Aight look, I’m aware that Sam is the true hero of The Lord of the Rings series (if you go by the books, lore, and a lot of background stuff that the movies, even the extended director’s cuts, just weren’t able to show, which is entirely understandable). But I just realized something.
I’m rewatching Fellowship, and Sam and Frodo were just talking on the balcony overlooking Rivendale. Sam mentioned they ought to be off soon, seeing how Frodo is on the mend, and Frodo says, “You are right. We did what we set out to do. The Ring will be safe in Rivendale.”
He extends the Ring in his palm out to Sam, who doesn’t move, isn’t phased, and only gives it a cursory glance before looking back to Frodo. Later, in Two Towers, he offers to carry the Ring, but not in the obsessive, dangerous way Boromir does. Down to the very, very end of Return of the King he does not once seem to be affected by the presence of the Ring in the way all of the others do. He never loses faith in Frodo, in their journey, or anything like that. The Ring never seems to corrupt him the way it does Boromir, and doesn’t cause strain the way both Gandalf and Aragorn admit it does them.
So, is there a specific reason behind this? Or is it details I’m missing because I haven’t read the books? Is Sam truly the only person in the entire series not affected by the Ring, or is it just not shown properly? Because if he isn’t? He’s even more the true hero than I ever thought. He is the true protagonist of the story, which I’ve always loved. But now I’m super, super curious.
Sam is affected by the Ring in both the books and to a lesser extent in the film. There’s a sequence in the book where the Ring tries to tempt him while he’s acting as Ringbearer and although he’s able to resist it he is tempted:
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.
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.
Already the Ring tempted him, gnawing at his will and reason. 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-dûr.
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. He had only to put on the Ring and claim it for his own, and all this could be.
Later in both the book and the film he’s reluctant to give the Ring back to Frodo when they’re reunited. It’s more ambiguous in the film but in the book, imo, Sam is tempted by the Ring again at this point, albeit more subtly.
And at the end of the book, Frodo tells Sam that as he was Ringbearer for a little while he may also be able to go to the Undying Lands when he’s lived out his life in Middle Earth (which according to the appendices, he does!) which suggests that Sam was also changed by his contact with the Ring.
It’s also worth noting that there’s no indication that either Merry or Pippin was ever tempted by the Ring (tho to be fair I don’t recall if either of them ever got a good look at it the way Sam did). Hobbits in general are very resistant to its influence.
The only character in the book entirely unaffected by the Ring is actually the infamous Tom Bombadil. Everyone else is susceptible, it’s just a matter of degrees.
ETA: i just noticed your tags!
#is it love?#not even being cheeky. is it because he loves frodo as deeply as he does?
You’re 100% correct on this one haha, this is the line immediately following the passage i quoted: “In that hour of trial it was the love of his master that helped most to hold him firm…”
So, yes. Tho I’d also say that Frodo’s love for Sam is a big part of what kept him from giving into the Ring as long as he did.
EDIT: I first reblogged this on the tumblr mobile SITE because I had an hour to kill in the car because I was early for an appointment and didn’t have enough phone data to download the app. Unfortunately, this meant that all of my formatting and paragraph breaks were removed. Enjoy this MUCH easier to read edit.
The other big reason is due to how the ring corrupts you in the first place. It offers you power to accomplish your greatest dreams, be they altruistic or self-serving.
- Isildur was tempted by the thought of restoring the Numenorians to their former glory.
- Gandalf never touched it, knowing it would tempt him with the power to overcome evil.
- Boromir was tempted on a similar vein, especially to protect his people.
- Denethor was tempted with the strength to protect ONLY the people of Gondor- the rest of the world be damned- in his growing paranoia.
- Smeagol was tempted with the ability to show his family and friends that they shouldn’t have ignored and pushed him aside for all his life.
- Etc. Etc. Etc.
The ring doesn’t tempt you with evil; that would be too obvious. It offers you the power to grasp your deepest desires while whispering in your ear that they will forever be out of reach without the ring’s help. Only when you reach out and take it does it start corrupting those desires, turning them towards evil and the ring’s eventual plan to return to its master.
So now we ask; what do hobbits want? What are their deepest, darkest desires as a culture? What do they value?
Of course, anyone who has seen the first ten minutes of the Fellowship of the Ring or who has read the section “Concerning Hobbits” in the prologue of the novel it is based on can tell you that hobbits desire stability. At their core, they are a people of contentment and peace, and readily assume the rest of Middle Earth is also so inclined. Thorin puts it well in The Hobbit when he says to Bilbo, “If more people valued home above gold, this world would be a merrier place.” Not only that, the thought of any change is disconcerting and uncomfortable to most hobbits, and they automatically distrust outside help. Having gone on so long without any influence from the Big People’s wars, kings, and trade, Hobbit culture is very focused on doing what needs to be done yourself, no excuses or dilly dallying. It’s why, even at the height of their shenanigans, Frodo’s friends dropped everything to help him because their friend was in danger and the world needed saving.
