The Tolkien Road

A podcast about Middle-earth and all things Tolkien.

0210 – LOTR – History of the Third Age – Part 8: The Fate of the Fellowship

With the passage of Frodo, Bilbo, and Gandalf from the Grey Havens, Middle-earth’s Third Age comes to an end. Yet what ultimately became of Sam, Merry, Pippin, and the rest of the Fellowship? How did the Shire benefit from the great sacrifice and heroism of its famed sons? Join us, as we explore the fate of the Fellowship during Middle-earth’s Fourth Age.

EPISODE OUTLINE

On this episode, we’ll be concluding our series on the history of the Third Age as we look at key events from the years after the conclusion of The Lord of the Rings, journey a bit into the Fourth Age.

  • THE WAR IN THE NORTH
  • Lórien assailed
  • The Hosts of Celeborn
  • Galadriel Demolishes Dol Guldur
  • Thranduil’s Struggle
  • The Battle of Erebor
  • We’ll skip ahead to SR1422, as the other events are covered in the last several chapters of LOTR. LOTR ends precisely on October 6, TA3021, with Sam’s return to Bag End
  • FOURTH AGE / SHIRE RECKONING
  • SR1422 / 4A1: 4th Age begins…
  • SR1427 / 4A6: Sam elected Mayor of the Shire. Peregrin Took marries Diamond of Long Cleeve. King Elessar issues an edict that Men are not to enter the Shire, and he makes it a Free Land under the protection of the Northern Sceptre.
  • SR1430 / 4A9: Peregrin’s son Faramir is born.
  • SR1431 / 4A10: Sam’s daughter Goldilocks is born.
  • SR1432 / 4A11: Merry (Meriadoc the Magnificent) becomes Master of Buckland.
  • SR1434 / 4A13: Peregrin becomes the Took and Thain. King Elessar makes the Thain (Peregrin), the Master (Meriadoc), and the Mayor (Samwise) counsellors of the North-Kingdom. 
  • SR1436 / 4A15: King Elessar meets his friends at the Brandywine Bridge, and gives the Star of the Dunedain to Master Samwise. Elanor (Sam’s eldest) is made a maid of honor to Queen Arwen. 
  • SR1441 / 4A20: Sam becomes Mayor a third time.
  • SR1442 / 4A21: Sam, Rose, and Elanor ride to Gondor and stay there for a year. Tolman Cotton (Rose’s brother) serves as deputy Mayor.
  • SR1448 / 4A27: Sam Mayor 4x.
  • SR1451 / 4A30: Elanor marries Fastred of Greenholm.
  • SR1452 / 4A31: Westmarch added to The Shire. Pretty significant western expansion.
  • SR1454 / 4A33: Elfstan Fairbairn, son of Fastred and Elanor, is born. Sam’s first grandchild.
  • SR1455 / 4A34: Sam = 5x mayor.
  • SR1462 / 4A41: Sam = 6x mayor. He would be 41 + 41 = 82yo. Fastred made warden of the Westmarch. Undertowers note…
  • SR1463 / 4A42: Faramir Took marries Goldilocks, daughter of Samwise.
  • SR1469 / 4A48: Sam = 7x mayor. 89yo. Last time, term ends in 1476, he is 96yo.
  • SR1482 / 4A61: Death of Rose. Sam rides west, last seen by Elanor at the Tower Hills, gives her the Red Book of Westmarch. Sam passes over the Sea.
  • SR1484 / 4A63: Merry and Pippin resign their offices to their sons, ride over the Sarn Ford, southward to visit King Eomer. Holdwine? Eomer passes away during their visit, and then they leave for Gondor and eventually both pass away there.
  • SR1541 / 4A120: Aragorn dies. Meriadoc and Peregrin are laid beside him. Legolas builds a ship in Ithilien, and he and Gimli set sail “over the Sea”.

So that gets us to LOTR, which we assume, by now, you know the plot of. If you don’t, well, go read it, and listen to the episodes we did on it. Next time, we’ll take a look at the timeline events *after* LOTR.

Please patronize us: https://patreon.com/tolkienroad

For more on this episode and The Tolkien Road podcast, please visit TolkienRoad.com or Facebook.com/TolkienRoad. Also, follow us on Twitter via @TolkienRoad.

Listen to the previous episodes in this series:

Episode 203 – LOTR – History of the Third Age – Pt 1: Three Millennia
Episode 204 – LOTR – History of the Third Age – Pt 2: SA3320 – TA861
Episode 205 – LOTR – History of the Third Age – Pt 3: 861 – 1976
Episode 206 – LOTR – History of the Third Age – Pt 4: 1977 – 2480
Episode 207 – LOTR – History of the Third Age – Pt 5: 2480 – 2770
Episode 208 – LOTR – History of the Third Age – Pt 6: 2770 – 2941
Episode 209 – LOTR – History of the Third Age – Pt 7: 2942 – 3017

View a list of episodes concerning Lord of the Rings.

Also, don’t forget to check out our series on the Second Age!

Special thanks to the following patrons:

  • Shannon S
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  • Teresa C
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8 Responses

  1. Master Samwise and Rose had fourteen children. Their eldest son Frodo changed his surname to Gardner in honour of his father, and I believe he also was a gardener. They also named some of their other children after Merry, Pippin, and yes Sam and Rosie-lass.

    1. P.S. I really like this podcast. I have tried to listen to some others, but they were not as enjoyable as this one is. The Green Dragon podcast is the worst; too much swearing without it being edited. The Tolkien Road and Tea With Tolkien are the only too from a Christian perspective.

    2. We read this comment on episode 211 on the White Trees of Gondor (out on 10/5). I was only able to count 13 children for Sam and Rose from the family tree in LOTR. Is there a 14th?

  2. OK. I think I goofed on how many children there were. Yes, it was Thirteen. So Bilbo surpassed the Old Took in age, while Samwise surpassed him in the number of children he had.

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