What is this 行ってまいります

Question

資料が届いたようですので、事務室に取りに行ってまいります。 "Because it looks like the documents have arrived, I go to the office to fetch them."

This sentence is an example from the grammar section of my textbook. I've encountered this 行ってまいります only once before (at least as far as I can remember), and I couldn't beat much sense into it. When I search for まいります/まいる on jisho, I find nothing. I can search for 行ってまいります and find this http://jisho.org/search/ittemairimasu . But since the result is a set phrase which has a meaning which doesn't even apply in this case here, it doesn't help much.

Answer 1

参る【まいる】 is a humble equivalent of 来る and 行く. If you don't know about humble expressions (or keigo in general), refer to your textbook about honorific/humble expressions. 参る is one of the most basic humble verbs. You can find an online article, for example this.

So 行ってまいります is 行ってきます said in a humble manner.

If 行ってきます still makes little sense to you, this きます is a subsidiary verb, a verb that can follow the te-form of another verb for special purposes. See: What is a subsidiary verb? and Meaning of くる in 鼻の奥まで染みこんでくる

So 行ってきます/行ってまいります implies you will go to somewhere, do something there, and return here.

ロンドンに行ってきました。
ロンドンに行ってまいりました。(humble)
I went to London (and already returned from London).

Answer 2

From what i always hear from animes, they usually say 行ってまりますor 行って来ますwhen they leave their house (whether going to school or just casually going out)

Answer 3

As @naruto says, 参る is the humble form of 行く and 来る. Aside from being a set phrase, it is needed in this sentence to account for the fact that the English phrase has an implicit corollary. If you tried to translate it word-for-word (keeping the same level of formality), you would end up with:

「資料が届いたようですので、事務室に取りに行きます参ります」

"Because the documents seem to have arrived, I will go to the office to grab them (it's anyone's guess what I will do after that)"

Using 「行って来ます」→「行って参ります」instead conveys the implicit meaning of the English that you are going there for that purpose, and are (probably) going to come back (with the documents).

You could probably also say something like:

事務室に取りに行って、部長に報告を届けて、戻ります

"...go to the office to pick them up, deliver the report to the division leader, and return"

When you separate the going from the returning (and are unable to say 行ってきます), you end up having to use the verb 戻{もど}る, which means "to return" without the restrictions of 帰{かえ}る "to return (home, or to a place where you feel you belong)."