Heroes

~5 min read

When asked who was the hero in Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien said it was Samwise Gamgee. He must not have seen the movie posters (Tolkien died before the movies were made, after all) or this would not have been his response. The movie posters highlight the likes of Frodo, Gandalf, Aragorn and even Legolas and Gimli. Sam is usually in the background. What caused Tolkien’s confusion here?

The Hero's Journey

Joseph Campbell studied myths around the world and was able to identify a central story that kept reappearing, a story he called the Hero’s Journey. In his book the Hero with a Thousand Faces, he describes the components of the Hero’s Journey. There are many stages of the journey, including the call to adventure, the refusal of the call, meeting the mentor, crossing the threshold, eventually reaching stage 12, the freedom to live. The stages seem to fit Frodo’s adventure better than Sam’s, but Tolkien says Sam is the hero. The final ending of the Hero’s Journey is renewed life within the community. This would seem to also describe the ending of the Lord of the Rings so maybe we’re on to something.

Sam wasn’t called to go on this journey. In Hobbiton at the start of the journey and again in Rivendell when the Fellowship set out, Sam insisted on going. When the Fellowship broke up and Frodo set out on his own, Sam insisted on going even when he was told to stay back. He wasn’t called, he insisted.

Frodo’s mission was to destroy the One Ring and rid the world of its evil. He was successful with the help of many people, including Sam. At the pivotal time in the quest when Frodo couldn’t go on, Sam said that even though he can’t carry the ring, he can carry Frodo and he carried him into Mount Doom. Sam played a vital role in Frodo’s journey and the success of the mission. And then he went home.

In no sense am I disagreeing with Tolkien that Sam is the hero. In the end, Sam does something important that Frodo is not able to do. He goes home, has a family and takes part in his community. This is something Frodo cannot do because of his exposure to the ring. This was Frodo’s sacrifice.

Galadriel's Gift

From the movies one might get the impression that Sam’s gift from Galadriel the Lady of Light was an elvish rope, and that rope did turn out to be handy in the quest. But he got an even more important gift, a small wooden box with some elvish dirt and a single nut from a special tree. When he got home, he planted the nut, and it grew into a great tree at the centre of the community. After the destruction of the one ring when the land was returned to the people, Sam went around planting trees and he put a grain of Galadriel’s soil in with each tree he planted. The trees grew to be quite strong. Frodo destroyed evil and released the land from its grip. Sam return home with the most precious of gifts, life.

Sam was a hero not because he was a great warrior, although he was when it was necessary. He was a hero because he brought back that most important “elixir” to his community, life and life abundant.

Perhaps this is the heroism found in living every day.