The Two Towers

by

J.R.R. Tolkien

Samwise “Sam” Gamgee Character Analysis

Sam is Frodo’s gardener and closest friend. His role in the Fellowship, given to him by Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring, is to simply stay with Frodo—which he does, following him as he leaves alone for Mordor. Sam is eager to put himself in danger ahead of Frodo, to protect him from Gollum (whom Sam is deeply suspicious and a little jealous of) and to take care of him. As Frodo is worn down by the grueling travel and the burden of carrying the Ring, Sam makes it his mission to feed him, make sure he gets enough sleep, cheer him up, comfort him, and remind him of home. Like Merry and Pippin, Sam finds joy in silly jokes and poems, simple meals, and little daily rituals. Though Frodo is skeptical that they’ll survive their quest, Sam, steadfast and stoutly optimistic, quietly rations their lembas and makes plans for a return trip. Sam is a working-class hobbit with no formal education, and he views Frodo as his superior in both understanding and social status. Still, Sam is highly intuitive and emotionally intelligent, and he has a wealth of wisdom gathered mainly from his father and from Bilbo’s stories. He is unfalteringly devoted to Frodo, whom he loves more than anyone, and understands that his heart is wiser than his head. After Sam valiantly injures Shelob, he finds Frodo seemingly dead. He rationalizes to himself that he must take up the Ring and complete Frodo’s quest for the good of the world, but his heart protests leaving Frodo. When Frodo turns out to be alive, Sam realizes that he should have listened to his heart all along.

Samwise “Sam” Gamgee Quotes in The Two Towers

The The Two Towers quotes below are all either spoken by Samwise “Sam” Gamgee or refer to Samwise “Sam” Gamgee. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Decline and Decay  Theme Icon
).
Book 4, Chapter 1 Quotes

I do not feel any pity for Gollum. He deserves death.

Deserves death! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give that to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends.

‘Very well,’ he answered aloud, lowering his sword. ‘But still I am afraid. And yet, as you see, I will not touch the creature. For now that I see him, I do pity him.”

Related Characters: Frodo Baggins (speaker), Gandalf (speaker), Samwise “Sam” Gamgee, Gollum (Sméagol)
Related Symbols: The Ring
Page Number: 246
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 4, Chapter 2 Quotes

‘About the food,’ said Sam. ‘How long’s it going to take us to do this job?’

[…]

‘I don’t know how long we shall take to—to finish,’ said Frodo. ‘We were miserably delayed in the hills. But Samwise Gamgee, my dear hobbit—indeed, Sam my dearest hobbit, friend of friends—I do not think we need to give thought to what comes after that. To do the job as you put it—what hope is there that we ever shall? And if we do, who knows what will come of that? If the One goes into the Fire, and we are at hand? I ask you, Sam, are we ever likely to need bread again?’

Related Characters: Frodo Baggins (speaker), Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (speaker)
Related Symbols: The Ring, Lembas
Page Number: 257
Explanation and Analysis:

‘No, no! Not that way!’ wailed Sméagol.

‘Yes! We wants it! We wants it!’

Each time that the second thought spoke, Gollum’s long hand crept out slowly, pawing towards Frodo, and then was drawn back with a jerk as Sméagol spoke again. Finally both arms, with long fingers flexed and twitching, clawed towards his neck.

Related Characters: Gollum (Sméagol) (speaker), Frodo Baggins, Samwise “Sam” Gamgee, Sauron
Related Symbols: The Ring
Page Number: 268
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 4, Chapter 3 Quotes

‘It was an evil fate. But he had taken it on himself in his own sitting-room in the far-off spring of another year, so remote now that it was like a chapter in a story of the world’s youth, when the Trees of Silver and Gold were still in bloom. This was an evil choice. Which way should he choose? And if both led to terror and death, what good lay in choice?’

