Lost in the spectacular, in the noble and in the ethereal in Lord Of The Rings (book and movie) is the simple, everyday, presence of failure.

Elrond doesn't even try. Boromir fails. Gandalf fails. Theoden and Denethor both grapple with their own failures. Aragorn, alongside Faramir (and only in the book, the movie characters a complete --and hollow-- about-face) among humans stand tall... and Aragorn, in perhaps the most poignant line of the entire book (missing, also, I think from the movies) when asked 'Where shall we find hope?' says only, 'We shall go on without it.'

And Frodo fails, in the end. He cannot destroy the ring. He cannot complete the quest. He, in fact, betrays the fellowship, and it is the feckless unforgiving hunger of Gollum/Smeagol which, unwittingly, does the deed.

The Scouring of the Shire is important because it is where Frodo's failure meets Sarumans failure and one final death is exacted. And Tolkien, born in idyllic South Africa and who grew up in bucolic pre-industrial England, and who went to Europe to witness the fantastically savage modern industrial scale slaughter that was world war one, understood the beauty of nature, the urgent presence of failure and the need, sometimes, to go forward without hope.

So, I guess, that might be growing up.