FRODO AND SAM'S RELATIONSHIP PRE-QUEST

By Elenya with a teensy bit of beta by me

The following was written for The Sam Gamgee Appreciation Society (SGAS), also known as the Goonies after a Sean Astin film of that name. 

At the time the SGAS was to be found on a MB called Imladris, now they are to be found at Khazad-dum. A poster called Aiya, a very mature 

and intelligent 13year old, asked whether we thought the portrayal of Frodo and Sam drinking together, at the beginning of the film FotR, was 

an accurate reflection of their book relationship. This was my answer:

Here’s a lot out of not very much and my answer to Aiya’s question about Sam and Frodo pre-FotR.

Firstly, Aiya, you said, I think, something about hoping they had always been such good friends. I don’t think that is the case. I think they had a good 

relationship but were not friends. For me the growing bond between them is one of the joys of the book, although I’d never thought about the ‘before’ 

until your question.

I do have some personal insight to bring to this because I am an employer. When I was an employee I was one of the gang, going out with other 

employees and moaning about the boss.  Now I can’t have that ‘one of the gang’ relationship with my employees (and I have no wish to moan about 

the boss), I believe they like and respect me, I certainly have heard through the grapevine that they think they have a good job, are valued and well paid. 

BUT they don’t confide in me and I don’t confide in them.  I think we have to remember that Frodo was Sam’s employer, and the master/servant 

relationship was very strong. Going back to WW1 it was not unusual for upper class officers to take a servant with them from their estate, as their 

batman (NO!  NOT dudder dudder dudder dudder, dudder dudder dudder dudder... BATMAN!… Pay attention, Goonies) and Tolkien would have 

been familiar with ‘loyal servant’ stories that arose from that.

We are told that, “The job was mainly carried on by his youngest son, Sam Gamgee. Both father and son were on very friendly terms with 

Bilbo and Frodo.”  However I don’t think this meant they were friends in the true sense of the word. I think this was a relationship built on mutual 

trust and respect, hero worship/affection.

First of all there is the age difference. Age was no bar to Frodo’s friendships, but he was adopted by Bilbo when he was 21 and at that time Sam was 

only 9.  Hobbit years can be very approximately converted to our ages by dividing by two thirds. So Frodo was 14 and Sam was 6.

 …slight pause while Elenya thinks about how cute Sam would have been at 6…

We are told: “..but my lad Sam will know more about that.  He’s in and out of Bag End. Crazy about stories of the old days he is, and he listens 

to all Mr. Bilbo’s tales. Mr. Bilbo has learnt him his letters...”

I imagine Sam as being a bit like an enthusiastic puppy at this stage. He probably followed his dad up to work, learning gardening from him 

unconsciously, like a sponge absorbs water. He was probably already ‘crazy’ about Bilbo’s stories, and Bilbo is only too happy to have such an 

attentive audience. Maybe Frodo didn’t want to appear too ‘babyish’ but would also really like to hear the stories, so encourages Bilbo to tell things 

to Sam, so he can enjoy them too.

Since Sam is in and out of Bag End all the time, he’s probably tripping over door-steps and falling over (who’d be the knees of a 6 year old?) and I can 

imagine Frodo picking him up, dusting him off and setting him on his feet. (A bit like Aragorn does in the film). I can imagine Sam trotting after him asking 

questions and Frodo, good-naturedly, trying to answer them; and hero-worship being born in Sam’s loving breast.

As they grow up and Sam moves seamlessly into his father’s place he still hero-worships and loves both Mr. Bilbo and Mr. Frodo and in return Bilbo 

and Frodo have great affection for him.

Frodo was probably quite a lonely child. Gaffer describes him as ‘..left an orphan, you might say, being brought up anyhow in Brandy Hall. 

Mr. Bilbo never did a kinder thing than when he brought the lad back here to live among decent folk’ 

Although allowance has to be made for the Gaffer’s prejudice, Frodo appears to have had only Lotho near his age. His mother was one of 7 children of 

Gorbadoc Brandybuck, but his cousins Saradoc (Merry’s father), Merimac and Seredic Brandybuck and Milo Burrows are all much older. Similarly 

there are no contemporary Took relations and like Bilbo before him : ‘... he had no close friends until some of his younger cousins began to grow up.’

Frodo would have had affection for this small hero-worshipping hobbit but his friends came from elsewhere. We are given several passages about 

Frodo’s friends and none of them include Sam.  ‘...but he had a good many friends especially among the younger hobbits (mostly descendants 

of the Old Took) who had been fond of Bilbo and often in and out of Bag End. Folco Boffin and Fredegar Bolger were two of these but his 

closest friends were Peregrine Took….and Meriadoc Brandybuck... Frodo went tramping over the Shire with them. 

