"The Grey Havens" - Eric's Thoughts

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that life is a journey, not a destination. In the spirit of Emerson, I've used this opportunity to peek at our old posts and see how we progressed through the years (along with Frodo and Company).

And what progress! Jacob, Ben, and I have wrote our way through sixty-two lengthy chapters, and between school, and children, and marriages, it's taken a little under three years to complete this project. At the time we started (January 2014), I was just out of law school, Ben had just finished his clerkship, and Jacob was working on his Ph.D.

Since that time, we've visited Yellowstone (June 2015), Capital Reef / Arches / Canyonlands (June 2016), and Yosemite (June 2017). Marriages, and kids, and Ph.Ds happened. Most certainly we have all grown as Frodo and Co. did within Tolkien's wonderland.

The Grey Havens is a haunting chapter that is enigmatic and a pleasure to read.The growth of the hobbits really wouldn't have been apparent without the Scouring of the Shire and the Grey Havens. This is classic hero's journey -- the transformed character(s) return with a boon.

So what is the boon? I would submit that the greatest boon the hobbits bring back to the shire are their changed selves, with skillsets and leadership that allows the hobbits to drive out evil before it fully takes root. Of course, this is a boon that is only seen through the hobbits' acts and deeds. The literal boon is that Sam brings back Galadriel's earth that allows the Shire to heal and grow stronger than before. Most memorable to me (even from many years ago) is how Sam replants seeds of trees that are buffered with a single grain of Galadriel's gift of earth, and of course the mallorn tree with silver leaves (that replaces the old party tree).

Interspersed between these denouements lies Frodo, where Tolkien describes Frodo clutching a jewel and muttering to himself. Indeed, Frodo's behavior foreshadows that he cannot live a life of peace amongst the shire (though he does seem to try). Frodo's war wounds are simply too great:

"Where are you going master?" cried Sam[.]

"To the Havens, Sam," said Frodo.

"And I can't come."

"No, Sam. Not yet, anyway, not further than the Havens . . ."

"But," said Sam, and tears started in his eyes, "I thought you were going to enjoy the Shire too, for years and years, after all you have done."

"So I thought too, once. But I have been too deeply hurt, Sam. I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them . . ."

Frodo then embarks on a ship with Gandalf, the elves, to go on a journey to the Havens A haven, in the literal sense, means a place of refuge or safety. Interestingly, it also can mean a harbor or a port, that is to say a place of departure or destination for a ship. (In his descriptions, Tolkien hints that the Havens is both a place of departure and a place of destination.) And Tolkien complicates this description by calling the havens "grey," which signifies images of age, fog, clouds, and blurring.

The only real clue in the text is that "And then it seemed to [Frodo] that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to a silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise." In contrast, "But to Sam the evening deepened to darkness as he stood at the Haven, and as he looked at the grey sea he saw only a shadow on the waters that was soon lost in the West."

I would study those words in church growing up, Lord of the Rings hidden between my bible, and ponder them. At the time, Tolkien's uncertainty left me scratching my head and bothered me. My younger self always wanted a clear answer to what the Havens was.

But now, I appreciate Tolkien's ambiguity. He ends the story in a way that signifies new beginnings. Sam returns home, ready to start his next adventure. Frodo goes on to see a "swift sunrise" in a land with far greener pastures.

In essence, Frodo and his friends become legends, and an older age lives on through the Red Book, reality turning to fantasy as years pass.

"The Scouring of the Shire" - Eric's Thoughts

The “Scouring of the Shire” is a story within a story—a self-contained dramatic arc that probably could be read independently, understood, and enjoyed as a great work of literature unto itself without having read one page of Lord of the Rings.

Structurally, the story begins with the hobbits Merry, Pippin, Sam, and Frodo approaching their old stomping grounds. They’ve had a long journey and are “homeward bound” at last. But the expected hero’s welcome is an illusion—instead they are greeted by looming gates, skepticism, fear, and silly regulations. Tolkien makes clear that the Shire, painted earlier in the story as a utopia of green countryside and peaceful farmers, has been invaded and touched by the world of men.

Tolkien plays with structure even as he embraces it—the “Scouring of the Shire” is oddly out of place with the rest of the novel. As we were taught since grade school, after the story’s climax comes the resolution.

But The Lord of the Rings does not follow this structure. The climax of Tolkien’s Middle Earth epic is undoubtedly the destruction of the Ring earlier in “Mount Doom.” There, Sam and Frodo confront Baggins old nemesis Gollum, spare him yet again, and the doom of the story unfolds. The story then engages in resolution chapters, which are to be expected. But then LOTR suddenly diverges into a sub-plot (Scouring of the Shire) that is mostly unrelated to the main tale.

Interestingly, not one mention of the Ring is made in “Scouring of the Shire.” The Scouring of the Shire tells of a different arc—a washed up villain who was rejected and defeated in Middle Earth takes up the only abode he can—the place not up to speed on current events. Of course, what is interesting is that “Sharkey” is not the cause of the problem—and merely takes up an abode where Lotho already had created a tyrannical regime. Sharkey merely steps into Lotho’s shoes and attempts to increase the harm. So the root of tyranny in the Shire was actually the result of only one hobbit’s greed.

Of course, while this chapter could be read independently from The Lord of the Rings as a short story, the characters of Merry and Pippin are enriched because of this chapter—Scouring changes Merry and Pippin from clueless hobbits to bold leaders. Frodo benefits from the cruel mercy he bestows upon Saruman. (And it is nice to see the villains finally turn on one another.)

In short, Scouring of the Shire certainly carries deeper depth because of the backstory of Lord of the Rings, but the full LOTR treatment is not necessary here to appreciate this self-contained tale. “Scouring” has an immediate problem, rising tension, and a climax (homeward bound crew encounters something sinister afoot with the lack of reception coupled with mountains of regulations à confrontation with Shiriffs à confrontation with men à a battle involving hundreds of men and hobbits à a twist that Lotho was killed and replaced by Saruman à villains killing each other off). Scouring is really its own short story contained within the greater work of the novel.

As Ben and Jacob point out, there’s a lot going on here. Tolkien fills his narrative with jabs at the industrial world, describing a mill with many gears and wheels. In his description, Tolkien appears to question why we need faster and more efficient contraptions, especially if the price of such contraptions is pollution. And, obviously, Tolkien posits the silliness of the government state that interferes with a free-market farming economy. Tolkien also has fun poking fun at communism, where the hobbits talk about “sharers” that come along and collect the food and only give it to Lotho and his cronies. In short, Tolkien’s thesis seems to be that a farming culture free of technology and government intervention seems to be the ideal. Of course, Tolkien advances this ideology even as as he mocks it—the only reason such a world can exist is because men and elves embraced technologies and progress that allowed them to withstand the evil of Sauron.