[Kalimac]

Hmmm...I don't own the books (don't have THAT much money) but I remember looking throught them at Borders and having the irreverent thought that the name "Trotter" had a lot in common with "Bored of the Rings"'s Stomper. I'm glad Frodo didn't continue as Bingo as well, there are just too many connotations.

I liked the epilogue, too, but can see why Tolkien didn't include it - there's a distinct drop in the tension when you compare it to the last chapter of ROTK proper. After that wonderful sad scene at the Grey Havens, suddenly coming back to "Eighteen Years Later" and the quarrellings of Sam's children is funny, and good to read, but it does seem to diminish the last chapter somewhat. Those scenes were probably best left to the reader's imagination, anyway. And you don't get a better ending for a book than Sam pulling up a chair, holding his daughter in his lap and saying "Well, I'm back." After that, what more needs to be said?