Is it just me? Hopefully, I’m not the only one talking about The Lord of the Rings these days!  According to my Facebook feed and Google suggestions, I’m not.  Because with Amazon’s new series, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, it seems Middle-earth has gone mainstream.  And I’m here for it.  I’m here to momentarily press pause on my usual topics of choice in order to celebrate the works of my favorite author, J. R. R. Tolkien. (You can read Part 1 here.)

Much has been written about the magnificent mythology that is The Silmarillion, which was published after his death, and The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.  I could add many of my own thoughts, but what strikes me most about The Lord of the Rings, perhaps his most well-known book, is easy to miss at first glance. But it’s worth noting.

And it’s spelled out on the final two pages.    

Tolkien could’ve ended the book with the hobbits saying goodbye on the shores of the sea, and with the Elves, Gandalf, and Frodo boarding the ship, which went out into the West and carried Frodo to new shores and undying lands.  “And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.” (The Return of The King, J. R. R. Tolkien)

The bookends of the story are complete: Frodo’s dream in the house of Tom Bombadil and his entrance into the Blessed Realm – the dream he had at the beginning of the book now fulfilled at the end.  So, the story could have ended here, and what an ending that would have been – poignant and pure.

But it didn’t, and this choice of an ending reveals much.

While Frodo and the others set sail, the remaining hobbits watched their departure, staring across the sea into the night.  Long they remained there with heavy hearts until at last they turned for home.  They took the long road slowly and silently, until Merry and Pippin turned off, singing as they went. 

And Sam continued and “came back up the Hill, as day was ending once more.  And he went on, and there was yellow light, and fire within; and the evening meal was ready, and he was expected.  And Rose drew him in, and set him in his chair, and put little Elanor upon his lap.  He drew a deep breath.  ‘Well, I’m back,’ he said.”  (The Return of the King, J. R. R. Tolkien)

That is where the book ends – at home, with family, in warm firelight, enjoying what was undoubtedly a very good meal (hobbits are notorious foodies). 

The whole story ends with Sam simply saying “I’m back.” 

I’m back.  And he eats dinner, he and Rosie put the kids to bed, and they all get up the next morning – another day in the Shire. 

And the story goes on.  So we see that it isn’t just about grand adventures, about the high and lofty deeds of the great.  It’s about everything that comes after.  It’s about the daily adventure of living life with the people you love in the place you call home. 

Hence, the story doesn’t end with Frodo going to Valinor – it ends with Sam going to the Shire, going home, to light and love. 

It all starts and ends in the Shire, the true bookends of the story.  All the adventures they undertook, the battles they fought, the miles they traveled – they did it all to protect the ones back home; they did it so they could have a place to come home to.  And they did it together.

Home, family, friendship – love. This is the heartbeat of The Lord of the Rings, the steady, pulsing rhythm that beats loud and clear across the pages.

What a beautiful sound it is.