It is Merry who helps Frodo after Bilbo’s departure: ‘In the middle of the commotion the Sackville-Bagginses arrived. Frodo had retired for a 

while and left his friend Merry Brandybuck to keep an eye on things.’ And it is Merry who helps evict the three young hobbits who were knocking 

holes in the walls in one of the cellars of Bag End.

When Frodo leaves Bag End it is Pippin, Merry, Folco and Fredegar who help him to pack, and his farewell feast is ‘…quite small, just dinner for 

himself and his 4 helpers...They sang many songs and talked of many things they had done together.’  This is also his birthday dinner.  No Sam. 

Frodo is described by the gaffer as being  ‘...very like Mr. Bilbo, in more than looks.’  so it’s interesting to see how Bilbo behaved towards the gaffer: 

Bilbo was very polite to him, calling him Master Hamfast and consulting him constantly on the matter of ‘roots.’ 

In another world Sirius tells Harry Potter that if you want to know what someone is like you must look at how they treat their inferiors and dependents.  

Bilbo obviously gets full marks and Frodo is not only like him to start with but grows up seeing how Bilbo treats the Gamgee family. As Frodo takes over 

Bag End he would have carried on in the same way. He maintains a working relationship with Sam, a very good relationship, but still Master/Servant. He 

really likes Sam, enjoys talking to him but isn’t intimate with him.

There are very few early passages in which Frodo and Sam talk to or about each other and they don’t give me the impression of any intimacy.  Sam talks 

about Frodo in The Green Dragon… ‘There’s Mr. Baggins that I work for. He told me they were sailing and he knows a bit about elves. And old 

Mr. Bilbo  knew more, many’s the talk I had with him when I was a little lad.’ 

This doesn’t sound as though Sam is talking about a friend. His attitude at the beginning is very respectful. Frodo is a well-loved Master.

 He is very upset when he overhears Frodo telling Gandalf he must go away:  ‘And that’s why I choked: which you heard seemingly. I tried not to, 

sir, but it burst out of me, I was so upset.’  But compare how he talks to Frodo in the beginning of the book, with later in Cirith Ungol: ‘Mr. Frodo, sir,

’ cried Sam quaking, ‘Don’t let him hurt me, sir! Don’t let him turn me into something unnatural! My old dad would take on so. I mean no harm,

 on my honour, sir!’

‘Frodo, Mr. Frodo!’ he called ‘Don’t leave me here alone! It’s your Sam calling. Don’t go where I can’t follow. Wake up, Mr. Frodo! O wake 

up Frodo, me dear, me dear. Wake up!’

The first passage is someone talking to a superior who can sort everything out and protect him. The second is packed with love and devotion (and pain). 

By the end of LotR Sam still (mostly) says Mr. Frodo, but he has dropped the ‘sir’. Probably having called Frodo ‘Mr. Frodo’ since he was 6, he has 

trouble calling him anything else, except under times of great stress. 

As for Frodo’s attitude compare these two passages:  ‘... But,’ - and here he looked hard at Sam - ‘if you really care about me, you will keep that 

dead secret. See? If you don’t, if you ever breathe a word of what you you’ve heard here, then I hope Gandalf will turn you into a spotted toad 

and fill the garden full of grass snakes.’

‘I don’t know how long we shall take to  - to finish.’ said Frodo. ‘....But Samwise Gamgee, my dear hobbit - indeed Sam my dearest hobbit, 

friend of friends - I do not think we need give thought to what comes after that....’

In the first Frodo is the rather amused and puzzled Master, instilling a little fear into Sam. He doesn’t really distrust Sam, but his whole world has just been 

turned upside down. In the second he has found Sam’s true worth and considers Sam his dearest friend. Yay!

Frodo has quite a steep learning curve about Sam when he sets out, although he already recognizes Sam’s devotion.  Frodo complains about the weight 

of his pack and Sam offers to take more. Pippin’s: ‘no you don’t Sam. It’s good for him’ actually implies Pippin thinks Sam shows too much devotion. 

(Maybe he and Merry are always teasing Frodo about his number one fan). In any case Frodo says: ‘...But I was talking nonsense. I suspect you have 

taken more than your share, Sam, and I shall look into it at our next packing’

When Sam sings his song about the Troll it is Frodo who guesses that Sam made it up. ‘It’s out of his own head of course,’ said Frodo. ‘I am learning 

a lot about Sam Gamgee on this journey. First he was a conspirator, now he’s a jester. He’ll end up by becoming a wizard - or a warrior!’  But 

he still thinks Sam as a warrior is as unlikely as Sam a wizard. He’ll learn!

If he had gone to the Ivy Bush or The Green Dragon with Sam, he would almost certainly have seen the jester side of Sam before. So sorry, Goonies, I 

think PJ invented Frodo and Sam as drinking friends. But I agree Sean* does the drunken stagger very well. 

Goonies, are you there?? Goonies? You can wake up now.

*With the arrival of the FotR DVD, we of course found this was a scale double, and not Sean Astin at all.