LotR -- Book 1 - Chapter 04 – A Short Cut to Mushrooms

[davem]

Originally Posted by Bombadil

On-topic, was Sam really just following his oath? Was there more to it?

I don't think Sam was 'just following his oath' in the sense of simply doing what he did because he'd said he would & didn't want to look bad. If you take the marriage vow, as Bethberry points out, 'For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness & in health'. That's a vow, & (hopefully) the couples who swear it don't subsequently stick together because they see it as simply a 'legal' contract. They swear it in the first place as an acknowledgement of their love & commitment to each other. Sam 'binds' himself to Frodo in service, & Frodo accepts, & a 'covenant' is made - I don't use the word 'covenant' lightly in this context, because the anglo-saxons understood God's covenant with the Israelites in terms of an oath sworn by a theign to his Lord. When the Israelites broke the covenant, they were oathbreakers, one of the most terrible offences imaginable, & punishable by death.

I think there was more to it for Sam, he did feel he had some task to do, involving Frodo's task, but in a sense this is why he swears the oath, just as marriage partners swear their vow because they feel that they should be 'one flesh'. The fact that Sam swears his 'oath of fealty' is confirmation that, for him, there was 'more to it'.

It is difficcult for many of us today to understand the nature of oath taking - we tend to see it as simply a legally binding contract, as BB says. It wasn't. It ws a commitment to a Lord, or cause, until death, made because the individual felt that that cause was worth dying for.

The theme of oaths & oath breaking runs right through the Legendarium, as you point out. All the hobbits swear an oath - Sam first, to Frodo, Merry to Theoden, Pippin to Denethor, Frodo to the Council. Sam's oath taking can be missed, because it takes place in a conversation over breakfast, but its as sacred & binding as the oaths sworn by the other three. Gollum also swears his oath - & that's perhaps the most interesting example, as, first, he won't simply break it, & second, it binds him, & brings his death when he tries to stick to the letter of it but avoid the spirit of it.

When Aragorn confronts the oath breakers it interesting that he doesn't simply 'forgive' them, he calls on them to fulfil the oath they swore. I don't think that we're simply dealing with the necessity of war here, Aragorn needing allies. My interpretation is that once sworn, the oath must be fulfilled before they can be freed. It can't simply be discarded, by them or by the heir of Isildur. In this context its interesting that Elrond tries to disuade the Fellowship from swearing a binding oath:

'Faithless is he that says farewell when the raod darkens,' said Gimli.

Maybe,' said Elrond, 'but let him not vow to walk in the dark who has not seen the nightfall.'

'Yet sworn word may strengthen the quaking heart,' said Gimli.

'Or break it,' said Elrond.

As we see with Sam's terrible dilemma outside Shelob's lair, breaking an oath can break the heart. Does he take the Ring & save everyone & everything he loves - we think, yes, if Frodo's dead, of course he must. But he's sworn an oath never to leave Frodo. If he leaves him, even if he is dead, then Sam becomes an oath breaker, lowest of the low, as bad as someone who murders a family member in cold blood.

Eowyn is an oath breaker, & she nearly dies as a consequence, but she survives, probably because she was backed into a corner, & didn't swear the oath freely. Yet a sworn oath cannot be ignored, & has consequences - even Gollum knows that. I can't help wondering if part of the reason for her desire for death was bound up with this sense of having broken her oath to her Lord & people, & also whether her subsequent loss of hope & despair (till cured by Faramir) is down to her sense of betrayal. She goes to war as 'Dernhelm' & will die in battle as Dernhelm, if it comes to that - not as Eowyn.

The oath sworn by Feanor's sons is of the same kind - they may not have trully wanted to swear it, but once sworn, it binds them. Even at the end, the last two will kill & die in attempting to fulfill it, when they'd rather forget all about it. I suspect Elrond's attempt to disuade the members of the Fellowship from swearing an oath of service may be due to his personal experience - he, more than most in Middle earth, knows the power of oaths.