The Scouring of the Shire is a chapter from the fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. It is the eighth chapter of Book VI, and it is the penultimate chapter of the whole story.

Chapter summary

In the final volume of the story, the five travellers (Gandalf, the wizard, and Hobbits Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, Meriadoc Brandybuck, and Peregrin Took) stay overnight at The Prancing Pony in Bree where they catch up on the last year's local events with proprietor Barliman Butterbur. They learn that thuggish strangers from the South have come to settle in and around Bree, much to the discomfort of the peace-loving Men and Hobbits indigenous to the region. Barliman is impressed to discover that Strider has been crowned King of Gondor.

Gandalf parts ways with the Hobbits to the Shire to have a long talk with Tom Bombadil. Gandalf assures the four that their experience in the War of the Ring will be sufficient to settle the troubles.

When they discover that the evil they had fought in Mordor had come home to roost, they rouse the Shire and are able to kill or drive off the evil-doers that infested it. With the assistance of Farmer Cotton, Merry and Pippin lead the Battle of Bywater, the last battle in the War of the Ring, in which 19 hobbits died.

Ultimately, the returning Hobbits find that the thugs' ringleader is the fallen wizard Saruman, who has taken up residence at Frodo's former home, Bag-End, along with his servant Wormtongue. Though the Hobbits decide to allow the pair to leave the Shire unharmed, Saruman meets his end shortly thereafter, when Wormtongue avenges his abuse at the hands of his master by cutting Saruman's throat; Wormtongue is in turn killed by the Hobbits, who shoot him down with arrows as he tries to flee. An eerie column of smoke arises from Saruman's corpse and is blown away in the wind, a scene reminiscent of Sauron's demise. Frodo covers the suddenly shriveled skull of Saruman and turns away.

Commentary

Despite Tolkien's much-publicised dislike of allegory, he admitted (only grudgingly) that the transformation of the Shire from rural idyll to industrial wasteland was an allegory of what Tolkien viewed as the destruction of the English countryside by the steady creep of industrialisation. In particular, the loss of the old Mill in Bywater, only to be replaced by a much larger, grimier version, mimics an event from Tolkien's childhood. Tolkien commented that the symbolism also lay in the feeling of loss he felt after returning from the First World War, to discover that many of his close friends had died, and the world he remembered from his youth had largely disappeared.

Book compared to the movies

"The Scouring of the Shire" is one of several chapters from the book which were either not featured, or only partially featured, in the theatrical and extended editions of the The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. In , the 'Mirror of Galadriel' scene (Chapter VII - The Mirror of Galadriel) does, like the book, foretell the Scouring. However, when the hobbits return to the Shire in , the Shire is unchanged, so within the film adaptation the Scouring is intended as an alternate future that was avoided. In the extended edition of The Return of the King, Wormtongue stabs Saruman to death and is in turn killed with bow and arrow as in the novel; however this takes place at Isengard instead of the Shire and it is Legolas who shoots Wormtongue. The Scouring was also not featured in the 1980 animated version of The Return of the King.

Notes