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Samwise Gamgee (, usually called Sam) (Westron: Banazîr Galbasi) is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. A hobbit, Samwise is the chief supporting character of The Lord of the Rings, serving as the loyal companion of the protagonist Frodo Baggins. Sam is a member of the Company of the Ring, the group of nine charged with destroying the One Ring.
Sam was Frodo's gardener. He was drawn into Frodo's adventure while eavesdropping on a private conversation Frodo was having with the wizard Gandalf. Sam was Frodo's steadfast companion and servant, portrayed as both physically strong for his size and emotionally strong, often supporting Frodo through difficult parts of the journey and, at times, carrying Frodo when he was too weak to go on. Sam served as Ring-bearer for a short time when Frodo was captured by orcs; his emotional strength was again demonstrated when he willingly gave the Ring back to Frodo. 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. He was elected Mayor of the Shire for seven consecutive terms.
The name Gamgee derives from a local Birmingham name for cotton wool, from a surgical dressing invented by Sampson Gamgee; hence Rosie Cotton is from the Cotton family. Scholars have remarked on 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.
When the Fellowship splits up at the Falls of Rauros, Sam insists on accompanying Frodo. Sam protects and cares for Frodo, who is growing weaker under the Ring's influence, as they move through the dangerous lands toward Mordor. Sam distrusts Gollum, who became their guide into Mordor, leading them through the Dead Marshes. His suspicions are confirmed in the mountain pass of Cirith Ungol, where Gollum betrays them to the giant spider Shelob. Shelob stings Frodo, and Sam drives her off. A band of orcs approaches; Sam chooses to leave the apparently dead Frodo and take the Ring himself, and briefly becomes the Ring-bearer. He is momentarily tempted by the One Ring promise of power, but does not succumb to it. Sam then rescues Frodo (who had only been paralysed) from the who held him captive. Sam returns the ring to Frodo. The two journey through Mordor and into Mount Doom. Sam carries Frodo on his back for some of the way. Gollum attacks Frodo and reclaims the Ring, only to destroy both it and himself by falling into one of the Cracks of Doom.
The Appendices note that in the year 1427 of the Shire Calendar, Sam was elected Mayor of the Shire for the first of seven consecutive seven-year terms. His descendants took the surname Gardner in his honour.
Tom Shippey notes Sam's courage, which among other things takes the form of "being 'cheerful' without any hope at all". Shippey comments that this may hardly appear sensible, but it "rings true", appearing in old soldiers' recollections of the First World War. 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".
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.
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." 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."
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". 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, 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."
In the fiction, Tolkien pretends that Sam's name is translated from the Westron Banazîr Galbasi. The forename comes from elements meaning "halfwise" or "simple", exactly matching the Old English Samwís. Galbasi comes from the name of the village . This uses the elements galab-, meaning "game", and bas-, roughly matching the English placename endings "-wich" or "-wick" (meaning in Old English a dwelling or specialised farm). In his frame story role as "translator" of the Red Book of Westmarch, Tolkien devised a strict English translation, Samwís Gamwich, which develops into Samwise Gammidgy and eventually comes to Samwise Gamgee in modern English.
Tolkien states in a letter that "Since Sam was close friends of the family of Cotton (another village-name), I was led astray into the Hobbit-like joke of spelling Gamwichy as Gamgee, though I do not think that in actual Hobbit-dialect the joke really arose", i.e. he was punning on the connected meanings in English of the Gamgee and Cotton family names, "cotton wool" and "cotton fabric".
In the Peter Jackson movies (2001), (2002) and (2003), Sam was played by Sean Astin. The batman relationship and class differences between Sam and Frodo are somewhat subdued, though Sam still refers to Frodo as "Mr." (but not "Master").See The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring dir. Peter Jackson, 2001 Entertainment Weekly called Sam Gamgee one of the "greatest sidekicks."Schott, Ben. Schott's Miscellany Calendar 2009 (New York: Workman Publishing, 2008), March 21. UGO Networks named Sam as one of their top heroes in entertainment.
On stage, Sam was portrayed by Peter Howe in the Toronto 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.
Name
Tolkien states in his "Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings" for translators of the book that he took the name "Gamgee" from a colloquial word in Birmingham for cotton wool. This came from Gamgee Tissue, a surgical dressing invented by the 19th-century Birmingham surgeon Sampson Gamgee. 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. Tolkien replied politely and sent Gamgee a signed copy of all three volumes of the book. 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."
Adaptations
In the 1971 Mind's Eye radio adaptation, Sam was voiced by Lucille Bliss.
In Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated version of The Lord of the Rings, Sam was voiced by Michael Scholes.
In the 1980 animated version of The Return of the King, made for television, the character was voiced by Roddy McDowall.
In the 1981 BBC radio adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, Sam was played by Bill Nighy.
In the 1993 Finnish television miniseries Hobitit, Sam is portrayed by Pertti Sveholm.
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Categories: Middle-earth Hobbits, The Lord Of The Rings Characters, Bearers Of The One Ring, Literary Characters Introduced In 1954, Adventure Film Characters, Fictional Horticulturists And Gardeners, Fictional Mayors, Fictional Servants, Sidekicks In Literature, Film Sidekicks, Male Characters In Literature, Male Characters In Film
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