![]() I am going to say something now which has the potential to bring down on my head the ire of Sam-lovers everywhere: Sam is not, in fact, perfect. If it’s a bit of a downer to read, how much more, I should like to ask, would it have been to experience? You can’t blame Frodo for being tired or Sam for being crabby. There is betrayal, despair, and a giant evil disgusting spider. There’s something bleak even about the hobbits’ meeting with Faramir, perhaps because it is then that Frodo loses Gollum’s trust in what is, to my mind, “the most heartbreaking moment in the Tale” – Tolkien’s nominee for that distinction (the scene with Gollum and the sleeping Frodo) being a runner-up. Darkness unvanquished by day overtakes Middle-earth. They journey dispiritedly through the Dead Marshes, which are even worse than they sound. They take up with a wretched, slimy, gabbling creature called Gollum. Sam and Frodo stumble around the bleak mountainsides of the Emyn Muil, trying to find a way down. ![]() The second half of The Two Towers is not exactly uplifting reading. Let us begin, not at the beginning (I’d love to begin at the beginning and all, but we only have so much time), but with The Two Towers. Now, I’ve never disagreed with the popular opinion that Frodo and Sam are FRIENDSHIP GOALS – it is one of those rare occasions when I can say unreservedly that the Hype is Real – but on this latest reread of The Lord of the Rings, I’ve found myself agreeing with it more than ever. Legolas and Gimli – Merry and Pippin – Gandalf and Bilbo – Éomer and Aragorn – and of course, most iconic of all, Frodo and Sam. It is a fact almost undeniable, I imagine, that Tolkien had a knack for writing friendships.
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