Hobbits' Fate After LotR Was Not the Happy Ending We Expected
Many believe that the Hobbits continued to live happily ever after after the events of The Lord of the Rings, but in fact, an unexpectedly grim fate awaited them.
In The Lord of the Rings movies, the viewers' attention is focused only on the four Hobbits – Frodo, Sam, Pippin and Merry.
At the end of their wanderings, they return home, where everything seems to be as it was before. Although in the penultimate chapter of The Return of the King book, the inhabitants of the Shire are threatened by something very dark.
The Scouring of the Shire is considered by critics to be one of the novel's most important chapters, as it is seen as an allegory for the state of Britain after the Second World War.
Expelled from The Order of Istari by Gandalf, Saruman vowed to avenge the destruction of Isengard on the Hobbits and, with his minion Grima Wormtongue, went to the Shire, where he succeeded in overthrowing the local leader and establishing a military dictatorship that oppressed and tortured the Hobbits.
However, Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin managed to fight back and rallied the entire Shire against the invaders. Saruman even tried to kill Frodo, but the dagger was blocked by the Mithral Chain Mail.
But this was not the last test for the peace-loving Hobbits. After the defeat of Sauron in Middle-earth, the Fourth Age began – the Age of Men.
The recently published The Nature of Middle-earth contains Tolkien's notes, which state that the humans, having become the dominant race, simply wiped out the Hobbits.
They drove them into the woods and did not let them live in peace, which resulted in the Hobbits losing their heritage. Later, when there very few Hobbits left, men hunted them as exotic animals, which led to their complete extinction.
However, The Nature of Middle-earth collected notes that were not published by Tolkien himself, and perhaps such a cruel extermination of the Hobbits was only a draft and an idea that the great writer eventually abandoned.