56 pages • 1 hour read
J. R. R. TolkienReturn of the King
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1955A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Book 6, Chapters 7-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Book 6, Chapter 7 Summary: “Homeward Bound”
Gandalf and the hobbits arrive back in the town of Bree. Sam wonders if Bill the pony ever made it back alive. They notice that the town seems less populated. When they arrive at The Prancing Pony, the innkeeper Barliman Butterbur recognizes them and welcomes them. They see very few other people staying at the inn, and Butterbur seems happy to have some business. After eating a meal in their rooms, Butterbur comes to speak with them and updates them about recent local troubles.
According to Butterbur, bandits and other malevolent foreigners have been passing through region, as well as other terrifying creatures that attack from the north. Butterbur suggests that part of the problem is that the Rangers went away and no one realized until recently how much they had been doing to keep the region safe. He tells them that several people from Bree were killed in a fight that broke out where a few locals joined with the thieving newcomers. Butterbur suggests that there is trouble in the Shire as well and no pipeweed has been produced there recently. However, he believes that no bandits are likely to attack them on the road because they are heavily armed. The hobbits are surprised to realize that they have grown so used to riding in armor and with swords that they did not notice how strange they must appear.
Gandalf reassures Butterbur that the trouble is almost over because a new king has been crowned who will soon bring peace to the region. Butterbur is skeptical, hoping that the new king will not interfere in local affairs. He is shocked to learn that Strider the Ranger is the king, having assumed that the king must be a fancy person with no love for simple inns like The Prancing Pony.
The hobbits prepare to leave for the Shire, and Butterbur shows Sam that Bill the pony did return safely. As they ride through the Old Forest, Gandalf leaves to visit Tom Bombadil. He tells the hobbits that he is no longer needed to help them because they have all become great heroes and will save the Shire on their own. Merry remarks as they return without any other companions that it feels like everything they experienced out of the Shire was a dream. However, Frodo feels that returning to the Shire feels like falling asleep again.
Book 6, Chapter 8 Summary: “The Scouring of the Shire”
The hobbits arrive at the entrance to the Shire and find that there is a new gate there with a notice forbidding anyone from entering after sunset. After they knock on the gate, the hobbits guarding it refuse to allow them to enter even though they recognize and know them, claiming that it is against the rules. Merry and Pippin climb the gate and open it. A big man comes to stop them and they recognize Bill Ferny, the unpleasant man from Bree who had previously owned Sam’s pony Bill. After the hobbits scare him off with their swords, Bill Ferny flees, is kicked by Bill the pony, and is not seen again.
Distressed by the changes that have happened in the Shire, the hobbits spend the night at the gatehouse, learning from the other hobbits guarding it that Lotho Sackville-Baggins has become the new Chief of the Shire and brought in ruffian men from abroad to enforce his rules. Food and firewood are rationed and pipeweed and beer are now forbidden except to Lotho’s men. Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin set out toward Hobbiton to confront Lotho. Along the road, they are intercepted by Shirriffs of the Shire who place them under arrest. However, the Shirriffs cannot force them to do anything other than what they already planned to do.
Merry and Pippin realize that they need to inspire the other hobbits to fight back against their mistreatment and band together to chase out the ruffians. They scare away a small group of men by drawing their swords, but they need to gather other allies in order to overthrow Lotho and restore order. Frodo is concerned because the ruffian men mention a person called “Sharkey” being in charge, suggesting that Lotho is no longer truly in control over the men who supposedly work for him. The hobbits go to Farmer Cotton and Sam visits his daughter Rosie, who tells him that he looks good in his new armor. Farmer Cotton explains how Lotho seized power by getting money selling pipeweed to someone outside of the Shire. He tells them how new industrial mills have been set up that pollute the water and air. Strangely, the ruffians have recently started to destroy the Shire without obvious purpose—cutting down trees without using them and making machines that do not even grind corn. Any who oppose these ruffians are put into the old storage tunnels at Michel Delving, now known as the Lockholes.
Frodo begs the others not to allow any hobbits to kill one another and to keep casualties to a minimum whenever possible. The ruffians that they threatened earlier return and are not intimidated by Farmer Cotton’s threats. The hobbits are forced to shoot their leader with arrows, killing him. Pippin learns that the Tooks have been resisting and goes to find them and lead an army back with him. The next day, the hobbits battle the ruffian men at an event that will later be known as the Battle of Bywater. Merry and Pippin command the hobbits, and they kill 70 men while losing 19 hobbits. After the battle, they finally return to Bag End and find it in ruins. Sam bursts into tears at the sight, saying that seeing their old home ruined is worse than seeing the devastation of Mordor.
Inside of Bag End, they find Saruman, who was the one called “Sharkey” by his servants. He reveals that he destroyed the Shire to get revenge on the hobbits after they ruined his plans and destroyed his power. While many want to kill him, Frodo forbids it and tells Saruman to leave and never return. Saruman is furious that he must live in the debt of Frodo. As he leaves, he summons Wormtongue, who is still following him. Saruman taunts Wormtongue, remind him that he killed Lotho Sackville-Baggins, although he objects that he was only following Saruman’s command. Wormtongue cannot take the abuse anymore and stabs Saruman to death before he is shot by hobbit arrows. Saruman‘s body withers away to dust. The hobbits realize that it will be a long and difficult process to heal and rebuild their home.
