Well, I tried listening to my tape of Episode 13 (for the first time in I don’t care to remember how many years!), but my prehistoric tape-recorder plays too slowly and distorts the voices. This reminded me of how I sometimes used to listen to the LOTR tapes on my Walkman back in the 80’s (when I was supposed to have gone to sleep), and the batteries would weaken and cause the characters to talk in very low and slow voices as well.
So I used the tape just to ascertain where the episode starts, and then transferred to the last CD from the repackaged version. I just needed to remind myself of the sequence of events.
EPISODE 13: THE GREY HAVENS
Even though this episode contains the scouring and healing of the Shire, in many ways it deals mainly with partings (although the parting from Eomer, Faramir and Eowyn - and a previous parting of Frodo and Arwen - together with Theoden's funeral - took place towards the end of Episode 12, which I can remember ending with “Yes, we will come to Isengard, though I am uneasy as to what we shall find when we come to the tower of Saruman” (or something very close to that) from Gandalf).
The final episode begins with the words “The Ents have certainly changed this place,” (Pippin’s words, I think). Treebeard and Gandalf converse, and Gandalf comes across as very frustrated that Treebeard has let Saruman go.
Legolas and Gimli confirm that they are about to set off to explore Fangorn on their way home. Aragorn says it is the final parting of the Fellowship. Then come Legolas’s words about how he and Gimli will return and his land will be blessed: “For a while, a month, a hundred years of men.” (In the book, I think this is at some point before the actual parting, and leads Legolas into his song: "To the Sea!") Then another famous line: “We will send word when we may, and some of us may yet meet at times, but I fear that we will not all be gathered together ever again.” Douglas Livingstone's Gimli was definitive, in my opinion, and the warmth in his farewell to Merry and Pippin is the perfect final expression of this: "You should come safe to your own homes now, and I shall not be kept awake for fear of your peril."
These are parting words that I found very moving when I first heard this episode: “Namarie! Nai hiruvalye Valimar! Nai elye hiruva. Namarie!” I think Legolas calls this as he rides off with Gimli, although it sounds as if others are calling the words with him. The others call back "Namarie" to them, in farewell. Just these few words say so much, and so poignantly, about the choices remaining to the Ringbearers. This line was a masterstroke. I can't remember if it's in the book or not at this point - I think it's only at the end of Galadriel's song. Speaking of which, I don't think the dramatisation includes Galadriel at this point (which doesn't really matter, especially as the BBC omit the scene on the way home when they encounter Saruman as a beggar in the wilderness, along with Grima Wormtongue).
Treebeard bids them farewell. Elrond: “When the lands that lie under the earth are lifted up again …. We may meet in the spring.” Treebeard strides off, saying “Hoom hoom,” etc.
Pippin mentions the Palantir, and wishes they could have a stone to see all their friends in; Aragorn says he would not want to see what the stone used by Denethor would show him, and he is keeping the other one. Aragorn’s farewell to each person remaining, with his farewell to Frodo last of all.
Narration from Gerard Murphy. Aragorn holds up the Elfstone. Aragorn’s theme.
***
Arrival at the Last Homely House. We hear the elven-hymn “A Elbereth!” again as they approach. Sam says there is something of everything in Rivendell. Frodo says yes, there is, except the Sea. This comes as they are deciding to leave Rivendell in the book, rather than as they approach it.
They go to see Bilbo and tell him about their adventures.
A fortnight passes; Frodo sees there has been a frost in the night and knows that he must go. He speaks with Elrond. He has worked out – or been told - that Elrond bears one of the Three. He says goodbye to Bilbo, who gives gifts to the four hobbits. Bilbo falls asleep after giving pipes to Merry and Pippin and saying “I don’t smoke now,” then wakes up again and asks Frodo what has become of the Ring. He asks Frodo if he will take all his notes and his diary and finish the story in the Red Book.
