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The Scouring of the Shire As a Hobbit Coming-Of-Age

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The Scouring of the Shire As a Hobbit Coming-Of-Age Volume 18 Number 1 Article 1 Fall 10-15-1991 The Scouring of the Shire as a Hobbit Coming-of-Age Jonathon D. Langford Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Langford, Jonathon D. (1991) "The Scouring of the Shire as a Hobbit Coming-of-Age," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 18 : No. 1 , Article 1. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol18/iss1/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Abstract Contends the events of The Lord of the Rings, culminating in the Scouring of the Shire, demonstrate a coming-of-age for the individual hobbits of the Fellowship, for some social and for others spiritual. The Shire’s response to Sharkey, especially after the Fellowship members return, is a coming-of-age for Hobbit society as a whole. Additional Keywords Coming of age in literature; Tolkien, J.R.R.—Characters—Frodo; Tolkien, J.R.R.—Characters—Hobbits; Tolkien, J.R.R.—Characters—Merry; Tolkien, J.R.R.—Characters—Pippin; Tolkien, J.R.R.—Characters—Sam Gamgee; Tolkien, J.R.R.—Settings—Shire; Tolkien, J.R.R. The Lord of the Rings. “The Scouring of the Shire” This article is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol18/iss1/1 Page 4 Issue 67 - Autumn 1991 CPyTHLQRe Jonathon D. LangFoRd ne of the primary sources of Tolkien's popularity also rejects the gifts the hero brings, rendering the quest a Oamong adolescents, as well as that of the genre of failure regardless of how the hero may have performed modern heroic fantasy as a whole, is arguably the against the physical and spiritual challenges of the adven­ preeminence of growth and coming-of-age patterns tures itself. Indeed, the great spiritual myth often counted within his works. Readers, many of them perhaps starved more on this question of the community's worthiness than for meaningful initiation experiences within their own that of the hero: the children of Israel worship idols while cultural and social contexts, identify with the heroes in Moses is receiving the law on the mount, and the apostles such stories as they pass from "callow, lumpish, and self­ sleep while Jesus prays. ish youth" (to use Tolkien's words) to attain "dignity, and The triumphant homecoming of the hobbit adven­ even sometimes wisdom" ("On Fairy-stories," 45). Such turers to the Shire at the end of their quest represents Just readers are obviously getting something more than simple such a return. For Merry and Pippin, it is the culmination literary enJoyment out of these works; they are using them of a maturation process that has from the beginning been to help shape their own emotional lives. geared, though not always obviously so, toward their Given this extraliterary importance of fantasy as a eventual importance as leaders within hobbit society. For setting for the vicarious coming-of-age of its readers, it is Frodo and Sam, it represents a reassessment of the success important to understand the nature of these coming-of-age of their quest in light of its reception by the community patterns and how they function within specific works. As that has been their chief obJect of service. And for the intermediaries between the modem word and the world hobbit culture as a whole, it is the final link in a coming- of romance, for example, the hobbits occupy a unique of-age process that extends beyond the adventures them­ position within the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, neither outside selves to embrace the whole of the Shire, as the hobbit Middle-earth nor fully part of it. They are our alter-egos community grows from its initially isolated and protected within Tolkien's world, and it is their coming-of-age in status to take its place in a wider world. that world with which we as modem readers particularly This pattern is most apparent in the case of Merry and identify. It is within this context of special significance for Pippin. Heirs to two of the "great families" of the Shire, the hobbits as representatives of our own modem, non­ their importance to the quest of the Ring as such is minimal, heroic culture that I wish to consider the scouring of the right up to the time when they are separated from Frodo Shire as a hobbit coming-of-age within The Lord of the Rings. and the Ring at the Falls of Rauros. From this point, how­ One of the most important aspects of the heroic quest ever, the two begin to display signs of a growing maturity as described by Campbell and others is the return of the and of a greater impact on the events of the outside world. hero from the enchanted realm back to the world of ordin­ Merry cuts off the arm of several of the ores who capture ary human existence. Once he has obtained the treasure, them at Rauros (II, 58). Pippin equals this deed with his later the adventurer still must return with his life-transmuting daring, though unsuccessful, attempt at escape; he quickly trophy.... back into the kingdom of humanity, where the captured, but is able to drop his elven-brooch as a sign to boon may rebound to the renewing of the community, the Aragorn and the others who are following (II, 65-6). Then, nation, the planet, or the ten thousand worlds in what is almost a model for how chance (or providence) (Campbell, 193). in Tolkien's world interacts with the efforts of his charac­ This is particularly hue in cases such as Frodo's, when the ters, the two hobbits together escape from the ore camp quest is carried out for the benefit of the community, rather during the battle: the arrow from the darkness which kills than to fulfill any personal or private purpose — to save the ore Grishnakh is "aimed with skill, or guided by fate" the Shire, in this instance. It is important both literarily and (II, 75), but the rest— getting Grishnakh to the edge of the mythically for the story to return to its origins, not only to battle, keeping themselves alive up to this point, and their show growth of the hero since the beginning of the quest subsequent escape into the woods — is up to them. Next, but also to establish the community's status by how it they themselves become agents of chance, as their news in treats the returning hero. By accepting and honoring the Fangom Forest unexpectedly touches off the rousing of the hero on his or her return, the community also accepts and ents and subsequent destruction of Isengard — events proves its worthiness for the boon the hero has secured. By with an impapt far beyond anything that could have been rejecting or misunderstanding the hero, the community imagined by the hobbits themselves. CPyTHLORe Issue 67 - Autumn 1991 Page 5 This increased power and effectiveness in the wider Shire's boundaries. The parallel of the situation of Buck- world is symbolized by the ent-draught they ingest, which land, outside the Shire but bound to it by ties of friendship, causes a literal and ongoing increase in physical stature. though no fealty as such, and Rohan, similarly situated The fact that this occurs long past the regular hobbit next to the older and greater realm of Gondor with which adolescence, when the two have to all appearances already it shares friendly relations, subtly underscores the fact that "grown up," suggests that the opportunities offered both hobbits are in their way heirs to similar positions of within their own culture for a true coming-of-age — and, power within their own land. During their terms of ser­ by implication, within ours as well — are largely inade­ vice, both hobbits witness the passage of power from old quate. In order to truly grow, they must leave the Shire and and weakened incumbents to new leaders who rein­ encounter experiences and individuals beyond what their vigorate the realm and establish a new royal line — a aristocratic, insular, sheltered backgrounds can offer. pattern which foreshadows the effects of their own homecoming, which will usher in a new period of change, This growth continues with subsequent separation of liberation and growth among the hobbits of the Shire. Merry and Pippin not only from the other members of the Company, but even from each other — stripping them of Similarly, the apparent approval of Gandalf and other the last remnants of their own accustomed social structure, such authority figures, including Theoden himself in the leaving them free as solitary characters to make new and case of Merry, for the quasi-mutinous activities of the two in some ways more meaningful attachments.
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