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‘Yes, I am coming’, said Frodo. ‘The Ringbearers should go together.’
‘Where are you going, Master?’ cried Sam, though at last he understood what was happening.
‘To the Havens, Sam’, said Frodo.
‘And I can’t come.’
‘No, Sam. Not yet anyway, not further than the Havens. Though you too were a Ringbearer, if only for a little while. Your time may come. Do not be too sad, Sam. You cannot be always torn in two. You will have to be one and whole, for many years. You have so much to enjoy and to be, and to do.’
‘But’, said Sam, and tears started in his eyes, ‘I thought you were going to enjoy the Shire, too. for years and years, after all you have done.’
‘So I thought too, once. But I have been too deeply hurt, Sam. I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them. But you are my heir: all that I had and might have had I leave to you. And also you have Rose, and Elanor; and Frodo-lad will come, and Rosie-lass, and Merry, and Goldilocks, and Pippin; and perhaps more that I cannot see. Your hands and your wits will be needed everywhere. You will be the Mayor, of course, as long as you want to be, and the most famous gardener in history; and you will read things out of the Red Book, and keep alive the memory of the age that is gone. so that people will remember the Great Danger and so love their beloved land all the more. And that will keep you as busy and as happy as anyone can be, as long as your part of the Story goes on.
‘Come now, ride with me!’
Then Elrond and Galadriel rode on; for the Third Age was over, and the Days of the Rings were passed, and an end was come of the story and song of those times. With them went many Elves of the High Kindred 1043
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who would no longer stay in Middleearth; and among them, filled with a sadness that was yet blessed and without bitterness, rode Sam, and Frodo, and Bilbo, and the Elves delighted to honour them.
Though they rode through the midst of the Shire all the evening and all the night, none saw them pass, save the wild creatures; or here and there some wanderer in the dark who saw a swift shimmer under the trees, or a light and shadow flowing through the grass as the Moon went westward. And when they had passed from the Shire, going about the south skirts of the White Downs, they came to the Far Downs, and to the Towers, and looked on the distant Sea; and so they rode down at last to Mithlond, to the Grey Havens in the long firth of Lune.
As they came to the gates Círdan the Shipwright came forth to greet them. Very tall he was, and his beard was long, and he was grey and old, save that his eyes were keen as stars; and he looked at them and bowed, and said: ‘All is now ready.’
Then Círdan led them to the Havens, and there was a white ship lying, and upon the quay beside a great grey horse stood a figure robed all in white awaiting them. As he turned and came towards them Frodo saw that Gandalf now wore openly upon his hand the Third Ring, Narya the Great, and the stone upon it was red as fire. Then those who were to go were glad, for they knew that Gandalf also would take ship with them. But Sam was now sorrowful at heart, and it seemed to him that if the parting would be bitter, more grievous still would be the long road home alone. But even as they stood there, and the Elves were going aboard, and all was being made ready to depart, up rode Merry and Pippin in great haste. And amid his tears Pippin laughed.
‘You tried to give us the slip once before and failed, Frodo.’ he said.
‘This time you have nearly succeeded, but you have failed again. It was not Sam, though, that gave you away this time, but Gandalf himself!’
‘Yes’, said Gandalf; ‘for it will be better to ride back three together
‘than one alone. Well, here at last, dear friends, on the shores of the Sea comes the end of our fellowship in Middleearth. Go in peace! I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil.’
Then Frodo kissed Merry and Pippin, and last of all Sam, and went aboard; and the sails were drawn up, and the wind blew, and slowly the ship slipped away down the long grey firth; and the light of the glass of Galadriel that Frodo bore glimmered and was lost. And the ship went out into the High Sea and passed on into the West, until at last on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his 1044
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dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey raincurtain 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.
But to Sam the evening deepened to darkness as he stood at the Haven; and as he looked at the grey sea he saw only a shadow on the waters that was soon lost in the West. There still he stood far into the night, hearing only the sigh and murmur of the waves on the shores of Middleearth, and the sound of them sank deep into his heart. Beside him stood Merry and Pippin, and they were silent.
At last the three companions turned away, and never again looking back they rode slowly homewards; and they spoke no word to one another until they came back to the Shire. but each had great comfort in his friends on the long grey road.
At last they rode over the downs and took the East Road, and then Merry and Pippin rode on to Buckland; and already they were singing again as they went. But Sam turned to Bywater, and so came back up the Hill, as day was ending once more. And he went on, and there was yellow light, and fire within; and the evening meal was ready, and he was expected. And Rose drew him in, and set him in his chair, and put little Elanor upon his lap. He drew a deep breath. ‘Well, I’m back’, he said.
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NOT FOR SALE
This PDF file was created for
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archival use only.
With utmost respect and courtesy to
the author, no money or profit will
ever be made from this text or it’s
distribution
MMII
Document Outline
Contents
Foreword
Prologue
1. Concerning Hobbits
2. Concerning Pipe-weed
3. Of the Ordering of the Shire
4. Of the Finding of the Ring
Note on the Shire Records
The Fellowship of the Ring
Book 1
1 A Long-expected Par ty
2 The Shadow of the Past
3 Three is Company
4 A Short Cut to Mushrooms
5 A Conspiracy Unmasked
6 The Old Forest
7 In the House of Tom Bombadil
8 Fog on the Barrow-Downs
9 At the Sign of The Prancing Pony
10 Strider
11 A Knife in the Dark
12 Flight to the Ford
Book 2
1 Many Meetings
2 The Council of Elrond
3 The Ring Goes South
4 A Journey in the Dark
5 The Bridge of Khazad-d�m
6 Lothl�rien
7 The Mirror of Galadriel
8 Farewell to L�rien
9 The Great River
10 The Breaking of the Fellowship
The Two Towers
Book 3
1 The Departure of Boromir
2 The Riders of Rohan
3 The Uruk-Hai
4 Treebeard
5 The White Rider
6 The King of the Golden
Hall
7 Helm�s Deep
8 The Road to Isengard
9 Flotsam and Jetsam
10 The Voice of Saruman
11 The Palant�r
Book 4
1 The Taming of Sm�agol
2 The Passage of the Marshes
3 The Black Gate is Closed
4 Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit
5 The Window on the West
6 The Forbidden Pool
7 Journey to the Crossroads
8 The Stairs of Cirith Ungol
9 Shelob�s Lair
10 The Choices of Master Samwise
The Return of the Ring
Book 5
1 Minas Tirith
2 The Passing of the Grey Company
3 The Muster of Rohan
4 The Siege of Gondor
5 The Ride of the Rohirrim
6 The Battle of the Pelennor Fields
7 The Pyre of Denethor
8 The Houses of Healing
9 The Last Debate
10 The Black Gate Opens
Book 6
1 The Tower of Cirith Ungol
2 The Land of Shadow
3 Mount Doom
4 The Field of Cormallen
5 The Steward and the King
6 Many Par tings
7 Homeward Bound
8 The Scouring of the Shire
9 The Grey Havens
Maps
Middle Earth and the Undying Lands
Beleriand and the Lands to the North
Gondor
Wilderland