"I should like to save the Shire, if I could - though there have been times when I thought the inhabitants too stupid and dull for words, and have felt that an earthquake or an invasion of dragons might be good for them. But I don't feel like that now. I feel that as long as the Shire lies behind, safe and comfortable, I shall find wandering more bearable: I shall know that somewhere there is a firm foothold, even if my feet cannot stand there again."
Ever since the death of Gandalf, Frodo began to have nightmares of it – they never left him, worsened along with everything else his small body bore. Because of this, he often found a coping method, that grew further by the madness of the Ring of his voice in his mind, combating the voice of Sauron and the Nine Riders. He would focus on what Gandalf would advise, like he always did, if he were there. If he were alive.
It was his only way of coping with the unbearable grief and sense of it being his fault that Gandalf fell in Moria, his fault that he sacrificed himself for the cause that Frodo never imagined he would be at the forefront of.
↳ “The Quest would have been in vain, even at the bitter end. But the Quest is achieved, and now all is over. I am glad you are here with me. Here at the end of all things, Sam.”
Papa, they said you were going far away for a long long time... where are you going? C-Can I go on the boat with you there?
Ah, here he was with another failure he could not bear. A failure of a Father, A Hobbit, A Hero. Frodo Baggins was as nothing — and now, with this broken, crippled body marred by every scar imaginable, he could no longer withstand the life his home exhibited. He grew sickly as Mayor of Michel-Delving, could scarcely get out of bed from the wounds and emotional scars of the Ring — the Quest. No..he never should have borne a child.
Never should have imagined he could be happy. Have a normal life.
He bends down, blue eyes swollen and sick, he is not the neighborly Papa that his son should be proud of — he is the one with ribs sticking out and purple smears under his eyelids from neverending fatigue.
These are the hardest words he’s ever said.
“No, Sam-lad. I..you cannot go where I am going now.” He musters a weak smile. “You have so much to do, and to be. So many adventures to take with Uncle Sam…like your namesake.” Another swallow, hands cradling the child’s face.
"I am..I am very sick, and have been hurt too badly, dear boy…my dear boy.” He repeats in a whisper. “And I..I shall never be whole again here. ”
If he stayed, his son would watch him wither away and die, it could be two years, or four, but he would die quickly. The sacrifice of saving Middle-Earth had been his life after all.
“I have been deeply hurt…Sam-lad. I must..get rest, you see? And it will take a long time…and we shall be apart for a while. But in time, I do not believe it will be for ever. Someday I imagine you, strong and braver than your old Father, to embark and find the shores of Valinor…” Tears spring to his broken eyes.
“….And you shall find me there, waiting upon the shore…with stories to be told from both of us.”
that ever distant shore. how did you tell your son that the world you saved was killing you? how did you tell him that you were beyond repair?
“The Ring-bearer is setting out on the Quest of Mount Doom. On you who travel with him no oath nor bond is laid, to go further than you will. Farewell. Hold to your purpose. May the blessings of Elves and Men and all free folk go with you.”
(( Okay, so I was just reading the different endings Tolkien wrote for lotr and I did not think it was possible for the ending to be any sadder, but oh, HOW WRONG I WAS.
So basically it’s seventeen years after Frodo leaves Middle Earth, and Sam is talking to Rosie:
‘March 25th’, he said. 'This time seventeen years ago, Rose wife, I did not think I should ever see thee again. But I kept on hoping.’
'And I never hoped at all, Sam,’ she said, 'until that very day; and then suddenly I did. In the middle of the morning I began singing, and father said “Quiet lass, or the Ruffians will come,” and I said “Let them come. Their time will soon be over. My Sam’s coming back.” And he came.’
'And you came back,’ said Rose.
'I did,’ said Sam; 'to the most belovedest place in all the world. I was torn in two then, lass, but now I am all whole. And all that I have, and all that I have had I still have.’
They went in and shut the door. But even as he did so Sam heard suddenly the sigh and murmur of the sea on the shores of Middle-earth.
