[jallanite]

Sam Gamgee is indeed a lower-class, rustic, servant of Frodo. He seems spun from the same cloth as Sancho Panza (compared to Don Quixote) or perhaps better, Papageno (compared to Timano) in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Tolkien does not at first seem to be putting him out as anything but the comic hobbit on the quest.

Only gradually does Tolkien reveal that there is more to Sam then that. On the way to Crickhollow Pippin shouts out: “Sam! Get breakfast ready for half-past nine. Have you got the bath-water hot?” Pippin is similarly inconsiderate to Sam in this remarks once they get to Crickhollow [emphasis mine]: “Sam is an excellent fellow, and would jump down a dragon’s throat to save you, if he did not trip over his own feet first …” Tolkien himself seems to hold to this picture of the funny, bumbling rustic who is not very bright. When the other hobbits have strange dreams at Tom Bombadil’s house, Tolkien distinguishes Sam from the others, writing [emphasis mine], “As far as he could remember, Sam slept through the night in deep content, if logs are contented.”

So one is apparently to see Sam as the humorous servant, faithful, but with not much upstairs, mainly a source of comic relief.

But Tolkien begins to show more to Sam even in the beginning. Twice Sam surprises the other hobbits by bringing out a bit of verse, first the song “The Troll”, which is apparently his own invention, and then the lay “Gil-galad was an Elvish king” which Sam had taught himself when he had heard it from Bilbo years ago.

And later it is Pippin, not Sam, who places all the Fellowship in danger when Pippin unthinkingly tosses a stone into a well in Moria and rouses the Orcs and the Balrog.

By the end of the story Sam has arguably replaced Frodo as the hero of the tale. Sam becomes Frodo’s heir and master of Bag End and becomes Mayor of the Shire for seven consecutive terms of seven years.

In the books Sam always calls Frodo “Mister Frodo” and never just plain “Frodo” as if he were class equals. Mostly the same in the films. Some commentators on both books and films find this annoying. In both books and in films Sam is clearly Frodo’s servant, not a class equal as are Merry and Pippin.