S.R. 1421

S.R. 1421 is the final year of the Third Age in the reckoning of the Shire, a year that gathers the threads of war and loss into a season of quiet restoration before the last parting. It is the year in which the Shire, still bearing the scars of Saruman's occupation and the Battle of Bywater, begins to feel the return of peace; but it is also the year in which Frodo Baggins, the Ring-bearer, feels the weight of his wounds more keenly than ever, and in which the stage is set for the departure of the Keepers of the Rings to the Grey Havens.

The Year of Plenty and Healing

The year opens with the Shire still recovering from the Scouring. The new mill at Hobbiton has been torn down, the Party Field replanted, and the mallorn tree that Samwise Gamgee planted from Galadriel's gift flowers for the first time on April 6, a date that later generations would mark with holiday dances. The harvest is abundant, the weather fair, and the hobbits, for the first time in years, feel the shadow lift. Samwise Gamgee marries Rose Cotton on May 1, and they take up residence at Bag End, where Sam continues to serve Frodo as gardener and friend. Frodo himself resigns the office of Deputy Mayor at the Free Fair on Mid-year's Day, and old Will Whitfoot is restored to the mayoralty for another seven years.

Frodo's Recurring Wounds

Despite the outward peace, Frodo is not healed. On March 13, the anniversary of his poisoning by Shelob in the pass of Cirith Ungol, he falls ill, lying in a kind of waking dream and clutching the white gem that Arwen gave him. The fit passes, but it returns on October 6, the anniversary of the wound he received on Weathertop from the Morgul-knife of the Witch-king. Sam, who has now taken on the role of caretaker as much as servant, finds his master pale and speaking of darkness. Frodo tells him, "I am wounded, wounded; it will never really heal." These recurring anniversaries mark the cost of the quest that the Shire itself has largely forgotten.

The Birth of Elanor and the End of the Age

The year reaches its quiet climax on March 25, when Rose Gamgee gives birth to a daughter, Elanor the Fair, named after the golden star-shaped flower of Lothlórien. In the reckoning of Gondor, this same date marks the beginning of the Fourth Age, for it was on March 25 that the One Ring was destroyed and Sauron overthrown. The birth of Elanor, golden-haired and elven-fair, is thus a symbol of renewal rooted in the very day of the world's turning. Samwise, who had carried the Ring for a brief but terrible time, now holds his own child, and the story of the Ring-bearers begins to pass into memory.

The Last Preparations

As autumn deepens, Frodo begins to put his affairs in order. He goes through his papers with Sam, handing over the keys to Bag End and showing him the nearly finished Red Book, whose last pages are left for Sam to fill. On September 21, Frodo and Sam set out together, riding the ponies Strider and Bill, and on September 22 they meet the Last Riding of the Keepers of the Rings in the Woody End: Elrond, Galadriel, and Gandalf, with Bilbo nodding on a small grey pony. Frodo and Bilbo depart over Sea from the Grey Havens on September 29, and the Third Age ends. Samwise returns to Bag End on October 6, the same day that Frodo had felt the old wound ache, and finds Rose and the baby waiting. The year closes with the Shire at peace, but with a sense that something irreplaceable has passed away.