Forgotten Scenes: Saving the Shire

 

Now with the LotR movies being as long as they are I don't blame Peter Jackson for leaving this entire...episode/part/scene out of the films. But I do regret that so many people who have only experienced the movies are left in the dark about a large part of the story. (I'm not slamming or scolding anyone! Truly! Haha. I'm not!) Because there is this gaping hole in the story, I felt like it needed to be brought up. 

 

OOH! The layers and layers of lessons found in the Lord of the Rings. Two of my favorite lessons--one, that everyone in Middle Earth had to choose a side and second, that once the hobbits had gained a knowledge of the world and it's many wondrous but sometimes evil workings, they had to go and apply what they had learned to save their own lands. But I am getting ahead of myself.

 

In the book, Saruman is not killed on Orthanc. In reality, while a parley is set to take place, Saruman slips past the Ent's security and in the spirit of revenge takes over and begins destroying the Shire. He has frightened the Hobbit race into submission and have ruined their peaceful way of life when the four Hobbits happen upon the scene.

 

Merry and Pippin being, respectively, Squires of Rohan and Guard of the Citadel of Gondor, plan and execute a successful plan to retake the Shire. While the intent was to banish Saruman, Wormtongue was the means of destroying him entirely.

In many stories once the 'main objective' is reached/achieved the characters involved return to their relatively normal lives and nothing more is heard of them. To me, this isn't the case with the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. With everyone involved with bringing about the destruction of Sauron the hobbits would still prove to have work to do with the skills they had gained during their experiences. I think Gandalf says it best:

"I am with you at present," said Gandalf, "but soon I shall not be. I am not coming to the Shire. You must settle its affairs yourselves; that is what you have been trained for. Do you not understand? My times is over: it is no longer my task to set things to rights, nor to help folks to do so. And as for you, my dear friends, you will need no help. You are grown up now. Grown indeed very high; among the great you are, and I have no longer any fear at all for any of you."
                                                 -The Return of the King, Homeward Bound

To sum-up, nothing that the hobbits experienced was in vain because they used what they learned more than just in a foreign battlefield. They used their life experience on their home front. Once you have gained a knowledge of certain things, you will often times find that you will be called upon to use that knowledge more than once. Yes, some of the largest battles were over but the hobbits discovered that there will always be another task that will require their attention and talents. 

Yours truly,
Cordy

P.S. Do you say Rivendell or Imladris?