Talk:Sam Gamgee
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The comment at the end suggesting that Sam and Frodo MIGHT have a homoerotic relationship, even though it says it is ambiguous, should be removed. It isn't ambiguous. Sam is the brother he never had, etc. It's like old epic tales were "bands of brothers" share bonds of purely platonic love during time of war and trials.
- It is probably fair to say that Tolkien would never have even dreamed of such a thing. However, it is something that people frequently bring up. -Aranel ("Sarah") 04:38, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC)
- No it's the way it's phrased; a new edit that wasn't here a few months ago.
Morwen, Pigsonthewing -
I found the following reference at http://www.planet-tolkien.com/board/cat/3/thread/1909/0 :
- "Tolkien did not know that there really was a Sam Gamgee until he received a letter from the gentleman on March 13, 1956 and he was very surprised indeed. Gamgee was a word used for cotton-wool, after it's inventor Sampson Gamgee."
Also:
- Back in March of 1956, the Professor got a letter ...from a gentleman whose name was... Sam Gamgee ! It seems Mr. Gamgee had heard that his name was, ahem, mentioned in The Lord of the Rings, though he had not read the book. On March 18th, the Professor replied with a letter which ran, in part :
- "Dear Mr. Gamgee,
- It was very kind of you to write. You can imagine my astonishment when I saw your signature! I can only say, for your comfort, I hope, that the 'Sam Gamgee' of my story is a most heroic character, now widely beloved by many readers, even though his origins are rustic. So that perhaps you will not be displeased at the coincidence of the name of this imaginary character of supposedly many centuries ago being the same as yours."
- The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, ed. Humphrey Carpenter
- He proceeded to send Mr. Gamgee signed copies of all three volumes of the book. However, this entire incident did start a bit of a worry, as recorded in his biography.
- "For some time I lived in fear of receiving a letter signed 'S. Gollum'. That would have been more difficult to deal with. "
- Tolkien: A Biography by Humphrey Carpenter
( http://quenta-narwen.blogspot.com/2003_03_16_quenta-narwen_archive.htm )
So in short, it seems that Sam Gamgee was indeed named after the tissue, not the man. -- ChrisO 19:24, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)
- There's a better quote in letter 257
- "The choice of Gamgee was primarily directed by alliteration; but I did not invent it. It was caught out of childhood memory, as a comic word or name. It was in fact the name when I was small (in Birmingham) for 'cotton-wool'. (Hence the association of the Gamgees with the Cottons.) I knew nothing of its origin.
- Morwen - Talk 19:35, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)
- Nice one - I've added that to the article. However, it doesn't really explain why of all names he chose Sam, so I suspect there was something subconscious going on there! -- ChrisO 20:18, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)
I removed this from after the first paragraph:
"An unusually funny scene from the LOTR films, where Sam enunciates out the meaning of 'taters' to Gollum, became an internet meme for a short while."
It's very obscure (evidence?) and it doesn't belong at the top of this article. I'd like to see evidence that it's significant enough for inclusion anywhere before putting it elsewhere. --[[User:Aranel|Aranel ("Sarah")]] 19:46, 17 Sep 2004 (UTC)