This is truly a chapter of endings, and not just of Frodo’s journey but of his friends. Merry, Pippin and Sam of course will go on, but their path is set before them now pretty clear and Frodo is able even to prophesy about Sam’s fate – becoming, in the end, Elvish indeed, with the power of sight being granted him. It’s also the real ending of the Third Age with the passing of Gandalf and Galadriel; and it’s the ending of Bilbo’s adventures. Since that moment on Mount Doom when Frodo said goodbye to Sam it seems the book has been moving through one ending after another, and of course with the appendices to follow even this is not really the ending, not of the story for – as we have learned – no story ever really ends.
So what is it that makes this chapter the real ending? It is the ending for us, for the readers. We’ve gone so far, and through so much with these characters. We’ve come to know and love them so well and so intimately, that every time I read these pages I do feel as though I am bidding farewell to friends. I never get through the closing pages without weeping, and call me a big softy but I have tears in my eyes right now as I think about it! But Gandalf, as always, has words of wisdom for me:
Quote:
|
“Well, here at last, dear friends, on the shores of the Sea comes the end of our fellowship in Middle-earth. Go in peace! I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil.”
|
This time I feel the force of these words of wisdom as I never have before, as this is the first time I have gone through
The Lord of the Rings with other people there beside me. It’s always been a solitary act for me, but in this discussion I had your companionship with me on the road. It really does feel as though a fellowship is dissolving.
But again, the book has an answer for me, since the story does not end with the departure of Frodo into the West, but with Sam’s return to his home. That’s the real and enduring beauty of this story, for me: that it can move me to tears every time, but it’s always there for me to come back to when I need it or want it.
“I’m back.”