Samwise Gamgee

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Samwise Gamgee
Company of the Ring
SpouseRose Cotton

Samwise Gamgee (

Fellowship of the Ring, the group of nine charged with destroying the One Ring to prevent the Dark Lord Sauron
from taking over the world.

Sam was Frodo's gardener. He was drawn into Frodo's adventure while eavesdropping on a private conversation Frodo was having with the wizard

War of the Ring
, Sam returned to the Shire and his role as gardener, helping to replant the trees which had been destroyed while he was away. He was elected Mayor of the Shire for seven consecutive terms.

The name Gamgee derives from a local name for cotton wool, from a surgical dressing invented by

Sam's girlfriend Rosie is from the Cotton family. Scholars have remarked the symbolism in Sam's story, which carries echoes of Christianity; for instance, his carrying of Frodo is reminiscent of Simon of Cyrene's carrying of Christ's cross. Tolkien considered Sam a hero of the story. Psychologists have seen Sam's quest as a psychological journey of love. Tolkien's biographers have noted the resemblance of Sam's relationship with Frodo to that of military servants to British Army officers in the First World War
.

Fictional biography

Scraperboard illustration by Alexander Korotich
, 1984
Further information:
Tolkien's Middle-earth poetry

As told in

elvish land of Lothlórien, Galadriel gives Sam a small box of earth from her garden.[T 3]

When the Fellowship split up at the

Mount Doom, Sam carrying Frodo on his back for some of the way. Gollum attacked Frodo and reclaimed the Ring, only to destroy both it and himself by falling into one of the Cracks of Doom.[T 11]

So Sam planted saplings in all the places where specially beautiful or beloved trees had been destroyed, and he put a grain of the precious dust in the soil at the root of each. He went up and down the Shire in this labour; but if he paid special attention to

mallorn
, and it was the wonder of the neighbourhood.

The Lord of the Rings, book 6, ch. 9 "The Grey Havens"

The hobbits returned home

the Shire replanting trees, using the elf-queen Galadriel's gift of earth from her garden, and one seed of the elvish mallorn tree, which he planted at Hobbiton. The saplings grew at an astonishing rate.[T 14]

Sam married

Undying Lands. Frodo gave Sam the estate of Bag End, and the Red Book of Westmarch for Sam to continue, hinting that Sam might also be allowed to travel into the West eventually. Sam returned to meet his family at Bag End, ending the story with the words "Well, I'm back."[T 14]

Analysis

Name

The character's name is from Sampson Gamgee, a Birmingham doctor who invented a surgical dressing; as a child, Tolkien knew the word "gamgee" as a name for cotton wool.[T 15]

Tolkien took the name "Gamgee" from a colloquial word in

Birmingham for cotton wool. This was in turn derived from Gamgee Tissue, a surgical dressing invented by a 19th-century Birmingham surgeon named Sampson Gamgee. Tolkien originally used it as a nickname for a man living in Lamorna Cove
, England before adapting it into his stories:

There was a curious local character, an old man who used to go about swapping gossip and weather-wisdom and such like. To amuse my children I named him Gaffer Gamgee... The choice of Gamgee was primarily directed by alliteration; but I did not invent it. It was caught out of childhood memory, as a comic word or name. It was in fact the name when I was small (in Birmingham) for 'cotton-wool'. (Hence the association of the Gamgees with the Cottons.) I knew nothing of its origin."[T 16]

Tolkien claimed to be genuinely surprised when, in March 1956, he received a letter from one Sam Gamgee, who had heard that his name was in The Lord of the Rings but had not read the book. Tolkien replied on March 18:

Dear Mr. Gamgee,
It was very kind of you to write. You can imagine my astonishment when I saw your signature! I can only say, for your comfort, I hope, that the 'Sam Gamgee' of my story is a most heroic character, now widely beloved by many readers, even though his origins are rustic. So that perhaps you will not be displeased at the coincidence of the name of this imaginary character of supposedly many centuries ago being the same as yours."[T 17]

He sent Gamgee a signed copy of all three volumes of the book. However, the incident sparked a nagging worry in Tolkien's mind, as he recorded in his journal "For some time I lived in fear of receiving a letter signed 'S. Gollum'. That would have been more difficult to deal with."

