Western Shore

A name used for the shores of Aman, the Blessed Realm in the West of the World where the Valar dwelt in bliss, far from the mortal lands of Middle-earth. When Tom Bombadil spoke of this shore to Frodo Baggins and his companions, he remembered back to a time when the Great Sea could be sailed from Middle-earth to the Western Shore without hindrance. These days were ancient indeed; from the earliest times, the Valar had protected their realm with Shadowy Seas, and then Enchanted Isles, before their entire land in the West was removed from the mortal world altogether. In speaking of a straight passage to the Western Shore, then, Tom must have been thinking of a time many, many thousands of years in the past.

Tom's use of this term for the shores of Aman in the West raises a certain degree of confusion. In most cases, when characters speak of the 'western shores', they're referring to the western shore of Middle-earth (that is, the eastern coast of the Great Sea). In Tom's unique case, however, he uses the singular form to describe the other, opposite, side of the Sea, its shore in the Far West where it washed the lost coasts of the Blessed Realm.