LotR -- Book 6 - Chapter 9 - The Grey Havens

[Lalwendë]

And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.

What is intriguing me about this now is that I have never really stepped back and wondered how, if the whole story was not written down by Frodo, we know anything at all about what happens when he leaves the Grey Havens. Does anyone else, or rather did anyone else, just accept this end for Frodo as 'fact'?

Sam's final words are as much for the benefit of the reader as they are for himself and those around him. In a sense, we too are 'back'. We have been dragged off from familiar Bag End and taken all the way around Middle-earth, through war, horror and unearthly beauty. Now we are back home again, and we too have to go back to our daily lives. But like Sam we can't forget what we have seen and we will not be the same ever again. I'm sure Tolkien put those parting words there for us as well as for Sam.