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Scholarly Pursuits  by Antane

 The Heroism of Obedience and Love: The Journey of Samwise the Stouthearted

The Gaffer says his youngest son is “crazy about stories of the old days . . . , and he listens to all Mr. Bilbo’s tales” (FR, I, I, 24). Sam makes a point to tell Gandalf that he believes in them too. After the wizard catches the young hobbit eavesdropping on the talk with Frodo about the Ring, Sam begs not to be turned into “anything unnatural” (FR, I, ii, 62). He weeps with joy after he learns that his punishment will actually involve seeing Elves. To his fearful astonishment, he receives his wish far sooner than he expects.

            The morning after meeting Gildor and company Frodo asks Sam whether he still wishes to continue and bluntly tells him it is unlikely that either of them will return. The gardener does not hesitate to state that it is indeed his intention to go on, and if Frodo will not come back, then neither is he. “I seem to see ahead, in a kind of way. I know we are going to take a very long road, into darkness; but I know I can’t turn back. . . . I have something to do before the end, and it lies ahead, not in the Shire. I must see it through, sir, if you understand me” (FR, I, iv, 85).

            Frodo says he does not entirely, but he is content that “Gandalf chose [him] a good companion” (FR, I, iv, 85). It is no coincidence that Sam was born the same year Frodo’s parents died. The younger hobbit always looked out for his master, which is why he joined Merry’s conspiracy to make sure Frodo did not leave the Shire alone. As this evolves into the Quest to destroy the Ring, Sam faces choices throughout the journey as to whether to continue on or to fall away. The loyal servant always puts his master’s needs before his own. “It is the heroism of obedience and love not of pride or wilfulness that is the most heroic and the most moving” (Tolkien Reader 22). Tolkien wrote these words in “The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son,” but they apply equally well to Sam. The hobbit voluntarily endures torment and terror on the Quest “only for the sake of one he loves beyond everything else” (Bradley 124). “Wherever you go, I will go” (Ruth 1:17). This love approaches “religious devotion” (Bradley 121) by the time he and Frodo are near the Fire.

            Grace enables Sam throughout the tale to fulfill his vocation to take care of his Frodo. He hears the Black Rider’s horse on the way to Crickhollow. He responds to the inspiration to look back as he, Frodo, and Pippin pause to decide what to do after they encounter a stream that cuts across their path and also while they cross the Brandywine. Both times he sees the Rider who seeks them. He is also the only one able to stay awake after Old Man Willow puts everyone else to sleep.

            “I am learning a lot about Sam Gamgee on this journey,” Frodo says (FR, I, xii, 203) after Sam sings about a troll. It is through this hobbit and their friendship, which Ralph C. Wood calls “a thing of exquisite beauty, even holiness” (Gospel 135), that Frodo’s education in love, loyalty, endurance, faith, goodness, and hope primarily comes.

            Sam’s natural hobbit cheerfulness allows him to make light of times of terrible crisis. After he announces his presence at the secret Council of Elrond, all he says of the horrible danger that the Quest will involve is that it is a “nice pickle” (FR, II, ii, 264).

            Galadriel tests the hearts of all the Company in Lothlórien. Sam passes his trial, but he faces a greater one after the Lady of the Wood grants his wish to see the magic of the Elves. Rather than an enjoyable experience, it breaks his heart. He wishes to go home after what he sees in the Mirror, but his heart is firmly in his master’s keeping. He will “go home by the long road with Mr. Frodo, or not at all” (FR, II, vii, 354). Great evil would have come to so much more than the Shire if Sam had not been there all along to strengthen the Ring-bearer’s heart and soul which comes under such brutal assault.

            Sam echoes Boromir’s desire to use the Ring in battle as he tells Galadriel that “I wish you’d take [the] Ring. You’d put things to rights” (FR, II, vii, 357). The hobbit is still innocent of personal knowledge of the Ring’s evil, despite all he has heard from Gandalf and at the Council.

            While Frodo wrestles alone with how to proceed after the Company reach Parth Galen, Sam states with certainty that his master already knows what he has to do and is just trying to gather enough courage to overcome his terror and actually do it. Probably even more than Merry and Pippin, Sam would want to spare his treasure the terrible journey to Mordor, but he does not advocate this at all. He knows what must happen. Love for those dearest to Frodo makes the Ring-bearer decide to go off alone, so they will not die with him; love for Frodo is what makes Sam stick to his side, even if it comes to dying.

