Hello, I’m Tiffany, your local town hermit. Welcome to my fellowship—a haven where you’re free to talk about taboo subjects you can’t anywhere else.
Dear Inklings,
We are finishing The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien this week. If you’re new here, my essays for this book challenge will always be free to read, but the journaling exercises and discussions are for patrons only. I also share more of my personal experiences in that section. We will be going deep and I want the space to be an intimate one. I hope you will choose to participate in our Fellowship.
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Today’s guest essay is brought to you by
, a dear writer friend of mine from Instagramming days, though of course we have now shifted to email. Perhaps one day I’ll convince her to join me at Substack… Anyway,Kieran Jane fell into Middle-earth at an early age with an illustrated version of The Hobbit, and Smaug is directly responsible for her obsession with dragons and all things fantasy. She’s currently revising an adult dark (but cozy, yes, the two can coexist) contemporary fantasy and has hundreds of flash fiction pieces alphabetized in her Notes app. Her stories reflect her fascination with mythology and fairytales and the archetypes in humanity’s narratives that resonate across cultures and time.
The best place to connect with Kieran is on the ‘gram @kieranjanebooks where you’ll find bookish talk, musings on Middle-earth, and thoughts on the writing, neurodivergent, and parenting life (and often on the intersection of all three). You can also join her adventures (and enjoy a flash fiction piece or two) in ‘a new leaf’, a monthly note curated and composed to brighten your inbox. To pledge your sword (or your bow or your ax, as it were), visit kieranjane.com.
Please join me in welcoming Kieran to our fellowship!
The great doors slammed to. Boom. The bars of iron fell into place inside. Clang. The gate was shut. Sam hurled himself against the bolted brazen plates and fell senseless to the ground. He was out in the darkness. Frodo was alive but taken by the enemy.
So ends The Two Towers, and the hardest choices Master Samwise must face in his adventure. Sam’s decisions in these five chapters cement both his character and his strength, both of which draw on his strongest attribute (and why I—and I suspect so many of us—adore him so much).
His heart.
Sam’s very first choice is leaving the Shire. Perhaps Gandalf assigned him to it, but Sam doesn’t agree to things his heart isn’t in to begin with. Agreeing to accompany Frodo is easy. Sam himself tells you he grew up on Mr. Bilbo’s tales, tales of far-off lands and Elves and adventures—any adventure will sound grand to one who’s never ventured beyond their home, and even an unnamed enemy and a fiery mountain don’t sound so scary in theory. Our humble Samwise had little idea what he was getting himself into; he likely thought he’d see Elves, dispose of the Ring, and get himself back home before Afteryule, or perhaps Solmath if he was feeling pessimistic (which would be quite unlike him). He even reflects on it, in his words to Frodo while sitting outside Shelob’s lair (the words that became his famous speech in the films):
‘And we shouldn’t be here at all, if we’d known more about it before we started.’
After leaving the Shire, the choice to then sneak into the Council of Elrond, and therefore (unwittingly) offer himself as Frodo’s companion on the journey to Mordor, comes as no surprise. Though the journey to Rivendell is far from a stroll in the Shire, there’s little chance Sam will abandon Frodo after what he’s witnessed. Sam has seen his beloved friend hurt by Black Riders, has almost lost him to their poison—knowing Sam, and knowing what Frodo means to him, there’s no way he’ll leave. It bears remembering that Tolkien’s own friendships were battle-tested; standing beside someone through a stabbing and near-death changes one’s understanding of loyalty.
At the end of The Fellowship of the Ring, Sam faces another important decision: to follow Frodo or stay with the relative safety provided by the Fellowship (and four proficient fighters, at the time he leaves). But we know Sam. Tolkien has shown us his character—we already know his decision. Sam sticks with Frodo, no matter what. Again, we could say Gandalf charged him with such a task, but Sam doesn’t take orders he doesn’t care for. And I suspect Gandalf would not have charged Sam with such if he didn’t already know he’d carry through with all his heart. Say what you will about Gandalf’s magic (and that’s an argument for another time), but he’s a good judge of character.
By the time our hobbits meet Faramir and company at the Forbidden Pool, Sam has seen his share of evil. Barrow-wights, Black Riders, Morgul blades, orcs—and the seductive power of the Ring. He’s seen its influence on Boromir, on Gollum, and on his beloved Frodo. Sam understands, as well as he can at this point in the journey, that the seemingly innocuous object Frodo carries is capable of creating more trouble than thieves in Farmer Maggot’s crops. Sam distrusts the Ring and everything to do with it, but he’ll stand beside Frodo because that’s what he does. It doesn’t mean he has to like it. When Faramir shares Sam’s suspicion of Gollum, it must come as such a relief to Sam, who distrusts Sméagol from the get-go (and rightfully so). Just imagine, for a moment, hearing Faramir’s misgivings about Cirith Ungol after enduring what Sam has. He already distrusts Gollum, and now Frodo insists—even after Faramir’s warning—that it’s the only way to pursue their task.