What could the ring offer a people that are perfectly content with what they have, are downright opposed to toppling that stability, and prefer getting stuff done on their own merits?
Very little.
- Pippin, bless him, is an adorable, content, boistrous, oblivious teenager who’s only concerns are his friends’ safety and his stomach.
- Merry is responsible and optimistic, perfectly content to take one look at the ring’s power and go, “nah we don’t need that we’ll be fine on our own,” and actually meaning it.
- Sam’s temptation, as you can see in the quotes above, is defeating the evil that threatens his friends and home and then making a place of evil thrive with plenty and contentment, just like home. He shakes that off fairly quick though, because again, hobbits are rather pragmatic about these things and Sam had a job to do.
- Poor Frodo only succumbed at the end because of the long term exposure and a moment of desperation right beforehand where he USED THE POWER OF THE RING (books only).
This is a bit people often overlook, but Frodo gives in to the ring on the way up the mountain when Smeagol attacks, not at the last second inside of it.
“With a violent heave Sam rose up. At once he drew his sword; but he could do nothing. Gollum and Frodo were locked together. Gollum was tearing at his master, trying to get at the chain and the Ring. This was probably the only thing that could have roused the dying embers of Frodo’s heart and will: an attack, an attempt to wrest his treasure from him by force. He fought back with a sudden fury that amazed Sam, and Gollum also. Even so things might have gone far otherwise, if Gollum himself had remained unchanged; but whatever dreadful paths, lonely and hungry and waterless, he had trodden, driven by a devouring desire and a terrible fear, they had left grievous marks on him. He was a lean, starved, haggard thing, all bones and tight-drawn sallow skin. A wild light flamed in his eyes, but his malice was no longer matched by his old griping strength. Frodo flung him off and rose up quivering.
‘Down, down!’ he gasped, clutching his hand to his breast, so that beneath the cover of his leather shirt he clasped the Ring. ‘Down you creeping thing, and out of my path! Your time is at an end. You cannot betray me or slay me now.’
Then suddenly, as before under the eaves of the Emyn Muil, Sam saw these two rivals with other vision. A crouching shape, scarcely more than the shadow of a living thing, a creature now wholly ruined and defeated, yet filled with a hideous lust and rage; and before it stood stern, untouchable now by pity, a figure robed in white, but at its breast it held a wheel of fire. Out of the fire there spoke a commanding voice.
‘Begone, and trouble me no more! If you touch me ever again, you shall be cast yourself into the Fire of Doom.’
The crouching shape backed away, terror in its blinking eyes, and yet at the same time insatiable desire.
Then the vision passed and Sam saw Frodo standing, hand on breast, his breath coming in great gasps, and Gollum at his feet, resting on his knees with his wide-splayed hands upon the ground.“
In a moment of pure desperation, Frodo gives in to the power the ring offers him. The books never describe what exactly tipped him over the edge, but honestly, if you’ve been going this long to save the world, and then suddenly, something attacks you at the literal DOORSTEP, the “oh no crap now this will all be for nothing OH NO” panic would probably be enough to have you desperately taking the ring up on its offer. Ring oblidges, Frodo LITERALLY CURSES SMEAGOL IN A WAY THAT ACTUALLY COMES TRUE, Ring giggles happily to itself, Frodo can’t throw it into the fire now, Smeagol does the honors. So yeah, Frodo gives, but only in the face of complete desperation. Can you really blame him?
All that to say… the ring doesn’t really have much to offer Hobbits. They’re too sensible, content with their lot, self-sustaining, and afraid of change as a whole. Not to say there aren’t some bad eggs who probably would have given in faster (there are), but as a species, hobbits are pretty ring-resistant.
So yeah, Frodo gives, but only in the face of complete desperation. Can you really blame him?
To me I feel like this is really the whole point of the ring’s brand of temptation, and how hobbits can counter it, but also how they’re ultimately as susceptible to it as anyone else. Because the ability to counter the ring is not an INNATE thing, it’s something hobbits can do because their lives come with a certain amount of peace stability.
As that peace and stability goes away, the harder it becomes for them to resist the ring and the temptations it offers (to defeat evil and their enemies, to keep their loved ones safe, to look towards others for the power to accomplish their goals, etc), because they are finding themselves in the same position as people like Boromir or Gandalf.
That’s why the thought of the Shire is such a driving force for all of them, in the end. Because – so far as they knew – the Shire was still safe, and still as it had been when they left it. And since Sam and Frodo’s deepest desires were to ultimately just go home and have their lives back, and because they associated the ring so firmly with the very upheaval that had driven them into chaos to begin with, it had a hell of a job convincing them that they needed it in order to fix things.
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