            As Frodo tries to make his escape, Sam refuses to be left behind. He is the only one who figures out where the Ring-bearer has gone. After Frodo says he would have been safely away if Sam had not come, shock fills the humble gardener that his beloved master would think such a thing even possible without his Sam looking after him. Frodo acknowledges the truth of this, as he states it is obvious to him now that he and his loyal servant are to remain with each other. For decades Ilúvatar has knit these two souls together, so they would be inseparable for this one task. They would much rather be back home in the sun-filled, idyllic Shire, but they walk, stagger, and crawl to the heart of evil and darkness instead. Frodo learns more and more that “a faithful friend is a sure shelter, whoever finds one has found a rare treasure” (Ecclus./Sir. 6:14).

            Besides Sam’s love for Frodo, he also demonstrates great trust in Galadriel and all things Elven. The rope he brought from Lothlórien allows the hobbits to escape the Emyn Muil. His faith here is stronger than Frodo’s, as is his belief why the rope comes undone when needed.

            One person, however, that Sam never has faith in is Gollum. The gardener goes on much of the journey without any compassion or understanding of why Frodo is so kind to the wretched creature, and he longs for the ruined hobbit’s death. Just before Sméagol speaks his promise about being very good and not letting Sauron have the Ring, Sam has a vision of Frodo as “a mighty lord who hid his brightness in grey cloud, and at his feet a little whining dog” (TT, IV, I, 604). The young hobbit also recognizes that his beloved master and the despised Gollum are “in some way akin” (TT, IV, i, 604). This is not the last time Sam has such visions, which, as Anna Slack notes, “accent his integration with the spiritual realm of Middle-earth” (“Slow-Kindled” 138).

            Before Frodo, Sam, and Sméagol enter the Dead Marshes, Frodo tells Sam there is no need to worry about food for a return journey that will not happen. The young gardener weeps over his master’s held hand. He cries also in Shelob’s lair and in the Tower of Cirith Ungol. Words of Washington Irving well reflect these times: “There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are messengers of overwhelming grief . . . and unspeakable love.” The same could be said of Sam’s other silent expressions of devotion: the kisses he gives to Frodo’s brow and hand and the times he holds his master’s hand or body while sleeping.

            Everyone else focuses on saving Middle-earth as a whole, but Sam remains intent upon the one person who is dearer to him than anyone. In this concern, he helps save the whole world. One of the ways he does so is thinking he heard Frodo call him after they leave the Marshes, but his master is asleep. Instead he listens to Sméagol and Gollum argue about how to get the Ring.

            After the hobbits enter Ithilien, Sam’s hope for their return journey blooms again after it was temporarily dimmed by Frodo’s pessimistic forecast.

            As Sam watches Frodo sleep, the younger hobbit reveals that he is one who has eyes to see the Ring-bearer’s inner light. One of the most beautiful professions of love comes from this moment: “He was reminded suddenly of Frodo . . . , asleep in the house of Elrond, . . . a light seemed to be shining faintly within; but now the light was even clearer and stronger. . . . Sam . . . murmured: ‘I love him. He’s like that, and sometimes it shines through, somehow. But I love him, whether or no’” (TT, IV, iv, 638). This vision allows the gardener to see beyond exterior appearances into Frodo’s true self, for he sees the beautiful, older face that “the Ring’s imposed youthfulness merely disguises” (Klinger 191).

            The smoke from Sam’s cookfire that brings Faramir and his men is one of the many seeming disasters throughout the tale that is actually a great good. The Rangers save the hobbits’ lives as they guide them through dangerous lands where they could well have otherwise faced capture by the evil forces massing to serve Mordor.

            Sam’s first view of a battle comes from the Ranger ambush of the Southrons. He sees up close not only the body of an enemy soldier but also a fellow human being.

            Faramir’s respectful words about Elves silence Sam’s mistrust of the man. After the gardener is upset that he let out the secret that Frodo has the Ring, the Ranger captain comforts him by saying it was meant to be, and that it would, if the man could manage it, work to Frodo’s good. Sam realizes at this time that Faramir has a light to him also. Both hobbit and man recognize the quality of the other is of the highest order.

            At Minas Morgul, Frodo’s will is overcome by the evil there. As he staggers toward the tower, Sam pulls him back. Fleming Rutledge notes that “deliverance is always a sign of God at work, whatever or whoever his agents might be” (Battle 228).

