Tony Meade
Active Member
SESSION 224
Wondering if he had forgotten anything:
Wondering if he had forgotten anything:
- Why can’t Sam get rope now? He has plenty of time while waiting for Gandalf to come out.
- It may be that Sam is too polite and doesn’t want to impose on Elrond’s hospitality or cause a fuss. He may also be worried about Gandalf or one of the other’s reactions to his forgetting it.
- This is a very closeup view of Sam, including his own interior monologue in the first person.
- Note: This is a bit unusual for Tolkien, who doesn’t often have the narrator give intimate details of people’s body language and expressions, though this is more common with other authors.
- This demonstrates his personal anxiety, as well as willingness to take on his master’s burdens.
- Note: This may be a bit of hobbitry from Frodo, teasing Sam for the later rope scene, but also shows Frodo’s great affection for Sam, in not allowing him to be overlooked in the text the way he was by others at the time, and in other retellings of the story, such as in The Silmarillion.
- It’s revelatory of Sam’s character that his “chief treasure” is his cooking gear, which while very hobbitish, is also mainly concerned with preparing food for others, not just for himself.
- His concern over the salt is an example of Sam’s attention to detail, and the pipe-weed is likely not only for him, but also for Frodo when he inevitably runs out of it.
- It’s important that Sam is not concerned with how heavy his pack is, but that he has everything that he needs in it and is more than willing to have it be heavier rather than forget something.
- Sam’s external monologue is a reminder to himself of what he had told himself the previous night. He had remembered the rope, but wasn’t able to get it right away, and missed his chance.
- Note: While this seems to foreshadow a moment when Sam will need rope but not have it, rather it sets up the moment when he receives it as a gift, and then is able to use the rope later. In the meantime, the Company doesn’t suffer for the lack of rope, though Sam misses it again.
- It doesn’t seem to occur to Sam that anyone else in the Company, even those he thinks of as wise and important, would pack any rope themselves, and it is his responsibility to remember.
- Note: While Frodo may have written the first paragraph in order to praise Sam’s conscientiousness, Sam may have added the second paragraph in order to show humility. However, Sam may not have made his amendments this obvious, and Frodo wrote it all, as he would want to hear more of “Sam’s talk”, as Frodo puts it, for the sake of future children.
- This intimate moment with Sam and Bill is in contrast to the mythic and portentous events that begin with the setting out of the Company, such as the quest of the Ring and return of the king.
- Sam is being more than just selfless, but his thoughts are only for others and the road ahead. His only concern for himself is whether or not he is performing his duties as a servant properly.
- It is an interesting choice that though Frodo is the main character, Tolkien takes the focus away from Frodo’s experience and internal thoughts and spends more time with Sam’s.
- While most of Book One was from Frodo’s point of view, this shifts to Sam during the quest.
- As the narrator, Frodo would not want to share his feelings and thoughts throughout, and Tolkien also my want to relieve the pressure on the reader by not sharing those things, either.
- Sam sees all these things from the outside, so that we are aware of what is happening, however, and this emphasizes that ultimately the quest is a story of the triumph of humility over pride.
- This allows us to learn more about Sam than we know up to this point. Even Frodo has already admitted that he didn’t know Sam as well as he thought he did, and he needs to learn more.