But Sam stays with Frodo. And so he goes on. Could Faramir have delivered him to safety had he asked? Likely. But we know Sam would never have asked.
On the stairs of Cirith Ungol, Sam once again warns Frodo of his suspicions.
‘I don’t make no mistake: I don’t doubt he’d hand me over to Orcs as gladly as kiss his hand. But I was forgetting—his Precious. No, I suppose the whole time it’s been The Precious for poor Sméagol. That’s the one idea in all his little schemes, if he has any. But how bringing us up here will help him in that is more than I can guess.’
Sam, though perhaps lacking Gandalf and Frodo’s nuanced understanding of Gollum, nevertheless sees to the heart of the situation: Gollum is not to be trusted. Frodo has his reasons for keeping him around, and we do pity the poor creature, but Sam’s honest way of thinking sees only the danger toward Mr. Frodo. Would the fight in the tunnels have turned out differently if Sam trusted Gollum as Frodo does? It’s Sam’s suspicions that keep him on his toes. It’s Sam who immediately names a trap when Gollum vanishes, and Sam who recalls the star-glass.
In the deep, dark tunnels of Cirith Ungol, Gollum’s plan creeps from the shadows. Sam has seen barrow-wights, Black Riders, and orcs, but even those resemble men (or Elves) in some form, though twisted versions. Imagine his terror, this humble little hobbit who had never ventured from the Shire, at seeing Shelob. Trapped in her dark tunnels with naught but the light of the star-glass to guide them, Frodo and Sam must face down a foe with only one thought in her wicked head: her next meal. There’s no reasoning with Shelob, she’s no orc or Uruk-hai bound to orders from a higher-up. Sam fights bravely, as we’ve come to expect of this gentle gardener of the Shire, but even Sam’s best can’t defeat Shelob.
Not, at least, until she’s taken his dear Frodo while Sam is distracted. The injustice of finally fighting off the sneak only to find Frodo bound by the great beast.
Sam did not wait to wonder what was to be done, or whether he was brave, or loyal, or filled with rage. He sprang forward with a yell, and seized his master’s sword in his left hand. Then he charged. No onslaught more fierce was ever seen in the savage world of beasts, where some desperate small creature armed with little teeth, alone, will spring upon a tower of horn and hide that stands above its fallen mate.
Sam does not wait to reason. He reacts. His heart tells him to protect his friend, and he does.
And what a fight.
Deep, deep [Sting] pricked, as Sam was crushed slowly to the ground.
No such anguish had Shelob ever known, or dreamed of knowing, in all her long world of wickedness. Not the doughtiest soldier of old Gondor, nor the most savage Orc entrapped, had ever thus endured her, or set blade to her beloved flesh.
Sam, in his love for Frodo, achieves what no one else has in all Shelob’s long years. For no one has been driven by such love. The great spider has met her match, and Sam and the star-glass force her back to the shadows—only to find Frodo dead, or so Sam thinks.
And here, we see the Choices of Master Samwise. We see the weight of every decision up to this point, the weight of the Quest, we see Sam’s love for Frodo, for the Shire, his loyalty and his courage. Poor Sam, to think Frodo dead, but determined to see it through. The moments between Sam’s black despair and his decision to take the Ring are some of the most heart-wrenching and inspiring in the trilogy. Sam doubts himself, his ability to bear the burden, he’s sure he’ll go wrong, and yet, he knows he must go on.
He drew a deep breath. ‘Then take It, it is!’
Sam doesn’t bear the Ring long, and it’s the same orcs who steal Frodo as reveal quite the plot twist.
Sam reeled, clutching at the stone. He felt as if the whole dark world was turning upside down. So great was the shock that he almost swooned, but even as he fought to keep a hold on his senses, deep inside him he was aware of the comment: ‘You fool, he isn’t dead, and your heart knew it. Don’t trust your head, Samwise, it is not the best part of you. The trouble with you is that you never really had any hope. Now what is to be done?’
But I’d argue he had hope all along.
‘And that’s the end of all of us, of Lórien, and Rivendell, and the Shire and all. And there’s no time to lose, or it’ll be the end anyway.’
His heart wants to stay with Frodo, but it also knows there’s nothing for it. Sam first sets out because of his love for his friend (and to see Elves)—it’s his love for his friend that sees him take the Ring and carry on. Because to sit by Frodo’s side would be the doom of the Quest, and Sam won’t see that happen, not when Frodo has given so much to see it through.
Even breaking, Sam’s heart knows that sometimes, standing with Frodo means leaving him behind.
‘But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn’t.’
Sam’s heart won’t let him turn back. And in doing so, he saves the Quest.
There will be a break next week. Read The Return of the King, Book 5, chapters 1-4, up to “The Ride of the Rohirrim.” The next essay will be published on December 2.
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