            On the Stairs of Cirith Ungol, Sam gives a powerful meditation on the inspiration found in the tales of perseverance that he and Frodo loved as lads. Astonishment fills the younger hobbit after he realizes that he and Frodo are themselves part of the same story. After Sam wonders whether their own tale will have a good or bad ending, Frodo says it is better not to know. Despair consumes him, as he thinks he already knows the finish, but Sam’s sunny heart enables them both to withstand the darkness.

            Frodo laughs twice after Sam tells him how he imagines their story will be told. Before the terror of Shelob’s lair, the gardener gives his master a moment of true joy. As Rutledge remarks, gladness in the tale is “a sign of salvation and hope” (Battle 161). Gandalf smiled after he heard that Sam was with Frodo. Sam had laughed in Ithilien “for heart’s ease” (TT, IV, iv, 636). The Ring-bearer’s laughter on the Stairs is for the same reason. Part of the reason Ilúvatar placed Sam at Frodo’s side is to ease his heart. As Frodo himself admits, he “wouldn’t have got far without Sam” (TT, IV, viii, 697). For only a short while at the end of their Quest does Sam physically carry his treasure, but for the whole way he carries him mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. He is hope-bearer for the Ring-bearer.

            After Gollum arranges the betrayal of Frodo and Sam to Shelob, he return to find them asleep and almost repents. He reaches out to caress Frodo’s knee, but then the Ring-bearer cries out from a nightmare and wakes Sam. The goodness that was growing within Sméagol becomes a blighted stillbirth after Sam strangles it, though not willfully or knowingly. Because he has never borne the wretched creature any good will, the gardener completely misunderstands the tender gesture, and he wonders why the ruined hobbit is “pawing at master” (TT, IV, viii, 699). He calls Gollum a villain, and in the blaze of Sam’s anger, the tender shoots that Frodo had carefully cultivated in the hope that they would bloom instead wither and die. This is not only a tragedy for Sméagol but also for Sam. He sees only “Slinker” and “Stinker,” not the tormented hobbit who was painfully crawling back toward the light. But, as Tolkien acknowledges, “Sam could hardly have acted differently” (Letters 330). Sam has yet to bear the Ring, so he has not seen into Sméagol’s soul as Frodo has. Neither hobbit recognize this moment of Sméagol’s death, though Sam notices the return of Gollum by the wicked green light in the creature’s eyes. The betrayal goes forward.

            In the terrible darkness of Shelob’s lair Sam remembers that Frodo carries the star-glass Galadriel gave. After the Ring-bearer temporarily defeats the monstrous spider by advancing with the phial, the gardener exclaims his desire to hear the Elves sing of such triumph. He embodies once more the remarkable ability hobbits have to recover quickly and completely from terrifying experiences and to hope once more for life beyond the present horror.

            Joy overflows in Frodo, as he runs toward the pass outside the spider’s lair. But Sam feels the oppressive weight of the peril they are still in, and it slows his progress. Shelob soon strikes the Ring-bearer down and readies to carry him off, but then she encounters a far greater foe in Sam: “No onslaught more fierce was ever seen in the savage world of beasts, where some desperate small creature armed with little teeth, alone, will spring upon a tower of horn and hide that stands above its fallen mate” (TT, IV, x, 711). The gardener responds to the inspiration to call upon Elbereth and so defeats his monstrous enemy.

            After Sam’s great victory over Shelob, he plunges into terrible grief with the belief that his beloved master is dead. Rage and despair overflow in him, while a black night in which he sits long swallows his shattered heart. After the initial shock wears off, Sam wonders what to do. He remembers the words that he spoke to Frodo the morning after meeting Gildor about having a job to do. He understands these words now to mean that he must leave his master and go on alone.

            Sam touchingly asks Frodo if he understands what he must do. That he speaks to his master as though the Ring-bearer was still alive is further evidence of Faramir’s remark that the gardener’s heart is “shrewd as well as faithful, and saw clearer than [his] eyes” (TT, IV, v, 666).

