Peregrin ‘Pippin’ Took and Meriadoc ‘Merry’ Brandybuck
He spends his days in Tom Bombadil’s house and still unmarried. Yet, as the Istari,
he knows the consequences for not following the applied norm. “... The Third Age of the world is ended, and the new age is begun; and it is your
task to order its beginning and to preserve what may be preserved. For though much has be
en saved, much must now pass away…” Tolkien 154. ‘to preserve what may be preserved’ means the heteronormativity that applied after
Aragorn’s marriage; ‘much must now pass away’ could be inferred that those who are not following the heteronormative norm must take the consequences by being punished. In a
conversation with Barliman, Gandalf says, “…Then the Greenway will be opened again, and his messengers will come north, and there will be comings and goings, and the evil
things will be driven out of the waste-lands ” 170. It is stated that the king will banish
the ‘evil’ in Middle-earth. According to plato.standford.edu ‘evil’ can be divided into two different concept, broad and narrow. Evil in the broad sense includes any bad state of
affairs, wrongful action, or character flaw. Hence, the meaning of ‘evil’ in the quotation
could be referred to the deviant category - doing wrongful action according to heteronormative norm applied in Middle-earth - includes Gandalf himself.
When others manage to have a happy life by following the heteronormativity order, Gandalf who remains unmarried leaves Middle-earth, heading to Valinor. In this
departure, Gandlaf said, “…Well, here at last, dear friends, on the shores of the Sea comes the end of our fellowship in Middle-earth. Go in peace I will not say: do not
weep; for not all tears are an evil ” p.196. This lines ‘comes the ends of our fellowship’
means that the normative and non-normative should be separated because they cannot line up together in the society, where one achieve rewards and the others receive
punishment.