Related Characters: Frodo Baggins (speaker), Samwise “Sam” Gamgee, Gollum (Sméagol)
Related Symbols: The Ring
Page Number: 281
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 4, Chapter 4 Quotes

Gollum disappeared. He was away some time, and Frodo after a few mouthfuls of lembas settled deep into the brown fern and went to sleep. Sam looked at him. […] Frodo’s face was peaceful, the marks of fear and care had left it; but it looked old, old and beautiful, as if the chiseling of the shaping years was now revealed in many fine lines that had before been hidden, though the identity of the face was not changed. Not that Sam Gamgee put it that way to himself. He shook his head, as if finding words useless, and murmured: ‘I love him.’

Related Characters: Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (speaker), Frodo Baggins, Gollum (Sméagol)
Page Number: 291
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 4, Chapter 7 Quotes

‘I’m afraid our journey’s drawing to an end.’

‘Maybe,’ said Sam; ‘but where there’s life there’s hope, as my Gaffer used to say; and need of vittles, as he mostways used to add. You have a bite, Mr. Frodo, and then a bit of sleep.’

Related Characters: Frodo Baggins (speaker), Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (speaker)
Related Symbols: The Ring, Lembas
Page Number: 348-349
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 4, Chapter 8 Quotes

‘All is lost. Even if my errand is performed, no one will ever know. There will be no one I can tell. It will be in vain.’ Overcome with weakness he wept. And still the host of Morgul crossed the bridge.

Then, at a great distance, as if it came out of memories of the Shire, some sunlit early morning, when the day called and the doors were opening, he heard Sam’s voice speaking. ‘Wake up, Mr. Frodo! Wake up!’

[…]

Frodo raised his head, and then stood up. Despair had not left him, but the weakness had passed. He even smiled grimly, feeling now as clearly as a moment before he had felt the opposite, that what he had to do, he had to do, if he could, and that whether Faramir or Aragorn or Elrond or Galadriel or Gandalf or anyone else ever knew about it was beside the purpose.

Related Characters: Frodo Baggins (speaker), Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (speaker), Aragorn, Gandalf, Faramir, Galadriel, The Wraith-king, Elrond
Related Symbols: The Ring
Page Number: 357-358
Explanation and Analysis:

‘Yes, that’s so,’ said Sam. ‘And we shouldn’t be here at all, if we’d known more about it before we started. But I suppose it’s often that way. The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of sport, as you might say. But that’s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually—their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn’t.’

Related Characters: Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (speaker), Frodo Baggins
Page Number: 362
Explanation and Analysis:

‘Why, Sam,’ he said, ‘to hear you somehow makes me as merry as if the story was already written. But you’ve left out one of the chief characters: Samwise the stouthearted. “I want to hear more about Sam, dad. Why didn’t they put in more of his talk, dad? That’s what I like, it makes me laugh. And Frodo wouldn’t have got far without Sam, would he, dad?”’

‘No, Mr. Frodo,’ said Sam, ‘you shouldn’t make fun. I was serious.’

‘So was I,’ said Frodo, ‘and so I am.’

Related Characters: Frodo Baggins (speaker), Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (speaker)
Page Number: 363-364
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 4, Chapter 10 Quotes

Even as Sam himself crouched, looking at her, seeing his death in her eyes, a thought came to him, as if some remote voice had spoken, and he fumbled in his breast with his left hand, and found what he sought: cold and hard and solid it seemed to his touch in a phantom world of horror, the Phial of Galadriel.

[…]

As if his indomitable spirit had set its potency in motion, the glass blazed suddenly like a white torch in his hand.

Related Characters: Samwise “Sam” Gamgee, Shelob, Galadriel
Related Symbols: The Phial
Page Number: 382-383
Explanation and Analysis:

‘What shall I do, what shall I do?’ he said. ‘Did I come all this way with him for nothing?’ And then he remembered his own voice speaking words that at the time he did not understand himself, at the beginning of their journey: I have something to do before the end. I must see it through, sir, if you understand.