            Sam holds Frodo’s hand while he holds court with himself to determine exactly what he will go on to do. His choices were easy when his master was alive because all he had to do was follow him, and this overcame his own fears. Now that he is alone and has to make up his own mind, he is afraid that he will make a mistake. He considers pursuing Gollum out of vengeance and even thinks of suicide, but he dismisses both. He does not want to become Ring-bearer because he does not wish to promote himself to an undeserved position. He hears, however, an inner voice that says, “But you haven’t put yourself forward; you’ve been put forward. And as for not being the right and proper person, why, Mr. Frodo wasn’t, as you might say, nor Mr. Bilbo. They didn’t choose themselves” (TT, IV, x, 715).

            With this understanding, Sam continues in his role as a servant. He kisses his master’s brow in farewell and takes the Ring. Before he leaves, he gives another beautiful profession of love: “‘Good-bye, master, my dear! . . . Forgive your Sam. He’ll come back to this spot when the job’s done – if he manages it. And then he’ll not leave you again. Rest you quiet till I come; and may no foul creature come anigh you! And if the Lady could hear me and give me one wish, I would wish to come back and find you again’” (TT, IV, x, 716).

            In the context of this wish/plea/prayer to Galadriel, Sam’s enduring hope comes in the form of his “ability to reinterpret ultimate separation as a hope for reunion” (Klinger 207). Rather than an “empty fall into nothingness” (TT, IV, x, 715), as Sam thought death when tempted to suicide, “death is now envisioned as a ‘quiet rest’ that Sam can eventually share with Frodo, and a reunion that affirms an irrevocable bond” (Klinger 188). This same faith and hope enables Aragorn to see from beyond death to life again, which he tries to convey in his last words to his beloved Arwen. That Sam sees this and not even know his Creator is an astonishing gift from Ilúvatar.

            As Sam looks upon Frodo by the light of the phial, he receives the gift of another vision and sees ahead to a time in which his beloved master appears as one who has “long passed the shadows” (TT, IV, x, 716). The new Ring-bearer then leaves to fulfill the Quest.

            In this horrible lair, “where all his life had fallen in ruin” (TT, IV, x, 716), Sam “begins his rise to supremely heroic stature,” as Tolkien wrote to Milton Waldman. “He fights the Spider, rescues his master’s body, assumes the ghastly burden of the Ring, and is preparing to stagger on alone in an attempt to carry out the impossible errand” (quoted in Hammond and Scull 746).

            Sam does not get far, however, before the Orcs discover Frodo’s body. The gardener throws aside his decision to continue and starts to return to defend his master. He receives a tremendous shock after he learns that the Ring-bearer is not dead after all. Sam realizes his heart was aware of this all along. He thinks he made a terrible mistake in leaving Frodo’s body, but he had actually done exactly the right thing. It is vital to the success of the Quest and to his master’s salvation that Sam at first believed what his eyes saw and blind to what his heart knew.

            Sam has struggled with his decision to leave Frodo since he made it, but now there is no longer any doubt in his mind what he must do: rescue his master from the Orcs or die in the attempt. He begins his task, but terror fills him so much that it paralyzes him at one point. He puts the Ring on, which allows him to hear the sound of the Orcs fighting. This restores his hope that success is possible. “His love for Frodo rose above all other thoughts, and forgetting his peril he cried aloud: ‘I’m coming Mr. Frodo!’” (RK, VI, I, 879).

            The magnitude of what Sam wants to do comes back to him, as he looks up at the Tower of Cirith Ungol. He realizes that it would be nigh to impossible to pass the gate unseen. He must do something even harder and enter in by himself.

            As with all Ring-bearers’, Sam feels the terrible power of the demonic object work away at him. It presents him with a fantasy vision of what he could do as Samwise the Strong leading an army to defeat Sauron and turning the wasteland of Gorgoroth into a garden. He resists because just as Galadriel remained herself, Sam remains himself: a heart full of love at his master’s side. Coupled with common sense and humility, it allows the gardener to see through the delusions of the Ring. The gardener has grown much since the Quest began, and he is now a hobbit with “a deep capacity for discernment and reflection” (Gardner et al. 245). He knows his place in the world, and he has no desire to be anywhere or anyone else. In this way he is spiritually akin to Faramir, who does not desire power either. Sam only wants to be the happy gardener of Bag End, not of a whole realm. He desires to be in charge of his master and his master in charge of him. He wants someone over him to cherish and nurture, not people under him. The Ring has nothing with which to tempt him. Ernelle Fife asserts a truth about the hobbit’s life right now: “To have a sense of belonging or of place is to know that one is part of a larger plan, even if that plan seems dark; to be guided by a greater entity or power, even if that power seems to be wearing an Invisibility Cloak” (“Wise Warriors” 149).

