Peter Jackson’s excellent movies inject tension between the pair as Frodo is corrupted by the Ring - a choice that adds cinematic drama. “Samwise Gamgee, my dear hobbit - indeed, Sam my dearest hobbit, friend of friends,” Frodo says to Sam midway through The Two Towers. He is flustered around Frodo, blushing when spoken to, holding “and gently stroking” his hands, face, and hair in various situations, and constantly expressing his loyalty.Īs in any classic romance, through shared hardship they grow to become the most important people to each other. For his part, Sam is devoted to Frodo, discovering the depths of his devotion along the journey. But as the story progresses, Frodo sees new sides of Sam in his impromptu poetry, his fascination with elves and stories, and his bravery. Frodo is Sam’s employer, and the distance between them in class and education is clear in early scenes. When a book is presented as a primary source it’s an authorial invitation to look between the lines and search for hidden truthsįrodo and Sam begin (as many great period-piece romances do) with a class difference. There’s at least one novel about a batman and his officer having a romantic relationship ( Look Down in Mercy by William Baxter, 1951), and many accounts of queer soldiers who found they could - while facing nightmarish conditions in the trenches - live out relationships that would have been impossible at home. Tolkien based Frodo and Sam’s relationship on ones he had seen and experienced in World War I - that between a usually upper-class officer and his batman, a usually lower-class man who served as his bodyguard, personal assistant, and constant companion. The exception is Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee - the Ring-bearer with an impossible burden, his loyal gardener, and the bond between them that ends up saving their world. But they do not read as intentionally romantic (and while fan interpretation is a diverse, wonderful thing, this essay is focused on authorial intent). These relationships are high drama powerful examples of male friendship and family. Boromir and Faramir have an intense brotherhood, and have complex feelings about the loyalty owed to their king, Aragorn. Gandalf takes on a sometimes kind, sometimes frustrated grandfatherly role to the hobbits. They fondly tease their other cousin Frodo, and talk down to working-class Sam. Merry and Pippin are cousins, and banter like cousins. There are many relationships between men in the book, most of them platonic. Revisiting the book in the last year, as someone who has been out for many years and who is deeply engaged in making and consuming queer stories, I was amazed to find a same-sex love story at the heart of the narrative. The essayist Italo Calvino defined a classic as “a book that has never finished what it has to say,” and The Lord of the Rings is certainly a classic. But for a long time I avoided it, for the same reason that I learned not to talk about the movies at school: The accusations of queerness somehow tied into a story about elves, hobbits, and looming evil. It’s written on my creative DNA as the first book I really loved. I listened to The Lord of the Rings before I knew how to read. So each Wednesday throughout the year, we'll go there and back again, examining how and why the films have endured as modern classics. 2021 marks The Lord of the Rings movies' 20th anniversary, and we couldn't imagine exploring the trilogy in just one story.
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