Norman French surname "de Gamaches".[T 19]

In the fiction, Tolkien states that the "true" or

Mayor of the Shire for the first of seven consecutive seven-year terms.[T 21] His descendants took the surname Gardner in his honour.[T 22]

Christianity

Further information: Christianity in Middle-earth
Golgotha.[1]

Tolkien intentionally avoided making Christianity explicit in his Middle-earth writings,

Golgotha.[1] Sam gains prominence as he is willing to be unimportant in doing his duty, echoing the Christian emphasis on the humble.[3] The ordeal of crossing Mordor, too, reflects the Christian theme of redemptive suffering.[4]

Heroism

Further information: Heroism in The Lord of the Rings

Tolkien called Sam the "chief hero" of the saga, adding: "I think the simple 'rustic' love of Sam and his Rosie (nowhere elaborated) is absolutely essential to the study of his (the chief hero's) character, and to the theme of the relation of ordinary life (breathing, eating, working, begetting) and quests, sacrifice, causes, and the 'longing for Elves', and sheer beauty."[T 24] Tolkien admired heroism out of loyalty and love, but despised arrogance, pride and wilfulness. The courage and loyalty displayed by Samwise Gamgee on his journey with Frodo is the kind of spirit that Tolkien praised in his essays on the Old English poem "The Battle of Maldon".[5] Likewise, Sam's rejection of the Ring is a rejection of power, but also a "desire for renown which the defeat over Sauron will bring".[6]

Psychological journey

Further information: Psychological journeys of Middle-earth

The Jungian clinical psychologist Robin Robertson describes Sam's quest as a psychological journey of love (for Frodo), where Frodo's quest is one of transcendence.[7] Robertson writes that "Sam's is the simplest yet the most touching of all paths: his simple loyalty and love for Frodo make him the single person who never wavers in his task throughout the book."[8] In his view, Sam always stays grounded in simple things like meals and the glory of a sunrise, while Sam ends as the happiest of the Fellowship, having seen the Elves, served as Frodo's companion on the quest, and back in the Shire that he loves, marries Rosie and is blessed with many children.[8]

The Jungian analyst Pia Skogemann views Sam as standing for one of the

four cognitive functions, namely feeling, with the other three assigned to the other hobbits in the Fellowship: Frodo stands for thinking, Pippin for intuition, and Merry for sensation.[9]

Relationship with Frodo

batman during the First World War.[T 25]

During the journey to destroy the Ring, Sam's

biographer John Garth stated:[10]

The relationship between Frodo and Sam closely reflects the hierarchy of an officer and his servant [in the First World War]. Officers had a university education and a middle-class background. Working-class men stayed at the rank of private or at best sergeant. A social gulf divides the literate, leisured Frodo from his former gardener, now responsible for wake-up calls, cooking and packing... Tolkien maps the gradual breakdown of restraint [through prolonged peril] until Sam can take Frodo in his arms and call him "Mr Frodo, my dear."[10]

Tolkien wrote in a private letter: "My Sam Gamgee is indeed a reflexion of the English soldier, of the privates and

batmen I knew in the 1914 war, and recognised as so far superior to myself."[T 25] and elsewhere: "Sam was cocksure, and deep down a little conceited; but his conceit had been transformed by his devotion to Frodo. He did not think of himself as heroic or even brave, or in any way admirable – except in his service and loyalty to his master."[T 26]

Although Tolkien does not explicitly say so, Sam is in effect Frodo's self-appointed

manservant, carrying out more mundane chores thus relieving his "master" of the necessity to do so, the term being used in (for example) Ishay Landa's essay "Slaves of the Ring: Tolkien's Political Unconscious".[11] Tolkien himself gets closest to this terminology, possibly inadvertently, when in the account "Of The Rings of Power" in The Simarillion he writes: "For Frodo the Halfling, it is said, at the bidding of Mithrandir took on himself the burden [of destroying the One Ring], and alone with his servant he passed through peril and darkness and came at last in Sauron's despite even to Mount Doom; and there into the Fire where it was wrought he cast the Great Ring of Power, and so at last it was unmade and its evil consumed."[T 27]

Adaptations

Sam in Ralph Bakshi's animated version of The Lord of the Rings

In the 1971

Mind's Eye radio adaptation, Sam was voiced by Lou Bliss.[12]
In Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated version of The Lord of the Rings, Sam was voiced by Michael Scholes.[13] In the 1980 animated version of The Return of the King, made for television, the character was voiced by Roddy McDowall.[14] In the 1981 BBC radio adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, Sam was played by Bill Nighy.[15] In the 1993 Finnish television miniseries Hobitit, Sam is portrayed by Pertti Sveholm.[16]

Sean Astin as Sam in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

In the Peter Jackson movies The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), Sam was played by Sean Astin.[17] The batman relationship and class differences between Sam and Frodo are somewhat subdued, though Sam still refers to Frodo as "Mr." (but not "Master").[18] Entertainment Weekly called Sam Gamgee one of the "greatest sidekicks."[19] UGO Networks named Sam as one of their top heroes in entertainment.[20]

On stage, Sam was portrayed by Peter Howe in the Toronto stage production of The Lord of the Rings, which opened in 2006.[21] In the United States, Sam was portrayed by Blake Bowden in the Cincinnati productions of The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002), and The Return of the King (2003) for Clear Stage Cincinnati.[22]

