the scouring of the shire

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

If the question here is actually 'why didn't the Hobbits just shoot Saruman as soon as he turned up?', the answer is really quite simple. He had been buying up most of the Shire (using Lotho Sackville-Baggins as a front) for quite some time: the hobbits therefore didn't realise what was happening until Saruman was already their de facto ruler. Had he turned up with an army of ruffians and just invaded I'm sure that he would have been as roundly defeated as he was in the Scouring.

The hobbits were confused and disorientated, having lost their freedom before they could see that it was being taken. All that Frodo and his companions did was to remind them how things ought to be and what had been taken from them. This was, as we can see, enough to rouse them to action.

As for Saruman's death, I think it's quite clear from the passage in which Gríma kills him that his physical form could be killed by mortal weapons. The only reason this had not happened was because nobody had been able to pluck up the courage to try. His Voice was a potent weapon in that respect, since it could frighten or persuade greater people than hobbits. As for Frodo's reasons: well, he's a deep one. Two wrongs don't make a right; and by the end of the story he was very well aware of this.

<font size=1 color=339966>[ 3:23 PM January 19, 2004: Message edited by: The Squatter of Amon Rûdh ]