[Child of the 7th Age]

Mr. Underhill --

This is about your comments regarding the fact that Gandalf was not in a hurry to get the Ring out of the Shire given the fact that he was uncertain where it should go. I would even go a bit beyond this.

If we look at the book, we can clearly see that there is a general pattern of delay with the hobbits going from place of refuge to place of refuge, and not being in a big hurry to push on. Tolkien refers in The Hobbit to Rivendell as the "Last Homely House". This at least suggests that there were other "homely houses".

And I would put any number of places in LotR in this category--certainly Tom and Goldberry's home and Frodo's humble property in Buckland where the hobbits had such fun with their bath games and songs. Even the Prancing Pony has some small element of this--Frodo's standing on the table and singing a silly song and Merry's description of it as a "homelike" place. Although, by Bree, things are beginning to change. And, finally, there's Rivendell itself.

In each of these places the hobbits are compelled to start and restart their journey, to tear themselve away from their homely comforts and again commit themselves to going on. It's as if, as a group, they must redo Frodo's decision to leave many times over. So the story line itself preserves this sense of delay and even hesitation to charge ahead. (This is one of the things the movie totally fails to do, although it is understandable why this would be so.)

Why the delay in so many places? I'm sure Frodo's personality does play a part, but it's more than that. I think it emphasizes and re-emphasizes how important it is to have a homely house waiting for us as we go out and do our wandering. And also how hard it is for any of us to turn our backs on that place of family and comfort to go out into the night and fight evil. If Frodo had been too eager to leave, he would not have been who he was--someone who recognized the values and beauty that the Shire represented. And I think he instintively sensed those things on a deeper level than Bilbo. Hence, their different responses and Frodo's greater delay.

Tolkien spoke of this in one of his letters. He talked about the scene where Sam remembers swimming with Rosie and her brothers. And he says that having Rosie waiting for Sam in the Shire symbolized all the reasons why Sam had to go on, and actually enabled him to go on, and do what had to be done.

One of the saddest things to me is when Frodo returns to the Shire at the end and sees what has happened to it. He can not accept the fact that, in a certain sense, his sacrifice, at least for the Shire, has been in vain. His homely house has changed, and even though, we know it will be rebuilt, Frodo has a hard time seeing and accepting that. It is another reason why he is unable to achieve healing and closure within Middle-earth itself.

sharon, the 7th age hobbit