I apologise for serial posting but just as I finished the last post I noticed the chapter title and something in there tweaked for me:
"Homeward Bound" as in heading home, but could it not also be: bound to one's home? Not just going there, but bound to it, tied to it irrevocably? In both these chapters all the hobbits have moments in which they articulate the ways in which they are bound to/tied to the Shire...
And perhaps there's even another facet to the title, insofar as the journey to the Shire is but a stage on the longer journey that Frodo is on into the West. He is "homeward bound" via the Shire, but no longer "bound to his home" (i.e. the Shire) as are the other hobbits...
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Scribbling scrabbling.
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