Homeward Bound

From Tolkien Gateway
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Homeward Bound
Chapter of The Return of the King
Number17
Synopsis
EventFrodo returns to Bree.
Date6-30 October 3019
LocationBree
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Homeward Bound is the seventh chapter of the second book in The Return of the King.

Summary[edit | edit source]

The Hobbits were nearing home. On the 6th of October, a year since Frodo's encounter at Weathertop,[1] Gandalf asksed if Frodo felt much pain. Frodo answered that he had been wounded by a knife and by the other torments of his long and heavy burden. Gandalf was silent. The next day, Frodo felt better, and they travelled onward in relative ease. They arrived at Bree and spoke to Barliman Butterbur, the innkeeper who aided them early in the quest.[2] Butterbur, after welcoming them and making them comfortable by the warm fire, told Gandalf and the Hobbits that their strange warrior gear had scared many locals. Gandalf laughed at this. Gandalf assured Butterbur that now that Sauron had been vanquished, business at the inn would once again pick up, as people would feel more free to travel. Butterbur asked about the dangerous region known as Deadmen's Dike, which he imagined no one would be visiting. Gandalf asserted that the rightful king would return to that area, and it would become safe and prosperous again. He added that the king was none other than Aragorn, once known in the inn as Strider.[3] Butterbur was astonished at this news.

The next day, business in the inn was brisk, as many visitors, unable to restrain their curiosity, came to gawk at Gandalf's party. Many people asked Frodo whether he had written his memoirs yet. Finally, the Company set off. Gandalf told the hobbits that he would not accompany them to the Shire. His horse, Shadowfax, made a leap, and Gandalf was gone. Frodo remarked that it felt as though he was falling asleep again, his adventures now over.

References