What a happy chapter! Ten pages of pure denouement, and isn't it lovely?
I noticed, in the little poem that all the people cry out about Frodo and Sam when they're brought to the King, that they refer to "The Ring-bearers." I wonder how everyone already knows that they both bore the ring. Gandalf has his far sight, of course, but back when the Tower fell, he said, "The Ring-bearer has fulfilled his Quest" (p 928). I suppose Frodo told him all about it while Sam was still asleep.
I really like the moment when Gandalf kneels down and buckles Sam and Frodo's sword-belts around them. It makes me think of Jesus washing the disciples' feet.
Favorite Lines:
"But after coming all that way I don't want to give up yet. It's not like me, somehow, if you understand" (p. 929).
"A great Shadow has departed," said Gandalf, and then he laughed, and the sound was like music, or like water in a parched land; and as he listened the thought came to same that he had not heard laughter, the pure sound of merriment, for days upon days without count. It fell upon his ears like the echo of all the joys he had ever known" (p. 930-31).
Discussion Questions:
Interesting word choice: when the minstrel of Gondor sings the song of Frodo of the Nine Fingers and the Ring of Doom, Tolkien says "their joy was like swords" (p. 933). What do you think that's supposed to mean?
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