references and allusions to not only the past but also to things occurring off stage, as it were. This is one of the most intriguing and I readily admit to not being a thorough enough Tolkien scholar to know if the novels contain other clues that might reveal to the reader what this conversation was about.

Boy oh boy, wouldn’t you have loved to be a fly on the wall for that conversation though?

If I was to make an uneducated guess, since Gandalf and the elves were soon to be leaving Middle-earth it may have simply been to see if Tom Bombadil could be counted on to at least keep an eye on things as the new age of men dawned under Aragorn’s leadership. Or it could have perhaps just been a parting visit to an old friend. One last chance to discuss the things that mattered to them. The idea of Gandalf’s parting makes me as sad as any other and although Tom is not my favorite character in The Lord of the Rings, my estimation of him grew greatly during this read through and it grieves me to think of both he and the Ents passing out of all knowledge as time wears on.

What did you think of the two weddings? Do you think Eowyn will eventually find happiness with Faramir?

Oh certainly. I think it is pretty clear by the time of the end of the houses of healing section,that Eowyn is in love with him. I think some of her initial concerns were partially whether it was even right to give in to personal feelings after so many devastating things had occurred and secondly wanting to make sure that Faramir was not looking on her with pity but that his was a genuine love. I always read into Tolkien’s portrayal of Eowyn that she was truthfully more in love with what Aragorn represented more than being in love with him. She had no real history with him so any feelings she had would have been infatuation fueled by seeing him as a person who would understand her desire to break out of her expected gender role. And from what we are shown of both characters I think both Eowyn and Faramir are ideally suited for one another.

As for Aragorn and Arwen’s wedding, unfortunately both Tolkien and Peter Jackson give us very little in the way of their wedding. The romantic in me wants to be given more, and yet my imagination is up to supplying the idea that it was a special, beautiful, meaningful ceremony. Appendix A part V regarding the relationship between Aragorn and Arwen is must read stuff in my opinion as it gives the reader more background regarding their love for one another. Between that and the part of the appendices that talks about how Aragorn eventually chose to give up his life and depart and the sadness of Arwen’s days after that is also must-read.

What did you think of their meeting with Saruman on the road home? I was half expecting someone to just kill Saruman.

Tolkien is great in showing that there are pros and cons to all actions, even those of pity and mercy that come up so often in these books. While I deeply respect all of the main characters for not rashly taking life, it just goes to show that a little more foresight and planning might have gone a long way when it came to dealing with Saruman. The mercy that he was shown was as galling to him as if they had spat upon him and cursed him. Perhaps more so.

Since the film differs from the books in the handling of Saruman, I too was surprised the first time I read it that someone didn’t just take care of him right then and there. In the end his death is every bit as deservedly tragic as could be expected and it was good of Tolkien to not lay that burden at the feet of any of the members of the Fellowship, who had been through so much death and destruction already.

Holy Cow I was not expecting the scouring of the shire. If this is your first time reading, were you surprised? And if this isn’t your first time reading, does the shock get a little easier to swallow on re-read?

I was really shocked when I read these books for the first time, not too long after the theatrical release of The Return of the King. I understand why it didn’t work in the film, but it was a terrible shock and quite distressing to read. Again, as horrible as it is, I give mad props to Tolkien for having the courage to not spare the people of the Shire from the evil that was wrought in the land of Middle-earth. Had just the 4 hobbits been affected I think their view upon returning to the Shire might have been irrevocably changed. Instead they returned to a place where all their fellow hobbits had felt the bitterness of the evil of Sauron, even if they didn’t quite understand the more global picture of what had been going on in the world.

The shock gets easier but the sadness and melancholy does not. The scouring of the Shire is a powerful scene about the interconnectedness of a people and how actions beget reactions and how there are consequences that can be far reaching even when evil is stood up to. Even as we see the Shire come back to life the recollection of what had been done coupled with the fact that Frodo can never quite integrate back into his old life is part of the beautiful tragedy of The Lord of the Rings.

What did you think of the very end, of the departure of the Havens?

I think this scene emulates the way that so many of us approach not only this life but our feelings about life after death. For Frodo and the elves there is a happiness knowing that they are departing to their “heaven”, a place of much deserved peace and rest. So you cannot help but feel good for them, in the same way that we often feel good for those who are in pain or misery who “pass on to a better place”. But that doesn’t negate the sadness for those left behind. As ring-bearer this is not the last time Sam will potentially see Frodo, but that doesn’t make it any less sad for him or for Merry and Pippin that they are in the prime of their lives and they are being parted from a friend they all loved so much that they risked their very lives time and time again on an impossible gamble. It is very tragic. I cannot help but hear the wonderful song “Into the West” that ends the film version of The Return of the King as I read of the hobbits’ parting at the Gray Havens. It is a sad song that causes me to wallow a bit in my sadness that the journey in the films, or the books, is now over. Wonderfully we can go back and experience it all again, but I never give up the chance to have a good cry at the end of these films/books.

Characters are supposed to change and develop during a story, right? Who changed more, Sam or Frodo?

My first reaction was that this was an easy question and without a doubt it is Sam who makes the biggest change. But upon reflection I am not entirely sure that is true. It might be a cop out to say that they both change equally, so I’ll go with where my thoughts are now and say that it is Frodo that changes the most. Yes, Sam grows from a simple gardener to become this heroic, determined, hero. But much of what we see in Sam was there to begin with and his trial by fire as it were just refined those qualities. Whereas Frodo goes from being an admittedly adventurous, or adventure-craving, hobbit who is given a duty that he takes very seriously and through his journey with the ring becomes a shell of his former self. He is psychologically and spiritually ravaged to the point of ultimately failing at his task and the injuries he receives on his journey forever alters his ability to fit in to his world. It is one of the crowing achievements of this trilogy that Tolkien allows one of his characters to pay a bitter and unending (until death) price for the freedom of Middle-earth. It is a powerful story and one that I could write about, and probably should at some point, for pages and pages.

All my childhood and teenage life I would read books or watch movies and wonder, “what happens after?”. I often wondered how these people who did such heroic things could ever go back to a “normal” life, and it is interesting to me that Tolkien actually addresses this subject on one level through the experiences of Frodo. The world was saved, but not for him. Oh, it just chokes me up typing that (I’m such a sap). Not every person involved in such an adventure can return to a “normal” life. What a sad truth.

The Lord of the Rings is more than a book, it is an experience, and this second time through the books opened my eyes and changed my perceptions even more and I end this journey with all of you feeling even more grateful to Peter Jackson and his crew for putting the book on screen as it is the existence of the films that inspired me to become the Tolkien fanatic that I am today. These stories are so comforting to me and it has been a great pleasure reading them again.
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For those interested, here are the links to the first two parts of our discussion of The Return of the King:

Part One
Part Two