sorry foxy but if you haven't seen or read the 3rd installment then stop reading here
the end of return of the king was the biggest dissapointment i've yet to see with a movie they got it all wrong 1st saurmon wasn't stab in the back by wormtongue on the top of his tower, he was allowed to go free by gandalf and left with wormtongue.(skip to the end of movie ) the hobbits DID NOT return home to find it as it was when they left, they returned home to find it in ruins(i personally think that this ending that tolkien wrote was very important as it showed you how much the hobbits had changed on their journey). They find that half the hobbits have disappeared and that the other half where living in fear as a group of humans had moved in and taken over the town. they end up raising the shire and freeing the hobbits that had disappeared and chasing of the humans. they find out that the human leader is saurmon and force him to leave at which point wormtounge stabs him in the back.Frodo then goes on to write he's book merry and pippin form a gaurd and patrol the shire ans sam uses he's gift from the elf queen(A tin of pure elvish soil) to rebuild the shire(He puts a single grain of dirt in the soil with each tree he plants)and then scatters the rest to the wind when he's done turning the shire into the most beautiful place outside of elvish lands. Then comes the part when frodo leaves they suffed up the end by not putting that in and ruined the movie for any true LOTRs fans