            Sam turns from Samwise the Strong back to Samwise the frightened. While he gathers his courage to go into the Tower, he jokes about ringing the bell at the door after the Two Watchers give their horrible cries. During this terrifying time, the gardener’s complete devotion to Frodo and his cheerful hobbit nature give him the ability not to be overwhelmed by his fear. He shrugs his shoulders and continues to demonstrate in many convincing ways that “fear is driven out by perfect love” (1 Jn. 4:18). Only with such motivation is he able to constantly renew his fortitude to face the perils within the Tower. “Tolkien implies that love is an important aspect of heroism, as we see in the way Sam is inspired by his love for Frodo. It is not that Sam’s attention to Frodo supersedes his commitment to the Ring-quest; rather, Sam implicitly understands that love and loyalty are essential to the success of the quest itself” (Gardner et al. 228).

            Another sign of the grace that protects and guides Sam is that he heeds “some deep premonition of danger” (RK, VI, i, 879) and removes the Ring. After it nearly compels him to put it back on, an Orc distracts him by coming down the stairs and looking right at him. This could have ended in disaster, but Snaga does not see a fearful hobbit. Rather, he witnesses an incarnation of Samwise the Strong, who holds a bright sword in one hand and some unseen and powerful threat in the other. The Orc’s flight from Sam so gratifies the gardener, it emboldens him to give chase. He wonders if the terrible cry he heard just before he saw Snaga was from Frodo. This gives him the strength to continue on, even though there be only a corpse to find. He is near to collapse from exhaustion, but he is fed by love.

            Sam reaches his lowest point after he comes to an apparent dead end and fears his master forever lost. But there grace reaches out to touch him once more, and “moved by what thought in his heart he could not tell, Sam began to sing” (RK, VI, i, 887). At first, his voice is faint, but then it grows stronger, and he thinks he hears an answer. Snaga also hears it, and he inadvertently leads the hobbit to Frodo. “Sam’s song . . . first challenges the overbearing presence of darkness and death with a determined vision of spring and ultimately invokes eternal light. . . . Quite literally, this song propels Sam past a final dead end, opens the last door, and brings about a reversal from death to life” (Klinger 192).

            “Under the most adverse and improbable circumstances, surrounded by the hideous evidence of senseless slaughter, Frodo and Sam share a moment’s happiness and release from the burdens of the Quest” (Klinger 193). As Frodo rests in Sam’s arms, as would a child comforted after a nightmare, “the Ring’s influence is – almost miraculously – suspended or eclipsed” (Klinger 193). This loving reunion has overcome despair, seemingly irrevocable loss, and impossible odds. Sam feels that he could joyfully hold his master forever, but their task still awaits. He rouses his master, best friend, brother, and child with a kiss to the brow and a cheerful voice and “gently takes on himself the task of bringing Frodo to the end of his Quest” (Bradley 121).

            Only shortly afterwards the malevolence of the Ring returns with a vengeance, as Frodo lashes out at Sam and calls him a thief after seeing that his beloved guardian holds the fell thing. The Bearer begs forgiveness after the madness passes, and Sam instantly gives it. Words of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen about how Jesus could love even great sinners reflect how Sam not only sustains his love for Frodo through such trials but deepens it as well: “[Jesus] saw that a jewel had fallen into the mud and though encrusted with foulness that it was still a jewel” (Fulton J. Sheen’s Guide to Contentment 155). “Love is not blind,” Rabbi Julius Gordon said. “It sees more, not less but because it sees more, it is willing to see less.” Sam remembers, adapting the words of Washington Irving, the “innocent eyes of [his] child so can never be brought to think him all unworthy. [His] love ever lives, ever forgives and while it lives, it stands with open arms and gives and gives, the strongest thing in the universe, never failing, enduring forever, always hoping.” The devoted hobbit shows the extent that love freely wills to go. “The measure of love is to love without measure,” St. Francis de Sales said. (Also attributed to St. Augustine.) Only such a love enables Frodo and Sam to struggle to the Fire.

            After Frodo and Sam escape from the Tower, the younger hobbit shows once more the reverence in which he holds in all things Elven. He gives his master his gray cloak to replace the orc-mail shirt that was too heavy for Frodo to bear. Sam also demonstrates his faith in his invocation of Galadriel for light and water (RK, VI, ii, 897).

