The Scouring of the Shire

The Scouring of the Shire is the final military and moral reckoning of the hobbits' long journey, a homecoming that transforms the idyllic Shire from a sheltered haven into a battlefield where the companions must apply everything they have learned. After the great victories in Gondor and the destruction of the One Ring, Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin return to find their beloved land defaced by industrial ugliness, tyrannical rules, and the bullying of ruffians under the command of Saruman, now calling himself Sharkey. The chapter is not merely a mopping-up operation but a deliberate narrative choice: the war against Sauron is won, but the war for the soul of the Shire—and for the hobbits' own sense of home and justice—must still be fought.

The State of the Shire Under Occupation

When the four hobbits reach the Brandywine Bridge at nightfall on a wet October evening, they find it barred by a spiked gate and a new, ugly guardhouse. Merry tears down a notice reading "No admittance between sundown and sunrise," and they learn that Lotho Sackville-Baggins, now called "the Chief," has imposed a regime of fear and scarcity. The inns are closed, pipe-weed is hoarded for the Chief's men, and food is gathered and stored away by "gatherers" and "sharers" who leave little for the common folk. The travellers are arrested at Frogmorton by a troop of Shirriffs, but they laugh off the arrest and press on to Bywater, where they see the full extent of the damage: rows of ugly new brick houses, a tall chimney pouring black smoke, and the Party Tree lying lopped and dead in a field. Sam bursts into tears at the sight. The old mill has been replaced by a larger, dirtier building that fouls the stream, and Bagshot Row has been dug up into a sand-and-gravel quarry. The hobbits learn from Farmer Cotton that Lotho began by buying up property and sending goods away, then brought in ruffians who soon took over, bullying, robbing, and imprisoning anyone who protested. The real power behind Lotho is Sharkey—Saruman himself, who has been directing the ruin from Bag End.

The Raising of the Shire and the Battle of Bywater

Merry blows the Horn-call of Buckland, rousing the countryside, and Sam fetches Farmer Cotton and his sons. Within hours, a crowd of sturdy hobbits with axes, hammers, and bows assembles. Merry and Pippin take command, and Pippin rides off to bring the Tooks from Tuckborough. The first band of ruffians, twenty strong, is trapped and surrenders after their leader is shot dead with four arrows. The next day, a larger force of nearly a hundred approaches from Waymeet, fire-raising as they come. Merry lays an ambush: the ruffians are blocked by overturned farm-carts and surrounded by hobbits on the high banks. When they try to break out, they are shot or hewn down. The battle is fierce—nineteen hobbits are killed and some thirty wounded—but in the end nearly seventy ruffians lie dead and a dozen are prisoners. The Battle of Bywater, the last battle fought in the Shire, is recorded in the Red Book with a Roll of all who took part, and the names of Captains Meriadoc and Peregrin stand at the top.

The Confrontation with Saruman and the End of the War

After the battle, Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin walk up the Hill to Bag End, now surrounded by huts and sheds, the garden a rubbish heap. Saruman emerges from a hut, well-fed and mocking. Frodo orders him to go and never return, but Saruman draws a knife and stabs Frodo; the blade turns on the hidden mithril coat and snaps. Sam and the others fling Saruman to the ground, but Frodo forbids killing him, saying he was once great and they should spare him in hope of cure. As Saruman turns to leave, Wormtongue rises up, cuts his throat, and is himself shot dead by hobbit archers. A grey mist rises from Saruman's body and dissolves into nothing. Frodo covers the shrivelled corpse and turns away. "That's the end of that," says Sam. "And the very last end of the War, I hope," says Merry. Frodo sighs: "The very last stroke. But to think that it should fall here, at the very door of Bag End!"

The Cleansing and the New Beginning

The clearing up takes less time than Sam feared. Frodo rides to Michel Delving and releases the prisoners from the Lockholes, including poor Fatty Bolger and old Will Whitfoot the Mayor. Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, rescued from a dark cell, is so touched by the welcome she receives that she gives Bag End back to Frodo and leaves her money to help hobbits made homeless. The new Shirriff-houses and all that Sharkey's Men built are torn down, and the bricks are used to repair old holes. Great stores of food and beer are found hidden away, and the Yule that year is the cheeriest in memory. Sam plants saplings in all the places where trees were destroyed, using a grain of the precious dust from Galadriel's box. In the Party Field, he plants the little silver nut, and in spring a beautiful mallorn sapling leaps up, the only one west of the Mountains and east of the Sea. The year 1420 becomes a marvellous year of sunshine, abundant harvest, and golden-haired children. Sam marries Rose Cotton and moves into Bag End with Frodo, and life in the Shire settles into a long, peaceful autumn. But Frodo, wounded in body and spirit, knows he cannot stay; the Scouring of the Shire is his last act as a hobbit of the Shire, and soon he will take the road to the Grey Havens.