A Happy Ending... or is it?

[Child of the 7th Age]

Drigel,

I am glad that you posted and confirmed what I am feeling. I don't want to minimize the joy that is there in the ending. Indeed, one of the reasons I have trouble with some modern fiction is the underlying sense some authors convey that nothing has any intrinsic meaning. Instead, they point to a hollowness at the core of existence.

Tolkien's writings are the opposite: his depiction of life is shot through with meaning and, because of that, there are flashes of real joy. We can see the meaning at work in the story. We can reach out and almost touch it. Yet, however hard we try, we find we can't quite get there. It is there one minute and gone the next.

The chapter on the Grey Havens is the epitome of this. It is a poignant portrayal of many good things of life: the friendship between Sam and Frodo, the wise words of Gandalf, Frodo's willingness to stand up against the night. Yet it is also a reminder that, when it comes right down to it, we are powerless to prevent bad things from happening.

My own mood can also influence my reading of the end of the book. If it's a day that I'm an upbeat hobbit with sunshine on my shoulder, I mentally add a picture of Frodo in Tol Eressea going on the assumption that he will find warmth and healing. If I am in an Elvish mood (as I am today for some unknown reason) and feeling the pressure to keep the forces of change and shadow at bay, I have a very different reaction.

I am hoping that Davem will post on this thread. There have been discussions where we've debated what Frodo's fate and sacrifice actually mean. I think it's fair to say that his own view is generally not a sunny one.