The Return of the King (The Lord of the Rings, #3)

by J.R.R. Tolkien

Were I to go where my heart dwells, far in the North I would now be wandering in the fair valley of Rivendell.’

And she answered: ‘All your words are but to say: you are a woman, and your part is in the house. But when the men have died in battle and honour, you have leave to be burned in the house, for the men will need it no more. But I am of the House of Eorl and not a serving-woman. I can ride and wield blade, and I do not fear either pain or death.’

‘What do you fear, lady?’ he asked. ‘A cage,’ she said.

The hands of the king are the hands of a healer, and so shall the rightful king be known.’

‘May the Shire live for ever unwithered!’

and I was held to the road only by the will of Aragorn.’ ‘And by the love of him also,’ said Legolas. ‘For all those who come to know him come to love him after their own fashion,

Legolas: "Love Aragorn or die"

‘I wonder if they think of us at all,’ he said, ‘and what is happening to them all away there.’

There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.

‘Precious, precious, precious!’ Gollum cried. ‘My Precious! O my Precious!’

‘I am glad that you are here with me,’ said Frodo. ‘Here at the end of all things, Sam.’

but it’s like things are in the world. Hopes fail. An end comes.

‘What a tale we have been in, Mr. Frodo, haven’t we?’ he said. ‘I wish I could hear it told!

On the throne sat a mail-clad man, a great sword was laid across his knees, but he wore no helm.

‘Never is too long a word even for me,’ said Treebeard.

❤️

‘Here then at last comes the ending of the Fellowship of the Ring,’ said Aragorn. ‘Yet I hope that ere long you will return to my land with the help that you promised.’

Last of all Merry and Pippin said good-bye to the old Ent, and he grew gayer as he looked at them. ‘Well, my merry folk,’ he said, ‘will you drink another draught with me before you go?’ ‘Indeed we will,’ they said,

and he gave him also three books of lore that he had made at various times, written in his spidery hand, and labelled on their red backs: Translations from the Elvish, by B.B.

‘I think, Frodo, that maybe you will not need to come back, unless you come very soon. For about this time of the year, when the leaves are gold before they fall, look for Bilbo in the woods of the Shire. I shall be with him.’

Come back all of itself, it did. But where it had been to you know better than me. It was as shaggy as an old dog and as lean as a clothes-rail, but it was alive. Nob’s looked after it.’ ‘What! My Bill?’ cried Sam. ‘Well, I was born lucky, whatever my gaffer may say. There’s another wish come true! Where is he?’ Sam would not go to bed until he had visited Bill in his stable.

BILL😭

‘Well here we are, just the four of us that started out together,’ said Merry. ‘We have left all the rest behind, one after another. It seems almost like a dream that has slowly faded.’ ‘Not to me,’ said Frodo. ‘To me it feels more like falling asleep again.’

He went off with a yelp into the night and was never heard of again. ‘Neat work, Bill,’ said Sam, meaning the pony.

‘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,

‘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.

FRODO IS SO EVERMORE