References

Primary

  1. ^ Tolkien 1954a, book 1, ch. 2, "The Shadow of the Past"
  2. ^ Tolkien 1954a, book 2, ch. 2, "The Council of Elrond"
  3. ^ Tolkien 1954a, book 2, ch. 8, "Farewell to Lórien"
  4. ^ Tolkien 1954a, book 2, ch. 10, "The Breaking of the Fellowship"
  5. ^ Tolkien 1954, book 4, ch. 1, "The Taming of Sméagol"
  6. ^ Tolkien 1954, book 4, ch. 2, "The Passage of the Marshes"
  7. ^ Tolkien 1954a, book 4, ch. 9, "Shelob's Lair"
  8. ^ Tolkien 1954a, book 4, ch. 10, "The Choices of Master Samwise"
  9. ^ Tolkien 1955, book 6, ch. 1, "The Tower of Cirith Ungol"
  10. ^ Tolkien 1955, book 6, ch. 2, "The Land of Shadow"
  11. ^ Tolkien 1955, book 6, ch. 3, "Mount Doom"
  12. ^ Tolkien 1955, book 6, ch. 7, "Homeward Bound"
  13. ^ Tolkien 1955, book 6, ch. 8, "The Scouring of the Shire"
  14. ^ a b Tolkien 1955, book 6, ch. 9, "The Grey Havens"
  15. ^ Carpenter 1981, letter 257
  16. ^ Carpenter 2023, letter 257
  17. ^ Carpenter 2023, letter 184
  18. ^ Carpenter 1977, pp. 224–225
  19. ^ Carpenter 2023, letter 324
  20. ^ Tolkien 1955, Appendix F, II "On Translation"
  21. ^ Tolkien 1955, Appendix B, "The Tale of Years", "Later Events Concerning the Members of the Fellowship of the Ring"
  22. ^ Tolkien 1955, Appendix C "Family Trees", "The Longfather-Tree of Master Samwise"
  23. ^ Tolkien 1977, p. xii
  24. ^ Carpenter 2023, letter 131 to Milton Waldman, 1951
  25. ^ a b c Carpenter 1977, p. 89
  26. ^ Carpenter 2023, letter 246 to Eileen Elgar, September 1963
  27. ^ Tolkien 1977, p. 365 (paperback edition, 1999)

Secondary

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0-415-86511-1
    .
  2. ^ Flieger 2005, pp. 36–37.
  3. ^ Wood 2003, p. 165.
  4. ^ Olar, Jared L. (July 2002). "The Gospel According to J.R.R. Tolkien". Grace and Knowledge (12).
  5. ^ Solopova 2009, pp. 40–42.
  6. ^ Solopova 2009, p. 42.
  7. S2CID 143849565
    .
  8. ^
    S2CID 144447881
    .
  9. OCLC 318641399
    .
  10. ^ a b Garth, John (13 February 2014). "Sam Gamgee and Tolkien's batmen". Retrieved 17 May 2020.
  11. ^ Landa, Ishay (2002). "Slaves of the Ring: Tolkien's Political Unconscious". Historical Materialism. 10 (4): 113–133.
  12. ^ Raggett, Ned (19 November 2018). "The Trouble With Ralph Bakshi's The Lord Of The Rings & Other Tolkien Misadventures". The Quietus. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  13. ^ "Sam". Behind the Voice Actors. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  14. ^ "Compare: Sam". Behind the Voice Actors. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  15. ^ Green, Willow (29 November 2001). "Lord of the Radio". Empire (Cinemas). Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  16. ^ Kajava, Jukka (29 March 1993). "Tolkienin taruista on tehty tv-sarja: Hobitien ilme syntyi jo Ryhmäteatterin Suomenlinnan tulkinnassa" [Tolkien's tales have been turned into a TV series: The Hobbits have been brought to live in the Ryhmäteatteri theatre]. Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). (subscription required)
  17. ISBN 90-420-1682-5
    .
  18. ^ See The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring dir. Peter Jackson, 2001
  19. ^ Schott, Ben. Schott's Miscellany Calendar 2009 (New York: Workman Publishing, 2008), March 21.
  20. ^ UGO Team (21 January 2010). "Best Heroes of All Time". UGO Networks. Archived from the original on 25 August 2012. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
  21. ^ Brantley, Ben (24 March 2006). "Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings,' Staged by Matthew Warchus in Toronto". The New York Times.
  22. ^ McDonough, Joseph (25 September 2001). "Fellowship of the Ring". The Cincinnati Enquirer. p. 24 – via newspapers.com. Faring the best are Mr. Bowden as sidekick Sam Gamgee

Sources

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