Battle of Bywater
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| Battle of Bywater | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Combatants | |||||||
| Hobbits of The Shire | Ruffians in the service of Saruman | ||||||
| Commanders | |||||||
| Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took | Ruffian chief†, Saruman†, Wormtongue† | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 200 local Hobbits of the Shire under Meriadoc Brandybuck, including Tolman Cotton and Samwise Gamgee, and 110 Tooks from Tookland under Peregrin Took | slightly over 200 | ||||||
| Casualties | |||||||
| 19 Hobbits | 70 ruffians | ||||||
| War of the Ring |
|---|
| 1st Fords of Isen - 2nd Fords of Isen - Isengard - Hornburg - Lothlórien - Mirkwood - Osgiliath - Pelennor Fields - Dale - Black Gate - Bywater |
The Battle of Bywater is a fictional battle depicted in the book The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. The battle takes place in the chapter "The Scouring of the Shire."
The Battle of Bywater was a battle between the Hobbits of The Shire and a band of Ruffians who followed the Wizard Saruman, whom they called "Sharkey" (an alias derived from sharkû, Orkish for "old man"). The battle was considered to be the last of the War of the Ring. The Shire-folk were roused by the leadership of Meriadoc Brandybuck (Merry) and Peregrin Took (Pippin), knights of Gondor and Rohan. Merry slew the leader of the ruffians, a squint-eyed Orkish-looking brute.
The Battle of Bywater occurred on November 3, 1419 by Shire-reckoning in the Shire Calendar (3019 of the Third Age) and was the last military engagement of the War of the Ring. It was only the second battle ever fought within the borders of the Shire since its founding over 1400 years before; the first was the Battle of Greenfields, which was fought in the year 1147 by Shire-reckoning (2747 of the Third Age).
Ruffians had been sent by Sharkey (Saruman) to suppress the Hobbit revolt breaking out in Bywater. However, the Hobbits' scouts gave them advanced warning. The Hobbits then devised a plan to surround and trap the Ruffians when they arrived. Makeshift mobile roadblocks were made out of carts and waggons, and after the ruffians reached the centre of the town the road was blocked in front and behind them. The ruffians then tried to fight their way out through the Hobbits, some breaking through. These were then encircled and engaged until the battle was won.
The Shire Hobbits rallied under the leadership of Merry and Pippin. The courage and skill that Merry and Pippin had discovered during their journey with the Fellowship of the Ring and during the War of the Ring, had made them confident in their abilities, and this enabled them to rally the Shire-folk against the invaders. Technically, Pippin was still a Knight of Gondor, as King Elessar had not released him from service but granted him indefinite leave, and when he departed Aragorn reminded Pippin that his restored kingship now extended to the old northern lands which included the Shire. Therefore, Pippin loosely saw himself as fighting off the ruffians with the authority of the King supporting him. Sam Gamgee also fought in the battle. Frodo was also present at the battle, though he did not fight: he spent the battle making sure that ruffians who threw down their weapons were not killed (indeed, during his entire life, even when the Shire itself was invaded, Frodo never killed a sentient being, though he did wound a barrow-wight and a cave-troll).
The next day, Frodo, and his three companions, leading the Hobbits of the Shire, marched to Hobbiton. There Frodo confronted Saruman and exiled him from the Shire. Then Wormtongue killed Saruman by slitting his throat, on the very doorstep of Bag End. Before Frodo could react, the Hobbits of the Shire shot Wormtongue dead with three arrows. Thus, the last stroke of the War of the Ring fell at the very door that Frodo had first set out from.
Many fans of the books were upset that this battle, and the wider events of the chapter "The Scouring of the Shire" were not addressed in the New Line Cinema movie version of The Return of the King. However, Peter Jackson has always said that it was a great part of Tolkien's work, but he could not put it into the context of his movie due to his, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens' adaptation decisions, where it would be anti-climactic to start another major battle sequence that late into the movie. They announced that it would not be included in the third film, even before the first film was released. Nevertheless he makes reference to it in the Mirror of Galadriel scene in the first film of his trilogy. In the Extended Edition DVD special features, during an interview with Fran Walsh, it was said that the producers did not say that the Scouring didn't happen, but that they simply did not tell the story.