This is the point where Frodo becomes tearful. I remember thinking that this is because he realises how old Bilbo is and worries that he will never see him again. He must have felt this anyway – hence his determination to see Bilbo again at all costs before returning to the Shire – but – he doesn’t smoke now, he says as he falls asleep (already, back in October, he didn’t go to feasts any more) – and now he’s handing over all his writings, confirming what Sam said when he thought Bilbo was asleep – that he’ll never write their story now. I remember mentioning this to someone once, who opined that what’s really upset Frodo is that he can see what the Ring has done to Bilbo (following on from Arwen's "He is ancient in years now, according to his kind" from the previous chapter). I don't think Frodo shows this much emotion here in the book, which would be why I was startled when I first heard this scene, but it makes perfect sense to play it this way dramatically, especially since we are edging towards Frodo's departure, or realisation that he can't be happy in Middle-earth any more.
Anyway, Frodo tells Bilbo that he’ll come back soon, and Elrond says that maybe he will not need to: “Look for Bilbo in the woods of the Shire. I shall be with him.”
***
They depart, and ride to the Ford. The others can tell that Frodo is in pain, and then comes his acknowledgement that “There is no real going back.”
They arrive at the Prancing Pony. Nob opens the door/gate. Barliman tells them what has been going on in Bree, and they tell him all about Strider becoming King. (Actually, where’s Bob, I wonder? Come to think of it, does Bob actually appear when they arrive at Bree on the way to Rivendell, or is it just that Barliman shouts at Nob to go and find him?) Eventually Barliman remembers Sam’s pony, Bill. Sam is delighted, and says "Where is he? There's no bed for me until I've seen him."
Another goodbye! Barliman tells them all’s not well in The Shire either. Gandalf tells them he isn’t coming with them. They follow the East Road, and then part – but not for the last time. Then another haunting and telling interchange, again, straight from the book (as is almost everything in this dramatisation, of course):
Merry: Well, here we are again: just the four of us who set out together. It feels almost like a dream that has slowly faded.
Frodo: Not to me. To me, it feels more like falling asleep again.
Return to Hobbiton. The four travellers react in horror and sorrow to the devastation. Ted Sandyman and his new mill. Merry blows the horn of Rohan. “Come out, hobbits of the Shire! Frodo Baggins has returned!” I’ve just realised – H.O.M.E. hadn’t even been published at the time, so this probably isn’t a reference to the earlier drafts of the story, where Frodo still took a more combative part in the Battle of Bywater. It probably just seemed like a logical scripting choice.
They go to Bag End. Saruman appears, just as Frodo and Sam have said that this is worse than Mordor. Frodo tells him to go; Saruman says he will if they ask the “rats” guarding the door to move aside. The murmurs of “Don’t let him go! Kill him!,” followed by Saruman’s mockery and threats: “If my blood stains the Shire, it shall wither and never again be healed.” Frodo tells them not to believe him.
As he is leaving Bag End with Wormtongue, Saruman tries to stab Frodo, but of course the hidden mithril coat saves him. Sam, enraged, is about to kill Saruman, but Frodo forbids him: "He was great once, of a noble kind that we should not dare to raise our hands against. He is fallen now, and his cure is beyond us, but I would still spare him, in the hope that he may find it." Saruman's "You are wise and cruel, Halfling," only slightly paraphrased from the book, follows, and his "foretelling" of Frodo's fate.
Frodo tries to save Wormtongue. I think he appeals to him more than he does in the book: “Let him go, Wormtongue …” – Maybe he doesn’t want him to go the same way he’s seen Gollum go? (Interestingly, he doesn't call him Grima, which is understandable enough: he didn't instantly call Gollum Smeagol). Then Saruman tells him that Wormtongue "is not really nice; you had better leave him to me," and that he murdered Lotho. Then follow Grima's: "You told me to do it!" and Saruman's final mockery. Then, of course, the BBC radio line: “The worm has turned.” Wormtongue kills Saruman.
And just before Wormtongue is killed, Frodo appeals in some distress for “No more killing!” Now, in the book, it says that before Frodo could recover or speak a word, four hobbit-bows twanged and Wormtongue fell dead.
