Entrance

He stood in Sauron's smithy. He had carried himself there on his own two feet. He drew out that … Lover? Master? Self? ... that Golden Ring. And he remembered no more.

Until he found himself standing beside his … Servant? Gardener? Brother? ... his Friend of Friends. Sam had carried him out….

But to Mordor, the land of despair.

To be out, Frodo knew now, was not to be whole — was not to be happy.

Until…

"Come in, Mr. Frodo. You'll catch your death of cold out here!"

And Sam led him through the green door of Bag End.

If you even breathe a word of what you've heard here, then I hope Gandalf will turn you into a spotted toad and fill the garden full of grass snakes.

Once Bitten…

"Die, you filthy thing! DIE!"

The Gaffer hobbled over to discover the cause of such bloodthirsty violence in his usually gentle son.

"Sam, my lad, it's just a grass snake."

"Oh, I know, dad. I know!"

Gaffer Gamgee shook his head. Not even left for Buckland yet, and his Sam already showed signs of cracking.

Folco

He'd read Frodo's part of the Red Book before Frodo left.

But he'd never befriended the hobbit who followed Frodo there and back again when he, Frodo's friend and relation, had done nothing.

So when Sam sent him a copy of the Red Book, he read Sam's account of Frodo's departure for the first time.

Now he stared at one phrase:

"…so that others may keep them."

He heard two faunts—his grandchildren—giggling.

And a weight he'd carried for nearly seventy years was gone.

He had done something. He'd remained in the Shire to honor his promise to Pansy.