Editing Samwise Gamgee (section)

== Analysis ==

=== Christianity ===

{{further|Christianity in Middle-earth}}

[[File:5 Simon of Cyrene carries the cross. Church of St. John Nepomucen in Brenna.JPG|thumb|upright|[[Frodo]] has been compared to [[Christ]], and Sam, who carried Frodo on the way to [[Mount Doom]], to [[Simon of Cyrene]], who carried Christ's cross to [[Golgotha]].{{sfn|Pearce|2013|pp=97–98}}]]

Tolkien intentionally avoided making Christianity explicit in his Middle-earth writings,{{sfn|Flieger|2005|pp=36–37}} choosing instead to allow "the story and the symbolism" [[Christianity in Middle-earth|to convey his meaning]].<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1977|p=xii}}</ref> Frodo finds the Ring a crushing weight, just as the cross was for Jesus. Sam, who carries Frodo up to Mount Doom, parallels [[Simon of Cyrene]], who helps Jesus by carrying his cross to [[Golgotha]].{{sfn|Pearce|2013|pp=97–98}} Sam gains prominence as he is willing to be unimportant in doing his duty, echoing the Christian emphasis on the humble.{{sfn|Wood|2003|p=165}} The ordeal of crossing Mordor, too, reflects the Christian theme of [[redemptive suffering]].<ref name="Olar 2002">{{cite journal |last=Olar |first=Jared L. |title=The Gospel According to J.R.R. Tolkien |journal=Grace and Knowledge |issue=12 |date=July 2002 |url=http://graceandknowledge.faithweb.com/tolkien.html}}</ref>

=== Heroism ===

{{further|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."<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=letter 131 to [[Milton Waldman]], 1951 }}</ref> 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]]".{{sfn|Solopova|2009|pp=40–42}} 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".{{sfn|Solopova|2009|p=42}}

[[Tom Shippey]] notes Sam's courage, which among other things takes the form of "be[ing] '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 [[World War I|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 "[[Northern courage in Middle-earth|new model of courage]]".{{sfn|Shippey|2005|pp=180–181}}

=== Psychological journey ===

{{further|Psychological journeys of Middle-earth}}

The [[Analytical psychology|Jungian]] clinical psychologist Robin Robertson describes Sam's quest as [[Psychological journeys of Middle-earth|a psychological journey]] of love (for Frodo), where Frodo's quest is one of transcendence.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Robertson |first=Robin |title=Seven Paths of the Hero in ''Lord of the Rings'': Introduction |journal=Psychological Perspectives |volume=50 |issue=1 |date=30 May 2007 |doi=10.1080/00332920701319491 |pages=79–94 |s2cid=143849565 }}</ref> 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."<ref name="Robertson 2009">{{cite journal |last=Robertson |first=Robin |title=Seven Paths of the Hero in ''Lord of the Rings'': The Path of Love |journal=Psychological Perspectives |volume=52 |issue=2 |date=27 May 2009 |doi=10.1080/00332920902880846 |pages=225–242 |s2cid=144447881 }}</ref> 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.<ref name="Robertson 2009"/>

The Jungian analyst Pia Skogemann views Sam as standing for one of the [[cognitive functions|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.{{sfn|Skogemann|2009|p=14}}

=== Relationship with Frodo ===

{{further|Sexuality in The Lord of the Rings}}

[[File:General Bernard Montgomery, Commander of the Eighth Army, Italy, 30 September 1943 TR1389.jpg|thumb|Tolkien stated that the relationship of Frodo and Sam reflected that of a British officer and his [[batman (army)|batman]] during the [[First World War]].<ref name="Carpenter 1977 p89" group=T/>]]

During the journey to destroy the Ring, Sam's [[Sexuality_in_The_Lord_of_the_Rings#Homosexuality|relationship with Frodo]] exemplifies that of a military servant or [[batman (army)|batman]] to his assigned officer in the [[British Army]], in particular in the [[First World War]] in which Tolkien had served as an officer, with different batmen at different times.<ref name="Carpenter 1977 p89" group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|p=89}}</ref> His [[biographer]] [[John Garth (author)|John Garth]] stated:<ref name="Garth 2014"/>

{{quote|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."<ref name="Garth 2014">{{cite web |last=Garth |first=John |author-link=John Garth (author) |url=https://johngarth.wordpress.com/2014/02/13/sam-gamgee-and-tolkiens-batmen/ |title=Sam Gamgee and Tolkien's batmen |date=13 February 2014 |access-date=17 May 2020}}</ref>}}

Tolkien wrote in a private letter: "My Sam Gamgee is indeed a reflexion of the English soldier, of the privates and [[batman (army)|batmen]] I knew in [[World War I|the 1914 war]], and recognised as so far superior to myself."<ref name="Carpenter 1977 p89" group=T/> 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."<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=letter 246 to Eileen Elgar, September 1963 }}</ref>

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".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Landa |first=Ishay |title=Slaves of the Ring: Tolkien's Political Unconscious |journal=Historical Materialism |volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=113–133 |year=2002 |doi=10.1163/15692060260474396 }}</ref> 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."<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1977|p=365 (paperback edition, 1999)}}</ref>

=== Name ===

{{see also|Pseudotranslation in The Lord of the Rings}}

[[File:Blue plaque Sampson Gamgee.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|Sam's surname 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.{{sfn|Lobdell|1975|p=166 "Gamgee"}}<ref group=T name="Letter 257"/>]]

Tolkien states in his "[[Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings|Guide to the Names in ''The Lord of the Rings'']]" for [[Translating The Lord of the Rings|translators of the book]] that he took the name "Gamgee" from a colloquial word in [[Birmingham, England|Birmingham]] for [[cotton wool]]. This came from [[Gamgee Tissue]], a surgical dressing invented by the 19th-century Birmingham surgeon [[Sampson Gamgee]].{{sfn|Lobdell|1975|p=166 "Gamgee"}}<ref name="Letter 257" group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=letter 257 to Christopher Bretherton, 16 July 1964}}</ref> 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<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=letter 184 to Sam Gamgee, 18 March 1956}}</ref> 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."<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|1977|pp=224–225}}</ref>{{efn|Tolkien later traced the origin of the English surname Gamgee to the [[Norman French]] surname "de Gamaches".<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=letter 324 to Graham Tayar, 4-5 June 1971}}</ref>}}

[[Pseudotranslation in The Lord of the Rings|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 ''{{Visible anchor|Galabas}}''. This uses the elements ''galab-'', meaning "game", and ''bas-'', roughly matching the [[English placenames|English placename]] endings "-wich" or "-wick" (meaning in Old English a dwelling or specialised farm{{sfn|Mills|1993|p=358}}). In [[Pseudotranslation in The Lord of the Rings|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.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955|loc=Appendix F, II "On Translation"}}</ref> 

<!--The "Guide to the Names in ''The Lord of the Rings''" also mentions that the surname of Sam's girlfriend, Rosie Cotton, is from an English placename ("cot" meaning cottage, and "tūn" meaning village in [[Old English]]), so that the heard connection with [[cotton]] fabric is of "no importance" for translations.{{sfn|Lobdell|1975|p=166 "Cotton"}} -->Tolkien states in a letter <!--to [[Naomi Mitchison]]--> 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. [[Tolkien's puns|he was punning]] on the connected meanings in English of the Gamgee and Cotton family names, "cotton wool" and "cotton [fabric]".<ref name="Letter 144" group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=letter 144 to [[Naomi Mitchison]], 25 April 1954}}</ref>