Book 6, Chapter 9 Summary: “The Grey Havens”
The hobbits labor to rebuild the Shire. They let the prisoners out of the Lockholes, and Frodo regains Bag End from Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, who makes amends with him after the death of her son, Lotho. The buildings and machines made by Saruman are dismantled and new hobbit holes are constructed to shelter those who have lost their homes. Sam plants new trees where the old ones were cut down, using some of the dust Galadriel gave him to help them grow. He plants the silver nut from Lothlorien where the old Party Tree was before it was cut down, and it grows into a rare mallorn tree. Merry and Pippin work to chase out the remaining ruffians.
Frodo invites Sam to move into Bag End with him. Sam admits that he is hoping to marry Rosie Cotton, and Frodo says that they would both be welcome. Sam notices that Frodo is withdrawing from any public responsibilities, and most other hobbits do not know or remember his accomplishments. Occasionally, Sam sees Frodo’s old wound from the Nazgûl’s blade paining him, and he sees Frodo clasping a chain around his neck in a dream, as though he is reaching for the Ring. Sam and Rosie have a daughter who they name Elanor after the yellow flowers of Lothlorien.
Eventually, Frodo reveals that he has written the entire adventure into a book, but that he has left the last chapter unfinished for Sam to write. He invites Sam to join him on a journey and they ride to meet Elrond, Galadriel, and Bilbo who are heading to the shore of the sea to cross into the West now that the Third Age has ended. Frodo reveals that he must join them since he is too wounded by his mission to destroy the Ring and cannot live in the peaceful Shire that he has saved. Sam is heartbroken that Frodo cannot live a long life in the Shire.
They arrive at the harbor and meet Gandalf there. He, Elrond, and Galadriel bear the three Elven rings—Vilya, Nenya, and Narya—which will now pass away to the West. Merry and Pippin join them to say farewell to Frodo and ensure that Sam does not have to go home alone. Frodo sails away from Middle-earth and sees a beautiful green country in the distance. Sam, Merry, and Pippin return home. Sam goes back to Bag End to his wife and daughter, telling them only that he is back.
Book 6, Chapters 7-9 Analysis
The ending of The Return of the King indicates how each hobbit has grown into a hero by showing how they independently restore their homeland. What the hobbits have learned played a pivotal role in the events that saved Middle-earth, and Gandalf tells them that they are now ready to solve the problems in the Shire without his help. He tells them, “my time is over: it is no longer my task to set things to rights, nor to help folk to do so. And as for you, my dear friends, you will need no help. You are grown up now. Grown indeed very high; among the great you are, and I have no longer any fear at all for any of you” (974). For Merry and Pippin, this means that they demonstrate the skills they have learned serving in the militaries of Rohan and Gondor, helping to command and organize the hobbits to drive out the ruffians Saruman has brought in to oppress the locals. Merry realizes that the hobbits of the Shire are ready to retake their homeland, telling his friends that “Shire-folk have been so comfortable so long they don’t know what to do. They just want a match, though, and they’ll go up in fire” (983). The discomfort that Merry and Pippin have faced fighting against Sauron means that they are able to rally and lead the other hobbits at the Battle of Bywater.
Alongside the ruffians who oppress and abuse the local hobbits, Saruman has vengefully destroyed the environment of the Shire. As they travel to Bag End, the hobbits notice that “there seemed an unusual amount of burning going on, and smoke rose from many points round about” (977). Farmer Cotton later tells them that Saruman has introduced new industrial technologies to the Shire that pollute more than they help with productivity. This environmental destruction mirrors Tolkien‘s own distress at the industrialization of his childhood home in England. Healing the environment becomes Sam‘s task at the end of The Return of the King. He uses his skills as a gardener and the seeds he has picked up on his travels to replant trees that Saruman cut down, speaking to the theme of Healing and Restoration that is so prevalent in the final chapters of the novel.
Unlike the other hobbits, the conclusion of Frodo‘s arc does not involve him taking on the role of a leader in the Shire. During the Battle of Bywater, Frodo only helps by preventing the hobbits from killing the men who surrender. Similarly, he advocates that Saruman should be spared. This prevents the hobbits who fight against Saruman from becoming corrupted themselves, allowing them to heal without inflicting more hurt. In the end, Saruman is killed by his own former servant, Wormtongue, due to his own abusive actions. Much like the internal sabotage within the forces of Mordor, evil again cannot sustain itself by nature. After preventing the Shire from becoming corrupted by retributive violence, Frodo forsakes any position of leadership and does not get married or start a family. Tolkien hints that he will not spend the rest of his life in the Shire when the hobbits reach its borders. While Merry exclaims that the rest if their adventure now “seems almost like a dream that has slowly faded,” Frodo replies that returning home “feels more like falling asleep again” (974). This line indicates that Frodo cannot live the rest of his life in the Shire because he has been too drastically changed by his quest as the Ringbearer. However, Tolkien ends Frodo‘s story by including a distant vision of a place where Frodo can be content—Valinor. The distant land of Valinor has never been touched by the corrupting influence of evil, and Tolkien conveys its purity in his description of Frodo’s first sight of its shores: “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” (1007). While returning to the Shire felt to him like falling asleep, Frodo conversely experiences sailing to the West as feeling like a curtain lifting, allowing him to see more clearly. The image of a green country parallels descriptions of heaven in the Christian tradition or the Garden of Eden, indicating that Frodo can only heal by going to a holy place where he may finally feel cleansed of his experiences.
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