SAMWISE GAMGEE

In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, 'Samwise Gamgee', later known as 'Samwise Gardner'^[1] or 'Samwise the Brave' and commonly known as 'Sam', is a fictional character who is Frodo Baggins's servant and companion on the journey to Mordor. He is one of the major characters in ''The Lord of the Rings''.

Contents

Appearances

Concept and creation

Name

Commentary

Portrayal in adaptations

Film

Stage

Radio

References

External links

Appearances

As "punishment" for eavesdropping on Gandalf's conversation with Frodo regarding the dangers of the One Ring, Sam was - at his own request - made Frodo's first companion on his journey to Rivendell at the beginning of ''The Fellowship of the Ring''. They were joined by Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took, Frodo's cousins. Before they left Frodo's home at Crickhollow, it was revealed that Sam, Merry, Pippin, and Fredegar Bolger had formed "the Conspiracy" to find out what the purpose of Frodo's journey was, and that Sam had been assigned to gather information by eavesdropping.
In Rivendell, Sam eavesdropped again during the Council of Elrond. When he heard that Frodo was to take the Ring to Mordor, he refused to let his master go without him. The two became members of the Fellowship of the Ring, as did Merry and Pippin.
At first, Sam served merely as a good companion, characterised by a pronounced interest in elves and a gift for reciting and composing poetry. However, as the books progressed, he was often more valuable to Frodo than experienced warriors. When Frodo decided to leave the rest of the Fellowship, Sam refused to give up his responsibilities as a companion, protector, and friend. While his general bearing and speech patterns were deceptively simple, Sam frequently displayed great perception and understanding. As Frodo determined to sneak away from everyone else, Sam quickly caught on. Finding Frodo, he insisted on being allowed to accompany him. He carried most of the luggage, cooked, kept watch at night whenever he could, and rationed the food so Frodo had enough for the journey.
When he and Frodo encountered Gollum, who had once possessed the Ring and would do anything to get it back, Sam took an instant dislike of the creature, and warned Frodo that "Stinker," as he called Gollum, was not to be trusted. Sam's suspicions were proven correct when Gollum led them to the lair of the monstrous spider Shelob. She attacked and seemingly killed Frodo. After a long struggle, Sam took the Ring, intending to complete the quest himself, yet his love for Frodo and his "one wish" to find Frodo again made it almost impossible to follow this choice. Because he held the Ring during this time, he was considered one of the Ring-bearers. When he heard from the Orc Shagrat that Frodo was merely temporarily paralysed, he turned back at once to rescue Frodo from the top of the Tower of Cirith Ungol, where the Orcs had taken him. Sam also returned the Ring to Frodo, becoming only the fourth Ring-bearer able to give up the Ring willingly. (The others were Bilbo Baggins, Frodo Baggins -- when he gave the Ring to Tom Bombadil -- and Tom Bombadil.)
Sam then accompanied Frodo into Mordor. There was little food or water in Mordor, and the two hobbits were forced close to starvation while making the journey across Gorgoroth. Safe passage across the plains was partly ensured because the forces of Mordor were lured to the Black Gate by Aragorn and Gandalf.
As they moved deeper into Mordor, the temptation of the Ring started becoming too much for Frodo. Against his own will, Frodo felt compelled to put on the Ring, and Sam had to keep him from giving in to temptation. When Frodo had no will left to go any further, Sam struggled to carry Frodo up Mount Doom. At the volcano's rim, Gollum attacked. At this moment Sam had a chance to kill Gollum, but he now understood and shared the pity that Frodo had demonstrated for Gollum, and did not kill him. Sam's pity and the intervention of fate eventually fulfilled the quest moments later, as Gollum took the Ring from Frodo (who had been overpowered at last and claimed it for himself) and fell into the lava of Mount Doom. The mountain erupted, and Sam and Frodo were able to climb far enough away for Gandalf and the Eagles of Manwë to rescue them.
The War of the Ring was not over for the Shire, however. As an attempted final act of revenge, the corrupt wizard Saruman took over the Shire and claimed it for himself. When the hobbits came home and discovered what had become of their home, they were the catalyst for the final battle of the War of the Ring, known as the Battle of Bywater. After the battle, Sam travelled the length and breadth of the Shire replanting trees that had been cut down during Saruman's brief reign of terror. He used the gift of magic earth given to him by the Lady Galadriel, which caused the saplings he planted to grow at an accelerated rate. The magic earth remaining after he had completed his plantings he took to the Three-Farthing Stone (roughly the centre of the Shire) and cast into the air, prompting the bountiful period of growth starting in the spring of the year 1420 (Shire Reckoning). The greatest wonder was a young ''mallorn'' tree sprouting in the Party Field: "the only ''mallorn'' west of the Mountains and east of the Sea".
After the War of the Ring, Sam married Rose "Rosie" Cotton and moved to Bag End with Frodo. Sam and Rosie had thirteen children: Elanor the Fair, Frodo, Rose, Merry, Pippin, Goldilocks, Hamfast, Daisy, Primrose, Bilbo, Ruby, Robin, and Tolman.
After Sam and Rose's first child was born it was revealed that Frodo would leave Middle-earth, along with Bilbo, Gandalf and most of the remaining Elves, for the Undying Lands, an Elven paradise. Before Frodo left, he gave the estate of Bag End to Sam, as well as the Red Book of Westmarch for Sam to continue, hinting that Sam, too, might be allowed to travel into the West eventually.
In F.A. 7 (S.R. 1427), Sam was elected Mayor of the Shire for the first of seven consecutive 7-year terms.
After the death of his wife in the year 62 of the Fourth Age (Shire Reckoning 1482), Sam entrusted the Red Book to Elanor and left the Shire. He was not seen again in Middle-earth, but Elanor and her descendants preserved the tradition that he went to the Grey Havens and sailed into the West. As a Ring-bearer, he was entitled to sail across the Sea and be reunited with Frodo in the Undying Lands.

