The Complete Tolkien Companion (85 page)

Like other Hobbits of his own age, Sam spent many recreational hours in the local taverns (particularly
The Green Dragon
), being partial to a drop of well-brewed ale; and his companions at these establishments agreed that Sam was a likeable fellow, good with his hands, but a bit of a dreamer. In fact, Sam had spent much of his childhood listening (far more than was wise) to old Mr Bilbo, the then occupant of Bag End, and it had been Bilbo who taught the eager Hobbit-child his letters, simultaneously filling Sam's mind with fancies, stories and tales.

In due course Bilbo quitted the Shire for good, and his heir, Frodo Baggins, then became Samwise's employer. Sam continued to work for Frodo in much the same way that his father had worked for Bilbo – until one day in Shire-year 1418, when the trusting young gardener was recruited by two of his master's close friends (Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took) into a ‘conspiracy'. They had guessed at certain ideas even then taking shape in Frodo's mind, and Sam was instructed to learn what he could about the visits of Gandalf the Grey and other connected matters. But when caught eavesdropping one morning outside Frodo's study window, Sam's conscience reasserted itself, and no more information from his lips did the conspirators receive.

The chief result of this incident was that Gandalf chose Samwise to accompany Frodo on a journey to Rivendell that was even then being planned. One may guess that the Wizard's motive was twofold: to keep the matter of the Ring a secret, and to ensure for Frodo a stalwart and useful companion on the road which lay ahead. In this Gandalf was more successful than he had perhaps foreseen, for of all the companions and friends Frodo encountered during his adventures, none proved surer than Sam, the first chosen for him.

The full tale of Sam's adventures at Frodo's side during their long and arduous quest from the quiet Shire of their home to the very walls of Mordor – and beyond – forms the chief section of the lay made in Gondor after the War of the Ring and known as
The Tale of Frodo of the Nine Fingers and the Ring of Doom.
For where Frodo went, there Sam also journeyed; and Frodo's tale is Sam's also. Together they entered Sauron's own land: two Hobbits from the simple countryside ‘expected to find a way where the great ones could not go, or dared not go'.
1
And they survived the horrors that befell them to reach the very Cracks of Doom in the cone of the volcano Orodruin, there to make an end of the Ruling Ring and of its Black Master. Samwise was afterwards accounted, like his master, a Ring-bearer – indeed, he bore the Ring into Mordor, having been separated from Frodo by a sudden and treacherous attack. In a moment of supreme heroism, Samwise fought off the danger and later rescued his master from the nearby Orc-tower in which he had been imprisoned. During this hour of trial Sam used the Ring (to escape from Orcs), and so for a while came to understand something of Frodo's burden. The Ring-spell worked on him so that he briefly saw himself as The Great Gardener, who might overcome Sauron by the force of his will and make a fertile garden bloom where once the reeking plains of central Mordor had smouldered. But his basic commonsense overcame the treacherous vision, and he renounced the Ring. In this way he too saved the Quest from disaster – and without his stout support Frodo would never have reached the Cracks of Doom.

For their deeds the two Hobbits were later honoured before the assembled Hosts of the West at the Field of Cormallen, and the King of Gondor himself bowed his knee before them.
2
Samwise later accompanied his master and his other companions back to the Shire, where further toil awaited them all; yet in the end the War of the Ring was brought to a conclusion, and the sturdy Hobbit was enabled to return to his beloved craft. Indeed, the Shire was much ravaged by the War and needed all his skills. To the astonishment of all, Sam's labours blossomed the following year (1420 Shire Reckoning) during a summer of extraordinary beauty, when every tree seemed laden with fruit, and the Shire was seen to be healed. For this accomplishment Samwise was revered among the Hobbits; and in due course his eldest son Frodo took the surname Gardner, in token of the achievement.

Sam lived to full age in the Shire, becoming Mayor seven times and dwelling in comfort (amid general esteem) at Bag End. For Frodo passed over Sea at the end of the Third Age, and to his former servant he left his entire estate. Sam thus became Frodo's heir. He married Rose Cotton, the companion of his boyhood, and she bore him thirteen children, of whom the eldest was Elanor, called the Fair. He lived at Bag End until 1482, Shire Reckoning. On September 22nd – his 102nd birthday – he rode away from Hobbiton and passed West to the Havens, last of the Ring-bearers.