            In this land of Shadow Sam’s greatest spiritual growth takes place. He sees Gil-Estel, the Star of High Hope, which Elbereth had set in the sky so long before to give hope to those in Middle-earth in their struggle against Morgoth. Jane Chance observes, this

sensitivity to spiritual reality is expressed by his understanding of the beauty beneath the appearance of waste, of light beyond darkness, of hope beyond despair.

            This insight is triggered by the appearance of a star above, an instance of divine grace that illumines understanding and bolsters hope . . . (Tolkien’s Art 180)

            Sam receives the comforting knowledge that evil is “a small and passing thing” (RK, VI, ii, 901). There is something greater and above the darkness that he and Frodo travel through. He continues to pour out his love and energy to take care of his master, but he realizes now that there is care for him also. He understands that “the world is in abler hands than his” (Kocher 45), and the task of watching over Frodo does not rest completely on his own shoulders. This realization enables him sleep without worry, even though deep in enemy territory, and while Frodo does, which the gardener never did intentionally before. This sense of security and watchfulness allows him to leave his sleeping master later in search of water.

            Another particular embodiment of Sam’s hope is after the two hobbits see the torches of the Orc host that travels right toward them. A trap is the only thing Frodo sees. Sam allows that this appears true, but he also leaves the door open to the possibility that it is not the unequivocal disaster his master believes. The gardener is right, for by no other means than the forced march the hobbits endure could they have reached the Fire in time and save the army of the West at the Black Gate.

            Within the Black Land Sam struggles most to maintain his hope, which withers and seems to die at times but is always born anew. Even after he wonders whether the job he has to do involves dying beside Frodo at the completion of their task, this does not frighten him. He accepts this possibility, but he immediately expresses his undying wish to see his home, family, and the Cottons again. He knows that he may not, but rather than this fill him with despair, he feels “through all his limbs a thrill, as if he was turning into some creature of stone and steel that neither despair nor weariness nor endless barren miles could subdue” (RK, VI, iii, 913). He also notes that the Eucharistic lembas bread fortifies the will, even if it does not fill the belly.

            While Frodo and Sam struggle toward Mount Doom, the gardener takes on more and more responsibility for the completion of the Quest, as the Ring-bearer weakens under the terrible physical and spiritual torment of his burden. It is up to Sam to “set his master’s will to work for another effort” (RK, VI, iii, 915) because he knows “without his insistent courage Frodo cannot complete [the Quest]” (Bradley 122). To aid the Ring-bearer, Sam gives up most of his share of water, food, and sleep. Rather than have such sacrifices weaken him, they strengthen him, for his loving acts are as much an act of the will as his refusal to despair. Only grace could have given him this gift. In fact, the only sacrifice he truly feels he makes is giving up his beloved pots and pans. But even after the hobbits later abandon much of their gear, Sam does not part with any of the Lady’s gifts or with Sting.

            Though Fr. Patrick Hannon does not speak of Frodo and Sam, his words reveal much of their love for each other and the Ring-bearer’s love for all Middle-earth: “And I remember once again that love – fierce and mighty and unrelenting – has no rival. It gives us permission to face unimaginable suffering unafraid” (Geography 47). Frodo endures his suffering because Sam is there; Sam bears his because Frodo is there. They are afraid, but they are there for each other, and this saves them and their world.

            Sam argues with and soundly defeats the voice that attempts to seduce him into giving up all together. His success renews and refreshes him. Throughout the Quest, he wrestles any notion of despair to the ground. He uses every hopeful thought as a shield for himself and for his master, who increasingly has no defenses left against the terrible onslaught of the Ring. Margaret Sinex observes that Sam’s “final fixed resistance to despair . . . is explicitly described as a conscious act of will: ‘no more debates disturbed his mind. He knew all the arguments of despair and would not listen to them. His will was set, and only death would break it’ (RK, VI, iii, 217)” (“Tricksy Lights” 108). Sinex contrasts this with the despair of Denethor who lost his battle because he only saw one future that he desired, and that was how life had always been for him and the generations before him. “Sam does not presume to set the terms of his future in Middle-earth and he succeeds where Denethor fails in withstanding the temptation of despair through a heroic act of will” (109).

