A Tolkienesque Tale
J. R. R. Tolkien’s books satisfied my soul when I was a troubled teenager yearning for adventure and some kind of truth behind the magic in his universe. Let me present a little one …
THE PASSING OF SAMWISE
by Rosemary B. Althoff
Fall again had come to the Shire, and Samwise realized with a jolt that it was the very anniversary of Mr. Frodo's departure to the West. With a great quickening inside, he got up from his cozy chair. Thinking hard, he wandered with brisk steps outside to the garden.
Most of the leaves of the trees were yet green, but, when he sniffed, he felt that autumn hung in the air like smoke. The leaves of the mallorn tree that the elven lady Galadriel had given him were golden as ever, and the late afternoon sun shone through the treetops. As Samwise walked, he looked fondly about at the plants on the beautiful Hill. Home, he thought, but, turning toward the west, he could not shake a growing desire.
"Why," he said to himself, "there's naught to hold me back any longer. Dear Rosie is gone, and my children are grown up and all, and I'm free to take the last road and follow Mr. Frodo."
The idea brought tears to his eyes. Thinking about his beloved master, Mr. Frodo, and Mr. Bilbo, and Gandalf, and the elves, he hurried back toward Bag End to prepare for the journey.
"You always were a ninny, Samwise," he told himself. "It's no good just thinking about it. Mr. Bilbo wouldn't have never started the adventure in the first place if he were just thinking about it but doing nothing. No, the thing to do is to go and do it, to go where they have gone - no matter what! My place is with Mr. Frodo, and it always has been, even if I did take a leave, so to speak, and thanks to the Lady."
At Bag End, Sam changed into his soft gray, elven-made cloak and packed a few items he would need on the road. With a pat of satisfaction, he buckled on Sting. "Here I go!"
Quiet as only a hobbit can be, he left his home where he had lived and loved for so many years. Now he felt a spring in his steps as he hummed an old travelling tune.
“The road goes ever on and on …"
When he reached the hedge, his heart gladdened because the first stars were twinkling. "Elves!" he cried. "I'm going to see the elves!"
For just a minute, before jumping over the low spot in the hedge and going on, Samwise looked back at the lights on the Hill. To his surprise, he saw a figure running toward him, calling, "Daddy!"
His youngest child, golden-haired, lithe, and sweet as an elfchild, stood in front of him, hands on her hips. She scolded, "You wouldn't go off and not say goodbye!"
"Eleanor!" Samwise took her into his arms. He felt that his heart must break. "You know that I've got to do it," he said.
Eleanor nodded, tears like starlight in her eyes and on her cheeks.
Sam hugged her again. He exclaimed, "You're right, I shouldn't have left without seeing you at the last, and I'm so glad, dear, so glad you found me before I had gone and missed you!"
He kissed her cheek and released her. With a little wave and another sparkle of tears, she sprang away. "Goodbye, Daddy. I love you!"
"And I love you!"
* * *
After he leapt over the hedge and started down the road, Sam thought it was a fine night for walking. The sky was a clear, dark blue, and the air was pleasantly cool. Thousands and thousands of stars shone bright as the Lady's crown. He wondered for a moment if he could find the right road, all by himself, to the Gray Havens and across the sea. But he thought, "They know I'm coming. They've been calling me! I'll find the way!"
With a surge of confidence and longing, Sam called softly, "Mr. Frodo! Mr. Frodo! I'm coming!" Then, with no more noise than the wind in the grass, he slipped into the shadows under the trees. That was the last anyone in Middle Earth saw of him, though it is said that he found the Gray Havens and sailed away across the Great Water to the far West to join his master.
THE END