summary of the scouring of the shire, long because i'm a nerd: [Spoilers LOTR Books]frodo and his hobbit buddies are getting close to the shire and things are suspicious. the hobbits and local men are all on edge; in bree they find out that a band of ruffians with a really scary leader have come in, disrupting the peace and taking over the shire. when they get home they see that the green, verdant shire has been industrialized and is on its way into turning into a grimy wasteland. it turns out that the bandits are led by saruman and grima wormtongue. the hobbits raise an army of hobbits that kill or capture all the ruffians; the war has worn frodo out and he spends the battle making sure that the bandits who surrender aren't hurt. saruman and grima are cornered at the door to bilbo's house. frodo exiles saruman and tells grima that he doesn't have to follow saruman's orders anymore. saruman laughs at this and insults grima, who's had enough of his increasingly abusive boss's shit and cuts his throat on bilbo's doorstep. before frodo can stop them, hobbits shoot grima dead. so it's pretty bittersweet: despite winning the war, destroying the ring, and banishing evil, frodo wasn't able to save the shire from being affected by the war. the last blood was shed at the house where he grew up, and he's traumatized by carrying the ring; so he and bilbo set out for the land of the elves, where he hopes he can recuperate.(/s)