            The Road to the Fire is an increasing agony for Sam and Frodo. Thirst, hunger, and exhaustion torment them. “And yet their wills did not yield, and they struggled on” (RK VI, iii, 918). They are without water for the last two days of their journey and too parched to eat what little lembas they have left. Grace, will, and love sustain them.

            Sam weeps in his heart because he can no longer cry aloud after he sees his master begin to crawl. He had already sworn that he would carry Frodo and so he does. He expects that his master and the Ring will be a terrible weight that he wonders how he will carry, but he discovers that his burden is light. While the hobbits rest part of the way up the Mountain, grace touches them again as they both hear and heed an urgent call in their hearts to continue on and reach the Road that will bring Sauron his doom.

            After the Ring nearly compels Frodo to put it on, he whispers to Sam for help. The gardener gently takes his master’s hands in his, places the palms together as though in prayer, and kisses them. This breaks the compulsion that was irresistible a moment before. “Sam redeems Frodo in a spiritual sense” at this moment (Gardner et al. 231). The younger hobbit fears that Sauron has discovered them and all will soon be over. Rather than let this paralyze him, Sam immediately takes his master onto his back again and continues to climb ever closer to the heart of the Enemy.

            An even greater moment of providing for Frodo’s salvation is after Sam completes his journey from hating Gollum to having pity on him. As much as the gardener’s love for Frodo is, as Peter Kreeft observes, “the single force most responsible for winning the War of the Ring” (“Wartime Wisdom” 48), even more so is his mercy to Gollum. Sam’s myriad acts of love and sacrifice would have been meaningless if he did not make one more and give up his desire to kill Gollum, whose death he has actively wished for so long. Now that the young hobbit has briefly been a Ring-bearer, he has some dim idea of the torment of the wretched creature. The pity of Bilbo does indeed rule the fate of many, but the pity of Sam rules the fate of all. The humble gardener has no idea how important his restraint will prove to the success of the Quest or to his master’s soul.

            At the Mountain, Sam has another vision of Frodo and sees his shining soul shorn of the veils of flesh that surround it. After this transfiguration, the younger hobbit sees his beloved master as a spent figure gasping for breath and consumed by both Light and Dark. Both visions are true. After the amazing sights of watching Gollum fight with an invisible foe, bite off Frodo’s finger, and fall into the Fire with the Ring, Sam clutches his master’s bleeding hand to his breast and feels nothing but “joy, great joy” (RK, VI, iii, 926). The terrible ordeal is worth it just to hear Frodo say that he is glad his Sam is with him and to see that beloved face free of pain and at peace.

            Even as Mount Doom explodes around them and death seems imminent, Sam does not give up hope. He ably teaches us how to endure suffering with the hope of light beyond the present darkness. This hope he never truly loses, even at the Fire. He accepts that there is a possibility, even a near certainty, that he will not see the dawn with his physical eyes, but he has long gazed upon it with the eyes of his heart and this keeps him going. Sam leads Frodo away from the worst of the destruction. Even after their last strength is spent, Sam’s hope is not; his heart still hopes because it still beats. Correctly is “this jewel among the hobbits” (Letters 88) named by Gandalf, Harthad Uluithiad, Hope Unquenchable (Sauron Defeated 62). At “the pinnacle of the two hobbits’ friendship” (Gardner et al. 246), Sam caresses Frodo’s hand and speaks of how he wishes he could hear their tale told.

            Hope rewards Sam after he wakes in Ithilien to see his treasure sleeping peacefully beside him. Aragorn treats them to the song of Frodo of the Nine Fingers and the Ring of Doom.

            At Bree, Sam has a happy reunion with his pony, Bill. After they return home Frodo testifies to the Gaffer that Sam gave “perfect satisfaction” (RK, VI, viii, 991) as the companion Gandalf said should be taken on the Quest. It took great strength and courage for the younger hobbit to always be there for his master, but in his humility, Sam would not have recognized that he did anything brave or heroic.

            Sam uses Galadriels’s gift of soil from her orchard to restore the Shire back to life. He “longs to stay with Frodo forever” (Bradley 124), but he also wants to be with Rosie. Frodo grants both wishes when he invites his beloved guardian to live with him after wedding Rosie. The younger hobbit has truly gone “there and back again.” All his wishes and dreams have come true.

