December 3, 2002

Re: Scouring of the Shire
Happiscotsman

I believe someone named Laurie was stating the hope that Peter Jackson will include The Battle of Bywater (Sharkey's End) at the conclusion of "The Return of the King". After viewing the new Extended Version of FOTR, I am not very confident that this will occur. This was also one of my favorite parts of the trilogy, and I feel we may have been given a clue when Galadriel gives the Fellowship their gifts. If you recall, Samwise was NOT given rope by the Lady of the Wood, but instead a small wooden box with the elf rune "G" on the cover (Book II, chapter eight) The box contained some dust and "a seed, like a small nut with a silver shale" (Book VI, chapter nine). Sam used the dust to help plantgrowth in the Shire, and the seed was from a Mallorn tree that replaced the destroyed Party Tree. Since Jackson did not include Sam receiving this gift, I canonly conclude that there will be no Shire to rescue at the Hobbits' end of their travels. Too bad, since I agree that it would certainly give evidence that Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippen had done some "growing up" in their travels.