Related Characters: Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (speaker), Frodo Baggins
Page Number: 385
Explanation and Analysis:

He flung the Quest and all his decisions away, and fear and doubt with them. He knew now where his place was and had been: at his master’s side, though what he could do there was not clear. Back he ran down the steps, down the path towards Frodo.

[…]

‘I wonder if any song will ever mention it: How Samwise fell in the High Pass and made a wall of bodies round his master. No, no song. Of course not, for the Ring’ll be found, and there’ll be no more songs. I can’t help it. My place is by Mr. Frodo. They must understand that—Elrond and the Council, and the great Lords and Ladies with all their wisdom. Their plans have gone wrong. I can’t be their Ring-bearer. Not without Mr. Frodo.’

Related Characters: Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (speaker), Frodo Baggins, Elrond
Related Symbols: The Ring
Page Number: 390
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Two Towers LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Two Towers PDF

Samwise “Sam” Gamgee Quotes in The Two Towers

The The Two Towers quotes below are all either spoken by Samwise “Sam” Gamgee or refer to Samwise “Sam” Gamgee. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Decline and Decay  Theme Icon
).
Book 4, Chapter 1 Quotes

I do not feel any pity for Gollum. He deserves death.

Deserves death! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give that to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends.

‘Very well,’ he answered aloud, lowering his sword. ‘But still I am afraid. And yet, as you see, I will not touch the creature. For now that I see him, I do pity him.”

Related Characters: Frodo Baggins (speaker), Gandalf (speaker), Samwise “Sam” Gamgee, Gollum (Sméagol)
Related Symbols: The Ring
Page Number: 246
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 4, Chapter 2 Quotes

‘About the food,’ said Sam. ‘How long’s it going to take us to do this job?’

[…]

‘I don’t know how long we shall take to—to finish,’ said Frodo. ‘We were miserably delayed in the hills. But Samwise Gamgee, my dear hobbit—indeed, Sam my dearest hobbit, friend of friends—I do not think we need to give thought to what comes after that. To do the job as you put it—what hope is there that we ever shall? And if we do, who knows what will come of that? If the One goes into the Fire, and we are at hand? I ask you, Sam, are we ever likely to need bread again?’

Related Characters: Frodo Baggins (speaker), Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (speaker)
Related Symbols: The Ring, Lembas
Page Number: 257
Explanation and Analysis:

‘No, no! Not that way!’ wailed Sméagol.

‘Yes! We wants it! We wants it!’

Each time that the second thought spoke, Gollum’s long hand crept out slowly, pawing towards Frodo, and then was drawn back with a jerk as Sméagol spoke again. Finally both arms, with long fingers flexed and twitching, clawed towards his neck.

Related Characters: Gollum (Sméagol) (speaker), Frodo Baggins, Samwise “Sam” Gamgee, Sauron
Related Symbols: The Ring
Page Number: 268
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 4, Chapter 3 Quotes

‘It was an evil fate. But he had taken it on himself in his own sitting-room in the far-off spring of another year, so remote now that it was like a chapter in a story of the world’s youth, when the Trees of Silver and Gold were still in bloom. This was an evil choice. Which way should he choose? And if both led to terror and death, what good lay in choice?’

Related Characters: Frodo Baggins (speaker), Samwise “Sam” Gamgee, Gollum (Sméagol)
Related Symbols: The Ring
Page Number: 281
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 4, Chapter 4 Quotes

Gollum disappeared. He was away some time, and Frodo after a few mouthfuls of lembas settled deep into the brown fern and went to sleep. Sam looked at him. […] Frodo’s face was peaceful, the marks of fear and care had left it; but it looked old, old and beautiful, as if the chiseling of the shaping years was now revealed in many fine lines that had before been hidden, though the identity of the face was not changed. Not that Sam Gamgee put it that way to himself. He shook his head, as if finding words useless, and murmured: ‘I love him.’

Related Characters: Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (speaker), Frodo Baggins, Gollum (Sméagol)
Page Number: 291
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 4, Chapter 7 Quotes

‘I’m afraid our journey’s drawing to an end.’