Note:
the name
Samwise
is a translation (into Early English, for contextual reasons) of the original Hobbit-name
Banazîr
(‘Half-wise, simple');
Gamgee
is likewise a rendering of
Galbasi
or
Galpsi
(‘Game-village').

Sandheaver
– A family of Little Folk (Hobbits) of Bree.

Sandyman
– A family of Shire-hobbits, who owned and operated the Mill of Hobbiton. Neither the elder Sandyman nor his shiftless son Ted were much liked in the locality, and Ted eventually proved something of a bad lot: he threw in with the rogues of Saruman's employ during the War of the Ring and allowed them to ‘remodel' his mill. The machinery ceased to grind corn and instead churned out a stream of filth into The Water. These matters were all attended to by the returning members of the Fellowship of the Ring.

Sangahyando
‘Throng-cleaver' (Q.) –
See
ANGAMAITË AND SANGAHYANDO
.

Saradoc ‘Scattergold' Brandybuck
– The Master of Buckland from 1408–32 Shire Reckoning, and the father of Meriadoc ‘the Magnificent'.

Sarn Athrad
–
See
FORD OF STONES
.

Sarn Ford
– The last ford across the river Baranduin before it reached the Sea south of Harlindon. Sarn Ford was the southernmost boundary of the Shire and the road which ran from Michel Delving to join the Greenway south of the river crossed the Baranduin at this point.

Sarn Gebir
‘Stone-spikes' (Sind.) – Fierce, dangerous shoals on the Anduin shortly before the Great River ran through the gorge of the Argonath. These rapids were impassable to all river traffic, and travellers were obliged to take to the land if they wished further to descend the Anduin; for this purpose a portage-way was constructed early in the Third Age by Men of Gondor.

Saruman the White
– Also known as
Curunír,
the ‘Man-of-Skill'; Chief of the Order of
Istari
(Wizards), leader of those five
MAIAR
sent to Middle-earth early in the Third Age (
c.
1000) in order ‘to contest the power of Sauron, and to unite all those who had the will to resist him'.
3
Saruman's knowledge was ‘deep', and his hands were ‘marvellously skilled', and he became Head of the White Council which alone moved against Sauron during the middle years of the Age. But his pride grew with his power, and little by little his true wisdom decreased as his fabled skills multiplied – and in the end he fell, bloodlessly, under Sauron's control, a victim of his own slow corruption. He died at the end of the War of the Ring, a shamed traitor, stripped of all power and lordship, and came no more to Valinor.

The manner of Saruman's passing is recounted by Frodo in some detail in his narrative; less well-documented is the story of the Wizard's arising. For many years he wandered in the East of Middle-earth, acquiring arcane knowledge and learning many new skills. He then began to strengthen his will and so trained himself for eventual dominance, thus forgetting one of the chief injunctions of his Order. Yet many years of the Third Age were to pass before other members of the White Council detected his slow deviation from their common goal, and in due course Saruman succeeded in having himself declared Head of that same Council (the
Istari
and the Chief Eldar), in the service of which he bent all his newly acquired powers of mind and hand.

It was afterwards seen that Saruman had long desired to become a Power in himself, and that it was this weakness which was the beginning of his slow downfall. (For the other members of the Council, and of his Order, remained true to their original task, and did not seek to impose their will on others where it was resisted.) At all events, Saruman made his first deliberate move in this direction in the year 2759 Third Age, when he appeared at the Coronation of King Fréaláf of Rohan, successor of the mighty Helm Hammerhand. The Wizard brought with him rich presents, and declared himself the friend of Rohan and Gondor, and a little later was able to persuade Steward Beren of Gondor to grant him the Keys of Orthanc, the mighty Tower which, together with its fortress of
ISENGARD
, commanded the strategic Gap of Rohan. All thought this a welcome move. For although Saruman's policies were already distorted and his aims self-serving, he long concealed his true mind.

