The Departure of the Ring-bearers

The Departure of the Ring-bearers is the closing farewell of the entire War of the Ring, the moment when the surviving bearers of the One Ring and the keepers of the Three Elven Rings leave Middle-earth forever. It is the final scene of the Third Age, the dissolution of the Fellowship of the Ring, and the last time the principal characters of the quest stand together on the shores of the mortal world. The event carries the full weight of the story's conclusion: the victory over Sauron is complete, the King has returned to Gondor, and now the cost of that victory must be paid by those who carried the Ring and were wounded by it. The departure is both a homecoming and an exile, a journey into the West that is at once a reward, a healing, and a permanent separation from the world the Ring-bearers saved.

The Journey to the Grey Havens

The departure is preceded by a final journey through the Shire, as Frodo and Samwise Gamgee travel together toward the Grey Havens. As they pass the ruined oak where the Black Rider first appeared to them, Sam points it out to Frodo, remarking that it seems like a dream now. The evening is quiet, with stars glimmering in the eastern sky, and Sam is silent, deep in his memories of the long road they have traveled. Frodo, however, sings softly to himself, the old walking-song but with altered words, singing of hidden paths that run West of the Moon, East of the Sun. The song is answered from below, as voices rise up the road out of the valley singing in praise of Elbereth Gilthoniel, the star-queen of the Elves, remembering the starlight on the Western Seas. Frodo and Sam halt and sit silent in the soft shadows until they see a shimmer as the travellers come towards them.

The travellers are Gildor and many fair Elven folk, and with them ride Elrond and Galadriel. Elrond wears a mantle of grey and has a star upon his forehead, a silver harp in his hand, and upon his finger a ring of gold with a great blue stone, Vilya, mightiest of the Three. Galadriel sits upon a white palfrey, robed all in glimmering white like clouds about the Moon, and she herself seems to shine with a soft light; on her finger is Nenya, the ring wrought of mithril, bearing a single white stone flickering like a frosty star. Riding slowly behind on a small grey pony, seeming to nod in his sleep, is Bilbo Baggins himself. Elrond greets Frodo and Sam gravely and graciously, and Galadriel smiles upon them, telling Samwise that she hears and sees that he has used her gift well, and that the Shire shall now be more than ever blessed and beloved. Sam bows but finds nothing to say, having forgotten how beautiful the Lady was. Then Bilbo wakes and opens his eyes, greeting Frodo with the news that he has passed the Old Took today, and that he is now quite ready to go on another journey.

The Farewell on the Shore

At the Grey Havens, Gandalf speaks the final words of the Fellowship, telling the assembled friends that it will be better to ride back three together than one alone, and that here at last, on the shores of the Sea, comes the end of their fellowship in Middle-earth. He bids them go in peace, and speaks the famous words that he will not say do not weep, for not all tears are an evil. Then Frodo kisses Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took, and last of all Sam, and goes aboard the ship. The sails are drawn up, the wind blows, and slowly the ship slips away down the long grey firth, the light of the glass of Galadriel that Frodo bears glimmering and then lost. The ship goes out into the High Sea and passes on into the West, until at last on a night of rain Frodo smells a sweet fragrance on the air and hears the sound of singing that comes over the water. Then it seems to him that, as in his dream in the house of Tom Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turns all to silver glass and is rolled back, and he beholds white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.

The Grief of Those Left Behind

For Sam, however, the evening deepens to darkness as he stands at the Haven. As he looks at the grey sea he sees only a shadow on the waters that is soon lost in the West. He stands there far into the night, hearing only the sigh and murmur of the waves on the shores of Middle-earth, and the sound of them sinks deep into his heart. Beside him stand Merry and Pippin, and they are silent. At last the three companions turn away, and never again looking back they ride slowly homewards, speaking no word to one another until they come back to the Shire, but each has great comfort in his friends on the long grey road. They ride over the downs and take the East Road, and then Merry and Pippin ride on to Buckland, already singing again as they go. But Sam turns to Bywater, and so comes back up the Hill as day is ending once more. He goes on, and there is yellow light and fire within, and the evening meal is ready, and he is expected. And Rose Cotton draws him in, and sets him in his chair, and puts little Elanor upon his lap.

The Meaning of the Departure

The departure of the Ring-bearers is the story's final reckoning with the cost of the quest. Frodo, who bore the Ring to its destruction, is not healed by his victory; his wounds, both the physical wound from the Witch-king's blade and the deeper spiritual wound of having carried the Ring, cannot be cured in Middle-earth. His journey into the West is therefore not a triumph but a necessary exile, a passage to the Undying Lands where the hurts of the mortal world may be assuaged. The presence of Elrond and Galadriel, bearing Vilya and Nenya, the two of the Three Rings that have not yet passed away, marks the departure as the end of the Elven age in Middle-earth; with the One Ring destroyed, the power of the Three has faded, and their keepers must leave. Gandalf, too, departs, his mission as one of the Istari complete. The scene is thus the final dissolution of the Fellowship, the last gathering of its members, and the moment when the Third Age gives way to the Fourth Age, the Dominion of Men. Sam's return to the Shire, to his wife and child and the yellow light of home, is the counterpoint to Frodo's departure: the ordinary life that the quest was fought to preserve, now restored and blessed.