Frodo has his outbursts, but those almost build the friendship, don’t they? (We’re talking Tolkien here, not Jackson.) If you think about it, their friendship is one of the fiew things the Ring doesn’t corrupt.
From it I think it’s pretty clear that the Ring had very little effect on Sam both because he was a hobbit and because of his love for Frodo. Seriously, that sentence almost sounds like it’s from the Bible.
SAM CARRYING FRODO MAJESTIC TRIAL
“In that hour of trial it was the love of his master that helped most to hold him firm but also deep down in him lived still unconquered his plain hobbit-sense: he knew in the core of his heart that he was not large enough to bare such a burden, even if such visions were not a mere cheat to betray him.” – the Tower of Cirith Ungol To use LOTR vernacular, Sam already had a Precious he didn’t have room for anything else.
SAM CARRYING FRODO MAJESTIC FULL
Sin has an effect on all of us, but if our hearts are full enough of Jesus, there’s no room for sin. Let’s do something that will probably make Tolkien roll over in his grave: think of the Ring as sin and Frodo as Jesus, and it all falls into place from there. 'And anyway all these notions are only a trick, he said to himself.Īnd as Tony Meyer's answer pointed out, it may have been the effect of the Ring that made Sam "reluctant to give up the Ring and burden his master with it again."
SAM CARRYING FRODO MAJESTIC FREE
The one small garden of a free gardener was all his need and due, not a garden swollen to a realm his own hands to use, not the hands of others to command. In that hour of trial it was his love of his master that helped most to hold him firm but also deep down in him lived still unconquered his plain hobbit-sense: he knew in the core of his heart that he was not large enough to bear such a burden, even if such visions were not a mere cheat to betray him. He had only to put on the Ring and claim it for his own, and all this could be. And then all the clouds rolled away, and the white sun shone, and at his command the vale of Gorgoroth became a garden of flowers and trees and brought forth fruit. Wild fantasies arose in his mind and he saw Samwise the Strong, Hero of the Age, striding with a flaming sword across the darkened land, and armies flocking to his call as he marched to the overthrow of Barad-dur. Already the Ring tempted him, gnawing at his will and reason. He felt that he had from now on only two choices: to forbear the Ring, though it would torment him or to claim it, and challenge the Power that sat in its dark hold beyond the valley of shadows. As Sam stood there, even though the Ring was not on him but hanging by its chain about his neck, he felt himself enlarged, as if he were robed in a huge distorted shadow of himself, a vast and ominous threat halted upon the walls of Mordor. As it drew near the great furnaces where, in the deeps of time, it had been shaped and forged, the Ring's power grew, and it became more fell, untameable except by some mighty will. No sooner had he come in sight of Mount Doom, burning far away, than he was aware of a change in his burden. His thought turned to the Ring, but there was no comfort there, only dread and danger.
Note in particular this quote from The Return of the King, in the chapter "The Tower of Cirith Ungol": Their sojourn was a 'purgatory', but one of peace and healing and they would eventually pass away (die at their own desire and of free will) to destinations of which the Elves knew nothing.īut healing from what? For a Ring-bearer there is only one candidate - the influence of the Ring!Īs mentioned here, Sam does experience temptation, but is able to resist (just as other characters like Galadriel could at least temporarily resist its temptations, though none had to endure it as long as Frodo and Gollum and presumably would have had their will broken eventually). Letters makes it clear that this was not some kind of "reward", but instead a time of healing: Your time may come."Īnd it is said that he eventually left Middle-Earth via the Havens:Īmong them the tradition is handed down from Elanor that Samwise passed the Towers, and went to the Grey Havens, and passed over Sea, last of the Ring-bearers. "Though you too were a Ring-bearer, if only for a little while. It seems evident that Sam was affected by the Ring aside from the evidence given in Tony Meyer's answer, Sam was acknowledged as a Ring-bearer: The length of time you have the Ring for is not really relevant Isildur had barely even taken it when he was ensnared, Smeagol didn't even have it yet when it got him.
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