‘Maybe,’ said Sam; ‘but where there’s life there’s hope, as my Gaffer used to say; and need of vittles, as he mostways used to add. You have a bite, Mr. Frodo, and then a bit of sleep.’

Related Characters: Frodo Baggins (speaker), Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (speaker)
Related Symbols: The Ring, Lembas
Page Number: 348-349
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 4, Chapter 8 Quotes

‘All is lost. Even if my errand is performed, no one will ever know. There will be no one I can tell. It will be in vain.’ Overcome with weakness he wept. And still the host of Morgul crossed the bridge.

Then, at a great distance, as if it came out of memories of the Shire, some sunlit early morning, when the day called and the doors were opening, he heard Sam’s voice speaking. ‘Wake up, Mr. Frodo! Wake up!’

[…]

Frodo raised his head, and then stood up. Despair had not left him, but the weakness had passed. He even smiled grimly, feeling now as clearly as a moment before he had felt the opposite, that what he had to do, he had to do, if he could, and that whether Faramir or Aragorn or Elrond or Galadriel or Gandalf or anyone else ever knew about it was beside the purpose.

Related Characters: Frodo Baggins (speaker), Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (speaker), Aragorn, Gandalf, Faramir, Galadriel, The Wraith-king, Elrond
Related Symbols: The Ring
Page Number: 357-358
Explanation and Analysis:

‘Yes, that’s so,’ said Sam. ‘And we shouldn’t be here at all, if we’d known more about it before we started. But I suppose it’s often that way. The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of sport, as you might say. But that’s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually—their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn’t.’

Related Characters: Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (speaker), Frodo Baggins
Page Number: 362
Explanation and Analysis:

‘Why, Sam,’ he said, ‘to hear you somehow makes me as merry as if the story was already written. But you’ve left out one of the chief characters: Samwise the stouthearted. “I want to hear more about Sam, dad. Why didn’t they put in more of his talk, dad? That’s what I like, it makes me laugh. And Frodo wouldn’t have got far without Sam, would he, dad?”’

‘No, Mr. Frodo,’ said Sam, ‘you shouldn’t make fun. I was serious.’

‘So was I,’ said Frodo, ‘and so I am.’

Related Characters: Frodo Baggins (speaker), Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (speaker)
Page Number: 363-364
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 4, Chapter 10 Quotes

Even as Sam himself crouched, looking at her, seeing his death in her eyes, a thought came to him, as if some remote voice had spoken, and he fumbled in his breast with his left hand, and found what he sought: cold and hard and solid it seemed to his touch in a phantom world of horror, the Phial of Galadriel.

[…]

As if his indomitable spirit had set its potency in motion, the glass blazed suddenly like a white torch in his hand.

Related Characters: Samwise “Sam” Gamgee, Shelob, Galadriel
Related Symbols: The Phial
Page Number: 382-383
Explanation and Analysis:

‘What shall I do, what shall I do?’ he said. ‘Did I come all this way with him for nothing?’ And then he remembered his own voice speaking words that at the time he did not understand himself, at the beginning of their journey: I have something to do before the end. I must see it through, sir, if you understand.

Related Characters: Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (speaker), Frodo Baggins
Page Number: 385
Explanation and Analysis:

He flung the Quest and all his decisions away, and fear and doubt with them. He knew now where his place was and had been: at his master’s side, though what he could do there was not clear. Back he ran down the steps, down the path towards Frodo.

[…]

‘I wonder if any song will ever mention it: How Samwise fell in the High Pass and made a wall of bodies round his master. No, no song. Of course not, for the Ring’ll be found, and there’ll be no more songs. I can’t help it. My place is by Mr. Frodo. They must understand that—Elrond and the Council, and the great Lords and Ladies with all their wisdom. Their plans have gone wrong. I can’t be their Ring-bearer. Not without Mr. Frodo.’

Related Characters: Samwise “Sam” Gamgee (speaker), Frodo Baggins, Elrond
Related Symbols: The Ring
Page Number: 390
Explanation and Analysis: