So here we are. At the very last Chapter of the last Book of the Lord of the Rings.
But I am not ready to finish. No food, no rest. No, not yet. Instead, I want to split this Chapter in two: first, a consideration of the Chapter up to the point where Frodo leaves Bag End forever, and then, then a last piece on Endings.
So, in this part of the Chapter we see cleaning up after the War, and then a magical year, and a slow return to “normal”, and Sam entering full adulthood with a wife and family, and the ongoing, sad undercurrent of Frodo trying to ease his way out of pain, and failing. And recognizing that he had wanted to save the Shire, and it was saved, but not for him.
And now, we are on the threshold of Bag End, as we prepare to leave for a last little extra cookie on the Frodo Trail at the Grey Havens, and then the Road goes on past the boundaries of LOTR and this series, and I want to ask a simple, odd question: What gifts have Sam and Frodo given the Shire?
And the answer for Sam seems simple, and overwhelming. By seeding the Nature of the Shire with Elven-magic, he has introduced wonder and the deep passions of the Elves into the beating heart of the Shire. Forever. And, indeed, together with the course of the rest of his life (meeting Aragorn and Arwen as they come North), and as he (together with Merry and Pippin) breathes awareness of other ways, other cultures into the Shire, he has made his hobbits just a little more high. For now. Above all, by healing the physical wounds of the Shire, he has not only healed most of the mental wounds of fear and want, but made things better than before, in that these wounds will in future not be a source of remembered pain but pride. Or, to put it in the Gaffer’s terms, he has made the Shire realize that all’s well that ends better. For now.
And what has Frodo given the Shire? Well, he kept the violence to a minimum. He served as Deputy Mayor for a little bit. Oh, and one more thing. Just before leaving. Some weird book called the Red Book of the Westmarch.
I went to Mordor and all I got was this stinkin’ postcard.
But what, really, is the Red Book of the Westmarch? It is a memoir supplemented by the learning of the Wise.
It is a story filled with the deep history of all of Middle-Earth, as we now remember it in our giant bag of bags of memories. It is the book, Lord of the Rings, itself – told hobbit-style.
And to what use will this book be put? Well, Frodo has a partial answer to that one. To be read aloud to the Shire’s little hobbit-lads and hobbit-lasses. To make them love their beloved land all the more.
But I say there’s more to it than that. Inevitably, as these same little hobbit-children listen to the Red Book of Westmarch version of Lord of the Rings, they will begin to become more high themselves, and wish to continue the process. Not only to adventure into the world, but also to understand it, to empathize with it, to learn to swim through its Nature with an effortless stroke. As, I hope, LOTR itself gave this potential to myself and others.
And so, for the Shire, I assert, this Red Book is in some sense a Mirror, in some sense like the Mirror of Galadriel. Like the Mirror of Galadriel, it is a Mirror of the past, present, and potential futures. It can certainly be used as a mirror of our inmost being. But, unlike the Mirror of Galadriel, it is not a mirror of possibilities, pleasant and unpleasant: it is a mirror of one possible future you, a nobler, higher you, a you for whom the Road never ends and the Journey is the Destination.
And it is the Mirror of Frodo. And what has the Shire done for Frodo? Yes, he has his friends to love, and Bilbo, and Sam. From the Shire in general, he has also had indifference, suspicion, hostility, and parochial sneering. He has certainly never received an appreciation of anywhere near all that he is, and he never will, as he knows. Yes, Sam has seen that and more in the past. But Sam has a bright future ahead of him, as his innate gifts shine forth and are appreciated in their own ways by pretty much all of the Shire. The Shire can never repay the debt they owe to Sam. But at least they try.
And so this is the gift of Frodo to the land that will nevermore be his, that has never for the most part loved him as he deserved. The Mirror of Frodo. The Mirror of all that the Shire was, and can be.
“Beauty is momentary in the mind
The fitful closing of a portal
But in the flesh it is immortal.”
And now, also, in a book. The Mirror of Frodo. The Lord of the Rings. The beautiful, immortal story of Frodo and the world, slipping silently into a greater tale.
What greater gift is there than this?
Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings Like You’ve Never Heard It:
- The First of a Series of Ramblings About JRR Tolkien
- Part II. Pre-Psychology Writing, Poetry, and a New Hero
- Part III. Torture, Enlightenment
- Part IV. Weather, Mushrooms, Leaders
- Part V. In the Moment, Sam the Obscure
- Part VI. Folk Songs, Master, First, Fair
- Part VII. Hiking, Curses, Noble Language
- Part VIII. The Hiker’s Extrasensory Writing
- Part IX. Torture, Elves, Endings
- Part X. Your Highness
- Part XI. Business Meetings, Dwarves
- Part XII. Horns of Wild Memory
- Part XIII. Ecstasies of the Dwarves
- Part XIV. Valaraukar, the Third Touch of God
- Part XV. Memory, Nature, Passion
- Part XVI. The Gift of Enchantment
- Part XVII. Frontier Maturity
- Part XVIII. Pity, Decisions, Endings
- Part XIX. Into the Shadow, Kings, Names, Winds
- Part XX. People of the Morning, Child Soldiers
- Part XXI. Herdsmen and High Trees
- Part XXII. The Faith of God
- Part XXIII. Theoden’s Law
- Part XXIV. Helm’s Deep, Zangra, and A Life Worthy of Song
- Part XXV. Book of Marvels, Book of Friendship
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