More Reading Thoughts: The Epilogue, Version One
The long-awaited sequel!! Iām reading the Epilogue as it appears in āThe End of the Third Ageā, from The History of The Lord of the Rings as compiled by Christopher Tolkien.
Tagging @lady-merian because sheās been asking for this for a LONG time š¤£
Itās interesting that āwell, Iām backā wasnāt originally supposed to be the end of the story. Itās become something iconic nowāthe perfect, hauntingly understated ending, harkening back to āthere and back againāābut the only reason it seems so abrupt is because Tolkien actually meant to write on.
I like both, honestly. This Epilogue has so much good stuff in it, but it would make an already slow book even slower; āwell Iām backā is lovely for what it is. ^-^
āElanor 15, Frodo 13, Rose 11, Merry 9, Pippin 7.ā Just looking at their names and the list of ages gets me in the heart. Argh, I love these kids ;u;
Sam resting by the fire in this study! And heās surrounded by his kids! And theyāre listening to him read the Red Book!! AAAHHHHHH
āā¦And there was Frodo-lad on the heathrug, in spite of his name as good a copy of Sam as you could wishā¦ā Dāaww 8-D Named Frodo, looks like Sam. Thatās adorable.
AND THEREāS GOLDILOCKS AND HAM AND BABY DAISIE ANDā
SAM. CALLS ELANOR. ELLIE.
IāM GONNA HECKINā CRY
Confirmed that Merry and Pippin traveled to Gondor and Rohan multiple times in their lives! Thatās wonderful!
And now: the Gamgee children being carbon copies of their namesakes begins.
Merry Jr. is inordinately proud of Merry Sr. and wants to grow tall like him.
Pippin Jr. is likewise inordinately proud of Pippin Sr. and insists that Merry isnāt the tallest anyway.
āIs he Prince Peregrin away down in the Stone City, dad?ā Oh my word.
First of all: the fact that this little hobbit lad knows Minas Tirith familiarly enough to call it the Stone City.
Secondly: I mean they did call him a prince of the halflings at firstā
Frodo Jr. wants to hear about the spider again because he likes the parts where his dad comes in ;u;
And Elanor wants to know about the flower sheās named after!
Elanor: I want to go see my flower! Sam: Thereās a prettier one if you look in a mirror. Elanor: Daaaadā¦
Rose Jr. is worried about the elves going away TT-TT
Sam is secretly very proud of the Mallorn tree in the Party Field LOL
Legolas lives in Ithilien! And Pippin says theyāve made it very lovely, which means heās seen it! WHICH MEANS PIPPIN GOT TO HANG OUT WITH LEGOLAS AND FARAMIR AND BEREGOND AND BERGIL AGAINā
Frodo Jr. loves Gimli and wants an axe LOL
Gimli and his dwarves helped to rebuild Minas Tirith! And now they live in the mountains behind it!! And he goes to visit the Glittering Caves every two years! Tolkien thought of EVERYTHING
And nobody knows if anyoneās seen Treebeard lol
ROSE JR. LOOKS FOR THE ENTWIVES WHEN SHE GOES WALKING IN THE WOODS IāM GONNA CRY
Haha Sam shuts down the āits not fairās so fast, heās such a dad š¤£
āDonāt talk like that to me,ā said Sam sternly. āIf it aināt fair for Ellie and Fro to sit up after supper it aināt fair for them to be born sooner, and it aināt fair that Iām your dad and youāre not mine.ā
My dad made up an āitās not fairā song when I was a kid and this is reminding me of that for the first time in over a DECADE
Le gasp! Sam has a SecretTM!
āA dead hush of expectancy fell on all the children: they watched him as hobbit-children of other times had watched the wizard Gandalf.ā Hello yes I will cry
I love that Aragorn himself wonāt enter the Shire according to his own decree
But he has sent! A Fancy ScrollTM!
āElessar Aragorn Arathornsson the Elfstone King of Gondor and of the Westlandsā¦ā Local man has too many names, authorities report
And now Tolkien gives elvish names to all Samās kids. Nerd.
āāSamwise or Halfwise who should rather be called Plainwise.ā So now you know what the King thinks of your dad youāll maybe give more heed to what he says.ā LOL SAM COULD YOU GET ANY MORE DADLY
All Frodo Jr. takes away from this is āMUST INTERROGATE FATHERā
And theyāre gonna stay with the King and Queen at the house on the Lake for a few weeks!! HOW EXCITING
Tbh I like the first version of Samās conversation with Rosie better. (The one marked with footnote #6, if you have the book.) It gives more character to Rosie, which is in short supply; and I like the idea of her almost prophetically starting to sing on the day Sam is about to return. Something very Elvish and Tolkien about that.
And Sam tells us he is all whole and healed so as to preemptively shut down the angst writers. (But we will survive muahaha >:-D)
āThe went in and shut the door. But even as he did so Sam heard suddenly the sigh and murmur of the sea on the shores of Middle-earth.ā OHOHOHO NONONO DONāT DO THIS TO ME
WAITāin one version of Appendix A Gimli became LORD OF THE GLITTERING CAVES?? HELLO??
EDIT: I have been informed that Gimli being Lord of the Glittering Caves did, in fact, make it into the final version of the book, and I just didnāt pay enough attention LOL
Also āMaster Samwise who should be called Fullwiseā
āI think maybe the Entwives donāt want to be foundā *EYES EMOJI*
Merry Jr. asks too many questions about horses! Carbon copies, I tell ya!
The amount of times Tolkien changed the beginning of Aragornās letter to include different names and titles is killing me š¤£š¤£