Scouring of the Shire

The Scouring of the Shire was an event that took place in the Shire at the end of the War of the Ring and was the only time the Shire was attacked during the Great Years.

History

Background

While Frodo Baggins and company were away, Lotho Sackville-Baggins began a massive land grab with the money that he had made from pipe-weed sales to Saruman at Isengard. This gave him great power. Lotho, now calling himself the Chief, began to stretch forth his authority and sought to control the Shire for himself. With help from the Ruffians, Dunlendings, and Goblin-men sent by Saruman (who had taken the name Sharkey), Lotho took over control of the Shire; imprisoning many, including important folk. He then began industrializing the once green and agrarian region, causing much damage. Soon Saruman arrived and took full control and Lotho was deposed, imprisoned, and later killed by Wormtongue. The pace of destruction greatly increased afterwards.

Before returning to the Shire, Frodo Baggins and his companions stayed overnight at The Prancing Pony in Bree where they caught up on the last year's local events with the proprietor Barliman Butterbur. They learned that strangers from the South had come to settle in and around Bree, much to the discomfort of the peace-loving Men and Hobbits indigenous to the region. A fight had then occurred in Bree between Bill Ferny's friends and some Bree-men such as Mat Heathertoes, with the former then driven out.

Gandalf took the four Hobbits - Frodo Baggins, Sam Gamgee, Meriadoc Brandybuck, and Peregrin Took - part way to the Shire but detoured to have a long talk with Tom Bombadil. He assured the four that their training in the War of the Ring would be sufficient to settle the troubles.

The Battle of Bywater

When they discovered that the evil they had fought had come home to roost, they roused the Shire and were able to kill or drive off the evildoers that infested it. With the assistance of Farmer Cotton, Merry and Pippin led the Battle of Bywater, the last battle in the War of the Ring, in which 19 Hobbits and 100 Ruffians were killed; the remaining Orcs and Ruffians retreated away from Hobbiton.

Saruman then revealed himself. Frodo told Saruman to leave and never come back. As Saruman was beginning to leave, he ordered Wormtongue to follow him. Frodo attempted to convince Wormtongue that he did not have to follow him anymore. Saruman, however, exposed Wormtongue for the murder of Lotho. While Wormtongue argued that Saruman made him do it, Saruman mocked him and then kicked him to the ground. Having reached his breaking point, Wormtongue avenged the kick, and all the abuse Saruman had put him through by cutting his throat, but he was thereafter shot to death by arrows from Hobbits. An eerie column of mist arose from Saruman's corpse and was blown away in the wind, a scene reminiscent of Sauron's demise.

Commentary

Despite J.R.R. Tolkien's much-publicised dislike of allegory, this chapter can be viewed as the most directly allegorical component of the book. The transformation of the Shire from rural idyll to industrial wasteland heavily parallels Tolkien's own views of the destruction of the English countryside by the steady creep of industrialisation. In particular, the loss of the old Mill in Bywater, only to be replaced by a much larger, grimier version, mimics an event from Tolkien's childhood. Tolkien himself commented that the symbolism lay in the feeling of loss he felt after returning from the First World War, to discover that many of his close friends had died, and the world he remembered from his youth had largely disappeared.^{[citation needed]}

In adaptations

Radio

The 1981 BBC The Lord of the Rings radio play covers "The Scouring of the Shire", including the original showdown and ending in which Saruman dies by Wormtongue's knife and Wormtongue is killed by arrows in the Shire.

Finnish TV series

The events of "The Scouring of the Shire" are retold and shown in the 1993 Finnish miniseries Hobitit. However, the final showdown with Saruman and Wormtongue is not shown in the TV show and is implied they are both killed.

Peter Jackson'sThe Lord of the Ringsfilm trilogy

The Scouring of the Shire is among the most prominent scenes not featured in the theatrical release of the The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, except for one part of it which is shown in the Mirror of Galadriel in the Fellowship of the Ring movie. However, later scenes of Frodo's return to the Shire in the Return of the King show the Shire as completely unchanged, so within the film adaptation it is intended as an alternate future that was avoided. But in the Fellowship of the Ring film, the Shire is shown industrialized and enslaved in the Mirror, but instead of Ruffians, there are Orcs that serve Sharkey in battle armor with whips, torches, and axes; and they send the Hobbits to workhouses. Samwise is shown in a chained line of Hobbits.

While the Scouring itself does not occur in Peter Jackson's trilogy, the extended edition of The Return of the King probably references the original Scouring of the Shire. A scene exclusive to the extended edition alludes to some of the events of the Scouring, the party from Helm's Deep arrives to interrogate Saruman at flooded Isengard for information on Sauron's plans. During the interrogation, Théoden attempts to reach out to Gríma, but Saruman strikes Wormtongue. Furious and having reached his breaking point, Gríma stabs Saruman in the back (as opposed to slitting his throat from behind, as in the book), and Legolas quickly shoots him to death (referencing Wormtongue being shot by Hobbit archers). On a similar note, the Scouring of the Shire may have been indirectly referenced during Samwise's raid on the Tower of Cirith Ungol in an attempt at rescuing Frodo, where he declared that, besides Frodo, he was also dedicating some of his kills against Orcs towards the Shire as well as "old Gaffer."

This, coupled with Peter Jackson's belief that adapting the Scouring of the Shire would tax the audience's patience to mount another battle scene after the critical conflict, the defeat of Sauron, had already been resolved, led to him maintaining its themes through internalising the cost of war instead; although Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin found the Shire unchanged since their departure as stated previously, and Sam finally able to muster up the courage to propose to Rosie, it's not necessarily a happy ending because the four Hobbits themselves were forever changed by the War of the Ring. At the scene where they were hanging out and drinking ale at Green Dragon Inn as usual, the feeling of isolation was palpable as they understood how much the surrounding townsfolk were oblivious to what they went through in such conflict. Not to mention Frodo's lingering trauma delivered the same thematic point as the ruined Shire in the books, albeit through a quieter, pure emotional lens.

Translations

References