Samwise Gamgee

A hobbit, Samwise is the chief supporting character of The Lord of the Rings, serving as the loyal companion (in effect, the manservant) of the protagonist Frodo Baggins.

Following the War of the Ring, Sam returned to the Shire and his role as a gardener, helping to replant the trees which had been destroyed while he was away.

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.

[T 4] Sam protects and cares for Frodo, who is growing weaker under the Ring's influence, as they move through the dangerous lands toward Mordor.

[T 5][T 6] His suspicions are confirmed in the mountain pass of Cirith Ungol, where Gollum betrays them to the giant spider Shelob.

[T 7] A band of orcs approaches; Sam chooses to leave the apparently dead Frodo and take the Ring himself, and briefly becomes the Ring-bearer.

[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.

In the Party Field a beautiful young sapling leaped up: it had silver bark and long leaves and burst into golden flowers in April.

[T 16] Tolkien intentionally avoided making Christianity explicit in his Middle-earth writings,[2] choosing instead to allow "the story and the symbolism" to convey his meaning.

[4] 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.

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".

[6] Tom Shippey notes Sam's courage, which among other things takes the form of "be[ing] 'cheerful' without any hope at all".

He notes the etymology of "cheer", from Old French chair, meaning "face", commenting that "a stout pretence" is better than "sincere despair".

Further, in the grimness of the Stairs of Cirith Ungol, he and Frodo imagine people "laughing at grief", something that Shippey calls Tolkien's "new model of courage".

[8] 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.

"[9] 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.

[T 19] His biographer John Garth stated:[11] The relationship between Frodo and Sam closely reflects the hierarchy of an officer and his servant [in the First World War].

[13][T 22] He claimed to have been 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.

[16] In the 1980 animated version of The Return of the King, made for television, the character was voiced by Roddy McDowall.