For many years he dwelt in peace with his neighbours; but all the time the Wizard was secretly searching the Tower of Orthanc for a long-lost treasure of the Dúnedain, the possession of which would immeasurably strengthen the power he craved. This was the
Palantír
of Orthanc, one of the fabled Seeing-stones of Gondor, and in the end he found it – and kept it – in some secret place high in the lonely Tower. Nonetheless, his fascination with devices and objects of craft led the Wizard (like others before him) up dangerous paths. Long obsessed with the fate of the Ruling Ring of Sauron, and with the lost secrets of the Elven-smiths of Eregion, he suspected before anyone else that the Ring was indeed awake and seeking its Master (who was then dwelling in Dol Guldur). And when, in 2851 Third Age, the White Council met to consider ways of bringing about Sauron's downfall before he should again grow too powerful, Saruman, hoping that the Ring would expose its location if Sauron were left unharassed, deliberately overruled a strong recommendation (from Gandalf the Grey, second of the Order) that Dol Guldur be attacked and its occupant destroyed or driven out. Saruman himself then secretly began to explore the shallows of the Gladden; for in his long search for information he had learned from the libraries of Gondor somewhat of Isildur's death. And when the Wizard discovered that Sauron was also seeking the Ring in that same area, he became greatly alarmed – but still he withheld his vital insights from his fellow members. Fourteen years later the White Council met for the last time under Saruman's leadership. Still he dissembled concerning the Great Ring, for by then he had begun to suspect that Gandalf the Grey was closer to its whereabouts than he. For this reason he began to spy on Gandalf, and he withdrew from the Council, and took Isengard and Orthanc for his own, rebuilding the fortress and gathering to him many Orcs and Wild Men. His mask of friendship towards the Rohirrim stiffened, and he began to meddle in their affairs, and to subvert their rule; for by this time Saruman was planning the destruction of Rohan as the first stroke of the war which he plainly foresaw.

Fifty years later (
c.
3000 Third Age) he dared for the first time to use the Palantír of Orthanc.

‘Further and further abroad he gazed, until he cast his gaze upon Barad-dûr. Then he was caught!'
4

For Sauron possessed the Stone of Minas Ithil, which his servants had captured nearly a thousand years earlier; and his will was greater than that of Saruman. Still the Master of Isengard believed that he would prevail – even in combat with the Lord of the Rings – if only the Ruling Ring were his. But his efforts to secure it during the War of the Ring went badly wrong. Foiled in this, he attacked Rohan – but his great army never came back from Helm's Deep (
see
BATTLE OF THE HORNBURG
), and in the end Saruman was himself assailed in Isengard and forced to seek refuge in the impregnable Tower of Orthanc. He was afterwards confronted by those he had made his enemies; and he was cast from the Order of
Istari
and from the Council of the Wise. Bereft of all true power, he was afterwards released to go where he might. Yet Saruman had still some power left – the charm of his voice – and his malice was unabated. Northwards he journeyed, to the Shire (where his agents had long been at work) and from motives of pure malevolence he there awaited the return of the four Hobbits whose deeds (as he saw it) had robbed him of his own and brought him to a sorry pass. For the Shire had been ravaged by his orders, and Saruman wished to observe the Hobbits' grief and dismay.

It is recounted in the Red Book that Saruman was murdered by his own slave at the very doors of Bag End in the Shire; and so it came to pass that he who had once been a messenger of the Valar, who had come to Middle-earth in hope and desire to aid lesser creatures afflicted by Sauron, who had in his day possessed more knowledge than any other loremaster, whose voice was subtle and whose skills of hand were a byword, died in the dust like a vagabond, his throat cut by a poor mad wretch whom he had himself destroyed. It was not the least of the tragedies of the War of the Ring, and it did not go unmourned.

Sauron the Great
– The self-styled Ruler of Middle-earth and declared Enemy of the Free Peoples; servant of Morgoth in the Elder Days and supreme force for Evil throughout two subsequent Ages: Black Master of the land of Mordor, Eye of the Dark Tower, Seducer, Betrayer and Shadow of Despair; the Lord of the Rings of Power.

A discussion of Sauron's true nature would necessitate an enquiry into the intrinsic nature of Evil itself, since he later became – though he had not always been – the focus for all the greed, lust and terrible energy which was to be found in Middle-earth during the two Ages of his supremacy. All Evil gravitated to him, just as he himself became its ultimate source; and though he was, in the end, like Morgoth before him, cast into the void for ever, the mischief he had committed during the long years of his ascendancy could never be wholly unmade. And he has had many successors.