[Bêthberry]

Now, just so you guys don't paint me into a corner, I shall hold carefully the brush and pail here.

My hesitations--and they are hesitations, not major objections--has less to do with having Sam depicted as a servant than with how that role is presented to us. I'm not so much interested in the general relationship as with the specific qualities and tones of it. I think Aiwendil is correct that a form of deference is needed, given the decision to portray Sam as a servant. But what is the particular kind or style?

I am thinking particularly of [d]bdavem[/b]'s first post here, that this chapter gives us a transition "from one world to another." We move out, if I may characterise davem's post, from the 'realism' of The Shire as a place we can identify with and into the more perilous realms of myth and fantasy with the elves and the black riders.

So, how is Sam and Frodo's relationship as landed gentry and hired hand portrayed? Does it belong to the 'realism' of the Shire's depiction or does it belong to the archaic styles and references of the mythological pole of the book?

Let me say that I love Sam's faithfulness and his loyalty and his staltwart steadfastedness. I love how he becomes the Shire's Mayor umpteen times over and the respect he is given and earns. (I don't love the thirteen children, but that is for later discussion.)

I don't think the many uses of "sir" in this chapter are as harmless as those examples which many of you give here. For one reason, the word is now used in business contexts, where courtesy and politeness are used as a way of making a profit. They are not class based, but consumer-exchange based. This word 'sir' has a different meaning now. I doubt when the British policeman uses 'sir' he implies that the man he addresses is his better.

This sense of superiority--social, cultural, moral, ethical, physical,financial--is implied in the class-based context which The Shire suggests. To defer to your 'betters' is to take part in a very subtle self-characterisation which can suggest not simply humility and humbleness but also inferiority. It is this aspect I hear Sam teetering around. He overcomes it gloriously and supremely of course, but this negative aspect of the class system is a tone or perspective which I think might be absent from the relationships of retainers and lords in, say, medieval literature, where deference is not depicted by constant "Yes sir," "no,Sir' "Right, sir" The lord in medieval literature knew he was the lord. He didn't need constant reminders of his status, although he did demand fealty.

I doubt I am making much clear sense here. Perhaps I should go back to the text and explain where I am made uncomfortable--not that this is a bad thing for a reader to experience--but that I am not sure if the response is one which the text really 'wants.'

First example: Frodo and Sam are looking for a place to stop on the first night.

'The wind's in the West,' said Sam. 'If we get to the other side of this hill, we shall find a spot that is sheltered and snug enough, sir. There is a dry fir-wood just ahead, if I remember rightly.' Sam knew the land well within twenty miles of Hobbiton, but that was the limit of his geography.

Then four paragraphs later we have the exchanges with Sam, Pip and Frodo.

'Wake up, hobbits!' he cried. 'It's a beautiful morning.'

'What's beautiful about it?' said Pippin, peering over the edge of his blanket with one eye. 'Sam! Get breakfast ready for half-past nine! have you got the bath-water hot?'

Sam jumped up , looking rather bleary. "No, sir, I haven't sir,' he said.

I don't know here what the repetition of 'sir' means. Is it Sam gamely playing along and faintly parodying his status as servant? I can see this kind of gamesmanship in boys and young men. Or is Sam reacting here out of inferiority and submissiveness?

Aiwendil is quite right that this is all part of the characterisation. (In the passage above, Pip is ready to continue the game but Frodo turns it around and requires that Pip come and help get the water.) I guess my point is that I see very specific cultural interactions going on here, interactions which might well work towards developing character, but which might not fit well with a heroic or mythic understanding of the relationships between retainers and lords. Are we supposed to be ticked with Pippin here for playing games of class derision even while he works closely with Sam? Or are we supposed to accept this as, well, as legitimate? This is the fool of a Took after all. Is this the only way to incorporate Sam as a hero into the old mythological contexts?