Concept and creation

Name

Tolkien took the name 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 Joseph 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." (''The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien'' #257, ed. Humphrey Carpenter)

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." (''The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien'', ed. Humphrey Carpenter)

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." (''Tolkien: A Biography'', Humphrey Carpenter)

After publication of ''The Lord of the Rings'', Tolkien traced the origin of the name back to Dr. Gamgee and eventually to the earlier English surname 'de Gamaches'.
In the appendices of ''The Lord of the Rings'', it is mentioned that the Westron form of Sam's name is 'Banazîr Galbasi' (''also spelled Galpsi''). ''Banazîr'' comes from elements meaning "halfwise" or "simple". ''Galbasi'' comes from the name of the village ''Galabas''. The name ''Galabas'' uses the elements ''galab-'', meaning "game", and ''bas-'', corresponding somewhat to "-wich" or "-wick". Tolkien's English translation, ''Samwís Gamwich'', could have been corrupted as ''Samwise Gammidgy'' and eventually come to ''Samwise Gamgee'' in modern English.

Commentary

Tolkien called Samwise Gamgee the "chief hero" of the saga in one of his letters: he places special emphasis on Sam's "rustic love" for Rosie, ^[2] a union that serves to establish a family in which allusions to Elvish wonders (embodied in Sam's daughter Elanor) are combined with the best qualities of traditional Shire-life. Sam and his descendants also become the keepers of the Ring-war history and uphold the memory of events that most 'ordinary' hobbits take little interest in.
The quest to destroy the Ring only succeeds because of Sam, who repeatedly saves Frodo from disaster (such as rescuing him at Cirith Ungol and carrying him up Mount Doom). He is one of three Ring-bearers strong enough to surrender the Ring voluntarily (the others being Bilbo Baggins and Tom Bombadil).
The relationship between Frodo and Sam is, in many respects, at the centre of ''The Lord of the Rings''. A strong bond of love and trust grows between them, portrayed most poignantly during the events of Cirith Ungol, where Sam vows to return to his (apparently) dead master, to be reunited with Frodo in death.
One branch of Tolkienologists compares Sam to the British batman of the First World War. In the British Army, a batman was an orderly who acted as the personal servant of an officer. It was a role with which Tolkien (who served as an Army officer in the First World War) would have been familiar. Sam undertakes the typical roles of a batman — he runs errands, he cooks, he transports Frodo (or at least carries him) and he occasionally carries his luggage. Tolkien confirmed this interpretation when he wrote in a private letter that:

"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" (''The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien'', ed. Humphrey Carpenter).

However, it is equally obvious that Sam's abilities and qualities by far exceed the typical required virtues of a batman, just as his bond with Frodo extends beyond 'military' duties and attachments. The most apparent differences are Frodo's and Sam's shared interest in Elvish traditions (distinguishing them from the majority of hobbits) and their equally shared aesthetic sensibilities for poetry and song, which paves the way for their joint authorship of the Ring-history, the 'source text' for ''The Lord of the Rings''.

Portrayal in adaptations

Film

In Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated version of ''The Lord of the Rings'', Sam was voiced by Michael Scholes. Billy Barty was the model for Sam, as well as Frodo and Bilbo, in the live-action recordings Bakshi used for rotoscoping.
In the 1980 animated version of ''The Return of the King'', made for television, the character was voiced by Roddy McDowall.
In the Peter Jackson movies '' (2001), '' (2002) and '' (2003), Sam was played by Sean Astin.

Stage

(See the stage article: ''The Lord of the Rings'')
On stage, Sam was portrayed by Peter Howe in the 3-hour long Toronto, Canada stage production of ''The Lord of the Rings'', which opened in 2006. 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. In Chicago, Dale Inghram played Sam in the Lifeline Theatre production of ''The Two Towers'' in 1999.

Radio

In the 1981 BBC radio serial of ''The Lord of the Rings'', Sam was played by Bill Nighy. It is not clear whether Sean Astin, who played Sam in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, had heard Nighy's radio performance, but both actors bring very similar characterisations and accents to the role. It is a possibility that both may come from Tolkien's own version from his audio readings.

References

1. Appendix C to The Lord of the Rings
2. In the long summary-letter sent to Milton Waldman, an extract of which was published in ''the Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien'' as #131 and was reproduced in its entirety in ''. It read "''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.''" - J.R.R Tolkien letter dated 1951

External links

★ Samwise Gamgee at The Thain's Book

★ Samwise Gamgee at theonering.net