            Heartbreak shatters Frodo and Sam’s life together after the Ring-bearer reveals that he must leave to seek healing for his wounds in the Undying Lands. Before departing, he gives Sam the hope that they may see each other again. This gives them the strength to part. Frodo makes Sam his heir and predicts how full the life of his “dearest hobbit, friend of friends” (TT, IV, ii, 610) will be. Sam stands at the Grey Havens “far into the night, hearing only the sigh and murmur of the waves on the shores of Middle-earth, and the sound of them sank deep into his heart” (RK, VI, ix, 1007).

            Sam then returns home to treasure the family and peace that his and Frodo’s sacrifices made possible. A happy marriage of 62 years yields 13 children. He is Mayor for 49 of these years. His transformation from gardener to “one of the most famous people in all the lands” (RK, VI, viii, 991), as Frodo had proudly declared to the Gaffer, is something Aragorn also acknowledges later in renaming Sam Panthael (fullwise) rather than Perhael (halfwise) (Sauron Defeated 126). The humble hobbit has truly become Samwise.

            In the abandoned Epilogue to the tale, Sam tells his eldest daughter, Elanor, of his enduring hope for reunion with his dear master. This time does indeed come after his beloved Rose dies in 1482. Sam leaves Bag End for the last time on Frodo and Bilbo’s birthday, travels to Elanor to give her the Red Book, and the tradition is that he left then for the West. One hopes that he and Frodo “settled down and lived together happily ever after” (FR, II, iii, 266), and at the end of their mortal lives, Sam has his “one wish” spoken so long before in the desolation of Shelob’s lair come forever true.

 

Works Cited

Bradley, Marion Zimmer. “Men, Halflings, and Hero Worship.” In Tolkien and the Critics: Essays on J. R. R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings,” edited by Neil D. Isaacs and Rose A. Zimbardo. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1968: 109-127.

Chance, Jane. Tolkien’s Art: A Mythology for England. Rev ed. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 2001.

Fife, Ernelle. “Wise Warriors in Tolkien, Lewis and Rowling.” Mythlore 25, no. 1/2 Issue 95/96 (Fall/Winter 2006): 147-162.

Gardner, Patrick, et al. SparkNotes: “The Lord of the Rings.” New York: Spark Publishing, 2002.

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Hannon, Patrick. The Geography of God’s Mercy: Stories of Compassion and Forgiveness. Chicago: ACTA Publications, 2007.

Honegger, Thomas and Frank Weinreich, eds. Tolkien and Modernity 2. Zollikofen, Switzerland: Walking Tree Publishers, 2006.

The Jerusalem Bible Reader’s Edition, gen ed. Alexander Jones. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1966.

Klinger, Judith. “Hidden Paths of Time: March 13th and the Riddles of Shelob’s Lair.”

            In Honegger and Weinreich, Tolkien and Modernity 2: 143-209.

Kocher, Paul H. Master of Middle-earth: The Fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien. New York: Ballantine Books, 1977.

Kreeft, Peter. “Wartime Wisdom: Ten Uncommon Insights About Evil in The Lord of the 

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            Civilization, edited by John G. West, Jr. Seattle: Inkling Books, 2002: 31-52.

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            Dead Marshes.” In Tolkien Studies Volume II: An Annual Scholarly Review, edited by Douglas Anderson, Michael D.C. Drout and Verlyn Flieger. Morgantown, WV: West Virginia University Press, 2005: 93-112.

Slack, Anna. “Slow-Kindled Courage: A Study of Heroes in the Works of J. R. R. Tolkien.” In Honegger and Weinreich, Tolkien and Modernity 2: 115-141.

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, edited by Humphrey Carpenter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. 

---. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King.

            Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965-66.

---. Sauron Defeated: The History of “The Lord of the Rings,” Part 4, edited by Christopher Tolkien. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1992.

---. The Tolkien Reader. New York: Ballantine Books, 1966.

Wood, Ralph C. The Gospel According to Tolkien: Visions of the Kingdom in Middle-earth. Louisville, KY: Knox, 2003.

 

This paper is an expansion of what was originally presented at the 2009 Tolkien Society Seminar “Journeys and Destinations.” Its title at that time was “I have something to do before the end.” It has been since modified and adapted from my book, Moments of Grace and Spiritual Warfare in The Lord of the Rings (WestBow Press, 2012), which also includes a chapter on The Hobbit.  For more details and to order the book, please visit http://ow.ly/ez2dT. You can also find me on Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/authorannemarie.





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