Okay, I know this is a picture of Cerin Amroth and not the Field of Cormallen! But it is the closest of Allen Lee's pictures that I have found that evokes the feeling of this day in Middle-earth history. For Sam wakes up after eleven days of unconsciousness to find that all is well!

Tolkien made an interesting choice in writing that the hobbits are honoured in Ithilien rather than in Minas Tirith. We could probably think of strategic reasons why they should remain there rather than go back to the city. But I think Tolkien thought up the most beautiful setting he could for this honour, and that means the healing and beautiful natural world: "As they came to the opening in the wood, they were surprised to see knights in bright mail and tall guards in silver and black standing there, who greeted them with honour and bowed before them. And then one blew a long trumpet, and they went on through the aisle of trees beside the singing stream. So they came to a wide green land, and beyond it was a broad river in a silver haze, out of which rose a long wooded isle, and many ships lay by its shores."

Sound familiar? Is this not a preview of the blessedness of Valinor, Tolkien's heaven? This is the real eucatastrophe of the story, when all that is sad comes untrue. And we are invited into the joy by a deeply emotional passage: