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littlemanpoet · 12-17-2004, 03:35 PM

I've always felt that LotR could not be complete without the Scouring of the Shire and the chapters that follow. Here's where I get to defend the "MICE" thesis, I suppose.

::first looks both directions for Mr. Underhill the Fearless Feline::

Okay, it's safe.

If you posit that LotR is a Milieu story, its subject, as it were, is Middle Earth at the End of the Third Age. All loose strings of MEatEotTA must be tied before the story can be called complete.

One of the primary loose strings is the Shire itself. There have been warnings by means of news (Farmer Maggot as well as in Bree), dreams (at the house of Tom Bombadil), and the Mirror of Galaldriel, that things were not all as they should be in the Shire. When we learn that the Rangers have given up their watch of the Shire in order to fight the War of the Ring, we have been given our most critical piece of information, even if it does seem rather insigificant when mentioned. Every reader knows that when the Hobbits return to the Shire, they are going to find things not to their liking, and not as it should be.

So it is essential to the story, as Tolkien chose (and presumably had) to write it.

12-17-2004, 03:35 PM	#29
littlemanpoet Itinerant Songster Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Edge of Faerie Posts: 7,066	I've always felt that LotR could not be complete without the Scouring of the Shire and the chapters that follow. Here's where I get to defend the "MICE" thesis, I suppose. ::first looks both directions for Mr. Underhill the Fearless Feline:: Okay, it's safe. If you posit that LotR is a Milieu story, its subject, as it were, is Middle Earth at the End of the Third Age. All loose strings of MEatEotTA must be tied before the story can be called complete. One of the primary loose strings is the Shire itself. There have been warnings by means of news (Farmer Maggot as well as in Bree), dreams (at the house of Tom Bombadil), and the Mirror of Galaldriel, that things were not all as they should be in the Shire. When we learn that the Rangers have given up their watch of the Shire in order to fight the War of the Ring, we have been given our most critical piece of information, even if it does seem rather insigificant when mentioned. Every reader knows that when the Hobbits return to the Shire, they are going to find things not to their liking, and not as it should be. So it is essential to the story, as Tolkien chose (and presumably had) to write it.