Essay On The Grey Havens

However, 'The Gray Havens,' was not always the intended ending for The Lord of the Rings series. Tolkien was known as someone who often went through revising his written works, and The Lord of the Rings is not an exception. He did not simply write one epilogue, he wrote two diversely different drafts, before neglecting to include either of them ( Tolkien 121). The more recent of the two epilogues reads as a definitive wrap up of both the bulk of the quest narrative, and the final portion of the novel that takes place in the Shire. This epilogue takes place nearly 20 years after Sam’s trip to Mordor and consists of him talking to his eldest daughter about an upcoming visit from King Aragorn. A large portion of this narrative is set up as a series of questions and answers, through which

The depictions in this chapter make it very obvious that Sam is aware that he has caused an end, but has no regrets about his part in making the magic that he cared so much about disappear from the world. For example he states, “It was sad Elanorelle... It was but [it] isn’t now. For why? Well, for one thing, Mr. Frodo has gone where the elven-light isn’t fading, and he deserved his reward”(125). Despite this rejection of sadness, Tolkien still manages to portray feelings of nostalgia and yearning through statements such as the last sentence of the chapter; “They went in, and Sam shut the door. But even as he did so, he heard suddenly, deep and unstilled, the sigh and murmur of the Sea upon the shores of Middle-earth” (128). This statement reads very similarly to the end of 'The Gray Havens,' but functions much differently. In the epilogue the line reads as though Sam still hears the Ocean calling to him, whereas in ‘The Gray Havens’ the line reads as a parting of