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

by J.R.R. Tolkien

He had the poison of his voice, and I guess that he persuaded you, even you Treebeard, knowing the soft spot in your heart.

But the Tower of Orthanc now goes back to the King, to whom it belongs. Though maybe he will not need it.’ ‘That will be seen later,’ said Aragorn.

‘I made Saruman lock it and give me the keys. Quickbeam has them.’

Treebeard’s face became sad. ‘Forests may grow,’ he said. ‘Woods may spread. But not Ents. There are no Entings.’ ‘Yet maybe there is now more hope in your search,’ said Aragorn. ‘Lands will lie open to you eastward that have long been closed.’

‘Come, Gimli!’ said Legolas. ‘Now by Fangorn’s leave I will visit the deep places of the Entwood and see such trees as are nowhere else to be found in Middle-earth.

‘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.’ ‘We will come, if our own lords allow it,’ said Gimli.

‘Well, farewell, my hobbits! You should come safe to your own homes now, and I shall not be kept awake for fear of your peril. We will send word when we may, and some of us may yet meet at times; but I fear that we shall not all be gathered together ever again.’

‘It is sad that we should meet only thus at the ending. For the world is changing: I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, and I smell it in the air. I do not think we shall meet again.’

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 took them aside into the shade of one of the trees, and there they saw that a great stone jar had been set.

‘Take care, take care!’ he said. ‘For you have already grown since I saw you last.’ And they laughed and drained their bowls.

The Hobbits were grieved at this parting; for Aragorn had never failed them and he had been their guide through many perils.

For do not forget, Peregrin Took, that you are a knight of Gondor, and I do not release you from your service.

And remember, dear friends of the Shire, that my realm lies also in the North, and I shall come there one day.’

they saw the King of the West sitting upon his horse with his knights about him; and the falling Sun shone upon them and made all their harness to gleam like red gold, and the white mantle of Aragorn was turned to a flame. Then Aragorn took the green stone and held it up, and there came a green fire from his hand.

On the sixth day since their parting from the King they journeyed through a wood climbing down from the hills at the feet of the Misty Mountains that now marched on their right hand.

‘Well Saruman!’ said Gandalf. ‘Where are you going?’ ‘What is that to you?’ he answered. ‘Will you still order my goings, and are you not content with my ruin?’ ‘You know the answers,’ said Gandalf: ‘no and no.

The King has taken on the burden. If you had waited at Orthanc, you would have seen him, and he would have shown you wisdom and mercy.’ ‘Then all the more reason to have left sooner,’ said Saruman; ‘for I desire neither of him. Indeed if you wish for an answer to your first question, I am seeking a way out of his realm.’

‘Nay, pray do not smile at me! I prefer your frowns.

All my hopes are ruined, but I would not share yours. If you have any.’

You would not give a pipeful to a beggar, would you?’ ‘I would, if I had any,’ said Frodo. ‘You can have what I have got left,’ said Merry, ‘if you will wait a moment.’ He got down and searched in the bag at his saddle. Then he handed to Saruman a leather pouch. ‘Take what there is,’ he said. ‘You are welcome to it; it came from the flotsam of Isengard.’

‘But we can’t go any quicker, if we are to see Bilbo. I am going to Rivendell first, whatever happens.’

the hobbits went in search of Bilbo. They found him all alone in his little room.

Bilbo was sitting in a chair before a small bright fire. He looked very old, but peaceful, and sleepy.

‘So you’ve come back? And tomorrow’s my birthday, too. How clever of you! Do you know, I shall be one hundred and twenty-nine? And in one year more, if I am spared, I shall equal the Old Took. I should like to beat him; but we shall see.’

The only part that seemed really to rouse him and hold his attention was the account of the crowning and marriage of Aragorn. ‘I was invited to the wedding, of course,’ he said. ‘And I have waited for it long enough. But somehow, when it came to it, I found I had so much to do here; and packing is such a bother.’

To Sam he gave a little bag of gold. ‘Almost the last drop of the Smaug vintage,’ he said. ‘May come in useful, if you think of getting married, Sam.’ Sam blushed.

Bilbo laughed, and he produced out of a pocket two beautiful pipes with pearl mouth-pieces and bound with fine-wrought silver. ‘Think of me when you smoke them!’ he said.

Which reminds me: what’s become of my ring, Frodo, that you took away?’ ‘I have lost it, Bilbo dear,’ said Frodo. ‘I got rid of it, you know.’ ‘What a pity!’ said Bilbo. ‘I should have liked to see it again.

I wonder, Frodo my dear fellow, if you would very much mind tidying things up a bit before you go? Collect all my notes and papers, and my diary too, and take them with you, if you will.

‘And of course I’ll come back soon: it won’t be dangerous any more. There is a real king now, and he will soon put the roads in order.’ ‘Thank you, my dear fellow!’ said Bilbo. ‘That really is a very great relief to my mind.’ And with that he fell asleep again.

look for Bilbo in the woods of the Shire. I shall be with him.’ These words no one else heard, and Frodo kept them to himself.

At last the hobbits had their faces turned towards home. They were eager now to see the Shire again; but at first they rode only slowly, for Frodo had been ill at ease.

All that day he was silent. It was the sixth of October.

and the memory of darkness is heavy on me. It was a year ago today.’

there are some wounds that cannot be wholly cured,’ said Gandalf.

‘There is no real going back. Though I may come to the Shire, it will not seem the same; for I shall not be the same. I am wounded with knif...

Where shall I find rest?’ Gandalf di...

I never expected to see any of you folk again, and that’s a fact: going off into the Wild with that Strider, and all those Black Men about.

And there is a king again, Barliman. He will soon be turning his mind this way. ‘Then the Greenway will be opened again, and his messengers will come north, and there will be comings and goings, and the evil things will be driven out of the waste-lands.

And the King will come there again one day; and then you’ll have some fair folk riding through.’

‘But he says your beer is always good.’ ‘He says?’ ‘Of course he does. He’s Strider. The chief of the Rangers. Haven’t you got that into your head yet?’

‘Strider!’ he exclaimed when he got back his breath. ‘Him with a crown and all and a golden cup! Well, what are we coming to?’

Frodo was asked many times if he had written his book. ‘Not yet,’ he answered. ‘I am going home now to put my notes in order.’

‘You have forgotten Saruman. He began to take an interest in the Shire before Mordor did.’ ‘Well, we’ve got you with us,’ said Merry, ‘so things will soon be cleared up.’

‘I am with you at present,’ said Gandalf, ‘but soon I shall not be. I am not coming to the Shire. You must settle its affairs yourselves; that is what you have been trained for.

Do you not yet understand? My time is over: it is no longer my task to set things to rights,...

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...

But my rolling days are ending, and now we shall have much to say to one another.’

Good-bye, dear friends! Not for the last time, not yet. Good-bye!’

‘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.’