There and Back Again

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Boromir88

I wonder if any of the hobbits who left and came back ever felt the same way about The Shire, as they felt before leaving it. Sam departs into the West after Rosie dies. In their later years Merry goes to rejoin Eomer and Pippin goes to Gondor and gets buried next to Aragorn. None of them died nor buried in The Shire.

I think the Shire had changed for Sam as a result of his journey with Frodo, his observation of the deep sacrifice Frodo had made to save it, and Sam's own struggle against the lure of the Ring.

With Merry and Pippin maybe, their own sense of 'growth' was so closely intertwined with the experiences they'd had in the service of Rohan and Gondor that they felt dying in the place of their greatest achievements was only right.