This chapter actually starts out surprisingly funny. First you have Bill the pony giving his old master Bill Ferny a solid kick when Merry chases him off. Then you have this moment when the Shirriffs announce that Frodo & company are under arrest:
To the discomfiture of the Shirriffs Frodo and his companions all roared with laughter. ‘Don’t be absurd!’ said Frodo. ‘I am going where I please, and in my own time. I happen to be going to Bag End on business, but if you insist on going too, well that is your affair.’
And then the next morning:
It was about eighteen miles to Bywater, and they set off at ten o’clock in the morning. They would have started earlier, only the delay so plainly annoyed the Shirriff-leader.
And when they finally ditch the Shirriffs:
‘You’re breaking arrest, that’s what you’re doing,’ said the leader ruefully, ‘and I can’t be answerable.’ ‘We shall break a good many things yet, and not ask you to answer,’ said Pippin.
...and then we get to Bywater, and the chapter loses all levity. This is, as is stated, Frodo and Sam’s own country, and to see it so thoroughly devastated is heartbreaking. I’ve always been a fan of planting trees, and always hated when it was necessary to cut them down. Part of that, I think, comes from this chapter.
All that being said, this is really Merry’s show with a strong assist from Pippin. The Battle of Bywater is surprisingly straightforward and over surprisingly quickly - kind of like with Helm’s Deep, it’s an event that looms large in my imagination and memory but is very modest in word count.
Tolkien as always disliked allegory, and explicitly disavowed the notion that this chapter was a metaphor for the common experience of WWI veterans returning home and finding their home changed from what they remember. This chapter is, to me, as much about showing how the Hobbits have grown (as Gandalf said they had). From beginning to end, Merry and Pippin act decisively to deal with the ruffians. Frodo provides a tempering wisdom, and Sam is mostly concerned with the gaffer, but it’s difficult to imagine Aragorn or Gandalf doing better. Indeed, they would have had much greater difficulty rallying the Shire, and once the Shire was awakened everything else was a foregone conclusion.
The last stroke of the War of the Ring being dealt by Wormtongue of all people, on the very doorstep of Bag End, feels both very wrong and very appropriate. Tolkien, despite what one might think from a superficial read of his books, did not have a romantic view of war (hard to come out of World War I with one of those). The ending note of the war being both totally petty and utterly vicious feels like commentary.
The death of Saruman, unsurprisingly, is like a much lesser version of the death of Sauron:
To the dismay of those that stood by, about the body of Saruman a grey mist gathered, and rising slowly to a great height like smoke from a fire, as a pale shrouded figure it loomed over the Hill. For a moment it wavered, looking to the West; but out of the West came a cold wind, and it bent away, and with a sigh dissolved into nothing.
As far as the movies cutting this sequence, on the one hand I understand it. The movie already suffered from having too many endings. But on the other hand, cutting it really does feel like a major transgression of what Tolkien regarded as one of the most central chapters of the entire trilogy. In an ideal world, the next film adaptation will be made with a middle finger directed at any concern over commercial viability.
On a lighter note, it’s pretty obvious that everyone (including Sam, Rosie, and Rosie’s father) had been shipping Sam and Rosie since well before Sam left the Shire.
‘What about Mrs. Cotton and Rosie?’ said Sam. ‘It isn’t safe yet for them to be left all alone.’ ‘My Nibs is with them. But you can go and help him, if you have a mind,’ said Farmer Cotton with a grin.
Something I never noticed before: everyone was convinced that Sam and the rest were dead, while Rosie was simply waiting impatiently for him to come home:
‘Hullo, Sam!’ said Rosie. ‘Where’ve you been? They said you were dead; but I’ve been expecting you since the spring. You haven’t hurried, have you?’
This moment is one that I very much like. I can’t help but imagine the week’s answer that Sam eventually gave Rosie:
‘Well, be off with you!’ said Rosie. ‘If you’ve been looking after Mr. Frodo all this while, what d’you want to leave him for, as soon as things look dangerous?’ This was too much for Sam. It needed a week’s answer, or none. He turned away and mounted his pony. But as he started off, Rosie ran down the steps. ‘I think you look fine, Sam,’ she said. ‘Go on now! But take care of yourself, and come straight back as soon as you have settled the ruffians!’
And the last note I want to mention, tangential to this: Gaffer Gamgee is hilarious. The moment he appears he starts complaining (loudly, being deaf) about the situation in the Shire. And he is naturally concerned that his Sam behaved himself, to which Frodo says he has done very well:
‘I hope my Sam’s behaved hisself and given satisfaction?’ ‘Perfect satisfaction, Mr. Gamgee,’ said Frodo. ‘Indeed, if you will believe it, he’s now one of the most famous people in all the lands, and they are making songs about his deeds from here to the Sea and beyond the Great River.’ Sam blushed, but he looked gratefully at Frodo, for Rosie’s eyes were shining and she was smiling at him.
Not that Sam needed the help with Rosie, but still, great wingman work, Frodo!
Next time, the One Mike to Read Them All Readalong reaches the end of The Lord of the Rings. I haven’t started reading “The Grey Havens” yet, and I’m already super sad. I better have GGK-levels of tissues stockpiled for this one.