At the end of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Frodo Baggins departed for the Undying Lands, where he could recover from the physical and mental damage that he sustained on his quest to destroy the One Ring. Mortals were usually not allowed there, but Frodo received special permission as a reward for his service as the Ring-bearer. Before he left Middle-earth, he bid a teary goodbye to Samwise Gamgee, who had been his constant companion. But this might not have been the last time that they saw each other. Though the films did not mention it, J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings novel revealed that Sam eventually went to the Undying Lands as well, for he had briefly carried the One Ring.

Frodo and Sam shared an incredibly strong bond, so it is heartwarming to know that they could have reunited — but there is no guarantee. Contrary to popular belief, mortals did not become immortal in the Undying Lands. In Tolkien’s lore, there was no way for mortals to permanently avoid death; even the Rings of Power that Sauron used to transform Men into Nazgûl merely delayed the inevitable. But does this mean that Frodo passed away before Sam reached the Undying Lands? Tolkien neither confirmed nor denied this, but he left plenty of clues for fans to analyze.

Mortals’ Bodies Were Affected By the Undying Lands

The Undying Lands were known as Aman in the Elvish language of Quenya.

The most pertinent piece of information is the timeline. Sam did not leave Middle-earth until the year 61 of the Fourth Age, shortly after his wife, Rosie, passed away. Frodo was born in 2968 of the Third Age, so by the time Sam reached the Undying Lands, Frodo would have been 114 years old. This certainly would have been elderly for a hobbit, but not exceptionally so. Gerontius Took, better known as the Old Took, lived to be 130 years old, and Bilbo Baggins surpassed his record by at least one year. Yet there is reason to believe that Frodo did not survive for as long in the Undying Lands as he would have if he had remained in Middle-earth.

In Tolkien’s The Silmarillion, which outlined the ancient history of Middle-earth, the mortal Númenóreans grew jealous of the Elves in the Undying Lands and wanted to invade their land. In the section “Akallabêth,” a messenger from the godlike Valar tried to explain to the Númenóreans that this was unwise. He implied that the holy light and beauty of the Undying Lands were too much for mortal bodies to withstand:

Were you so to voyage that escaping all deceits and snares you came indeed to Aman, the Blessed Realm, little would it profit you. For it is not the land of Manwë that makes its people deathless, but the Deathless that dwell therein have hallowed the land; and there you would but wither and grow weary the sooner, as moths in a light too strong and steadfast.

Frodo Was an Honored Guest in the Undying Lands

Yet this might not have applied to Frodo, as his circumstances were very different from those of the Númenóreans. First, though he was mortal, he was a hobbit, which granted him an extended lifespan and a surprising level of resilience. Second, he was not an invader; he was invited to the Undying Lands. And third, Frodo maintained his distance from Valinor, the home of the Valar. He specifically went to Tol Eressëa, an island on the outskirts of the Undying Lands, where the effect of Valinor’s holy light may have been weaker. Furthermore, the passage from The Silmarillion was vague, and it did not clarify how severely mortal lifespans would be shortened. It is doubtful that Gandalf would have encouraged Frodo to do something that would cause him to “wither and grow weary.”

Frodo and Sam seeing each other once again, even if only briefly, would line up with the recurring themes of Tolkien’s work. He often mentioned Elves reuniting with their loved ones in the Undying Lands as a reward for their suffering in life. Hobbits’ souls worked differently from those of Elves, but narratively speaking, Frodo and Sam deserved a similar reward. Though many tragedies occurred in The Lord of the Rings, it was ultimately an optimistic story. Even if Frodo had passed away by the time Sam reached the Undying Lands, they still might have had an opportunity to reunite. When Elves died, their spirits went to the Halls of Mandos in Valinor, but Tolkien left the fate of mortal souls a mystery, stating only that they left the world. Given Tolkien’s strong Catholic beliefs, he likely imagined a heavenly afterlife for the non-Elven inhabitants of Middle-earth.