Now – what actual killing had Frodo witnessed, except in Moria? Gollum toppled into the Cracks of Doom rather than being killed by a weapon - unless Frodo thinks he indirectly killed him with his own threat? It was Sam who saw the Southron soldier killed; Frodo had fallen asleep. Could Frodo be thinking of the orcs killing each other in Cirith Ungol? (And the murder of one of their trackers by the other, a few pages later). Were any actually slaughtered in the topmost room where he was held prisoner, or is he remembering the bodies they had to climb over to get out of there? Is he thinking of Boromir, and of all the other people who died fighting Sauron, and feeling guilty that he survived? Or is it that, as Tolkien said, he had changed so much and no longer saw killing as something that would heal anything. I just find it an interesting choice of words. Again, it’s probably just a logical dramatic choice for a writer to make at this point. Or perhaps one could interpret that the killing of Saruman which has just taken place, and the hideous shrivelling of his body (Merry provides the exposition here, describing the folds of skin upon a hideous skull) - and the horror of such an end of the sometime leader of the Istari - is what precipitates this. There are complex layers of emotion in Holm's performance, and it's still possible for survivor guilt to be infused into all that as well - we often feel emotions much more quickly than we can speak them. And - of course, he has just witnessed the killing of hobbits for the first time at the Battle of Bywater - although not, thankfully, by other hobbits (Tolkien said in one of his Letters that Frodo was horrified at the idea of civil war among hobbits).
JUST TO NOTE: that rather rambling paragraph was more thoughts on how we, as Tolkien aficionados, might interpret that line, and what we might personally infer from it. I'm not suggesting that all of it, or necessarily any of it, was intended by the actor or the writers! I was "just thinking out loud," as BBC Sam said.
Clearing up the mess. Sam remembers Galadriel’s box of earth. The healing of the Shire. Similar music to Lothlórien. Sam marries Rose and moves into Bag End.
Frodo’s October illness strikes again, and we hear Gandalf and Arwen’s voices echoing in his mind. He cries out "Where shall I find rest?" in weary anguish, and his voice echoes off the walls, showing his terrible isolation and despair. I am reminded of the book after the crossing of the Ford on the way home: "By the end of the next day the pain and unease had passed, and Frodo was merry again." Holm's Frodo certainly comes across as merry in front of the others, from the moment of waking up again in Ithilien, just before the Field of Cormallen. I think this is one of the very best things about Ian Holm's performance: he really shows that Frodo was just as brave
after the quest as he was during it.
The narrator mentions another occurrence of illness next March, but that Frodo with a great effort conceals it. Sam’s first child is born. The naming of Elanor.
Frodo hands over his keys and papers to Sam. They set off. Frodo speaks the Walking Song – but with slightly different words. We hear the Lothlórien music again. Galadriel and Elrond are reciting “A Elbereth.”
Narration from Gerard Murphy, describing the appearance of Elrond and Galadriel and the horses they are riding, and that of Vilya and Nenya, now worn openly on their hands. Bilbo is then mentioned. Murphy’s narration again, leading into Bilbo’s recitation of his Last Song (or rather the first verse of it). They arrive at the Havens, where Gandalf greets them – and Narya is finally revealed. “Merry and Pippin [ride] up in great haste” (to quote Tolkien).
The final parting, and Frodo's words of encouragement to Sam, of how he will be the most famous gardener in all history. They part in tears, but, as Gandalf says, "Not all tears are an evil." Gerard Murphy narrates the embarkation of the Ringbearers and how the ship passes out into the West. The final verse of Bilbo’s Last Song, sung by a choirboy’s voice.
The sounds of the waves, then Sam gets home, to the sound of Elanor crying. One of Frodo's parting lines echoes back to him, but uttered in a quieter way, almost like the voice of one dying: "Don't be too sad, Sam.
You have so much to enjoy, and to be, and to do." Rose greets Sam lovingly, and Sam says “Well, I’m back.”
And then Stephen Oliver's music plays again for the last time.