[Folwren]

Not happy endings, Lommy, the LotR doesn't have a happy ending.

I don't think Tolkien was terribly softhearted, either. . .I would say, he probably didn't end their lives there because it wans't a good ending to his wonderful story. It would have been a let down, a disapointment. The reader would have been left in dismay and emptiness. It would have been like in the movie when everyone's cheering because the Ring has been destroyed but then the mountain blows up and they realize that Frodo and Sam are probably dead. . .horrible thought!

But, beyond that, if Frodo and Sam had died at Mount Doom, would Tolkien have been able to have written such a perfect ending? The Grey Havens is the best ending I have ever read in any book, and I don't think that that could have been written if those two characters had already left Middle-Earth.

So, I think he did it for the reader's sake, and for the ending's sake.

-- Folwren