Hoyt's Huns discussion

Free discussion of any element

And we end in March. How fitting

What struck me rereading this is that it’s a mirror to the first book. The first book transitions from a The Hobbit-like tale to the end of the Third Age; this book transitions back to The Hobbit, even returning, partially, to the lighthearted asides of that book.

And no one was ill, and everyone was pleased, except those who had to mow the grass.

The Scouring also humanized (with Hobbits!) what the results of Sauron’s rule (through Saruman) would have been. The “gatherers and sharers” of Sharkey’s men, where “everything except Rules got shorter and shorter” are the actuality of Saruman’s enlightened speech to Gandalf outlining the benefits their joint rule would bring.

This wasn’t allegory but an understanding of human nature. None of the story makes sense without that understanding, all distilling down to what submission to enlightened rule would mean to the lighthearted people of the Shire.

And for me, I pity even his slaves.

Ah, yes the return of the quips. It does show how things are back to normal.

True. Even when I first read this trilogy, I was struck by how it transitioned from a Hobbit-like tale to a grim epic. I think it’s only on this read that I became impressed with how Tolkien returned the world to normal and small at the end.

In a sense, that’s part of the difference between Sam and Frodo. Frodo couldn’t handle the shrinking of his world. Part of it is who he is, and part of it is that his wound and the ring won’t let him. Bilbo had the same problem, which is ultimately why he left the provincial Shire for the cosmopolitan Rivendell. How do you keep them down on the farm shire, after they’ve seen Lorien?

Sam had no problem with going back to the farm, and in fact continually yearned for it throughout the book in a way that Frodo did not. Even his amazement at being part of a grand story was framed in regard to how it would be told at a Shire hearth.