Frodo

FRODO LIVES

[treebeardsbigwood]

Sam: "Well we made it Mr. Frodo! Mordor!"

[brunch-is-just-second-breakfast]

I'm choked up about the names Tolkien chose for Sam and Frodo. Samwise (or Banazîr in Westron) literally means "half-wise". And yes, that could easily be a joke about Sam's intelligence (or lack thereof). But I've never liked this interpretation — it feels too mean and too dimissive of Sam's achievements and importance to treat him as "the dumb one". It's true that he is less educated than the other main hobbits. They're all aristocratic hobbits — gentry, if you will — and Sam is Frodo's gardener. One could make the case that he is "half-learned" and there may be something to that. Even so, I couldn't bear the classism Sam being named only for his socio-ecomonic standing (I hope I'm using that term correctly).

Frodo (Maura in Westron) is from the Old English word "froda", which means "wise." Tolkien was a linguist and was very intentional about the names he chose/created for his stories. There's a lot to unpack about Frodo's name itself, to be sure. But it is not accidental that his name is connected with Sam's.

Half-wise, half Frodo. The one who waited by his bedside in Rivendell, the one who twice INSISTED on going to Mordor, the one who fought off Shelob and scores of orcs, the one who carried the Ring into Mordor itself, the one who carried Frodo up Mount Doom, the one who came back to the Shire and his family, the one who went to the Undying Lands.

Frodo wouldn't have got far without Sam. ❤️

[sauronsbane]

Good catch! Likewise, Sam's last name is related to Rose's. Gamgee and Cotton.

[alittlehurtwithyourcomfort]

i couldn't remember why i'd watched LOTR when i was in middle school, because i didn't think i had much interest in it. well, i'm taking a class on tolkien rn. while reading fellowship of the ring for the first time i finally realized: "oh... it's because of the whump."

so uh. shoutout to tolkien for stabbing frodo i guess??? honestly some solid whump, especially for a classic novel. plus even past that, the angst is top tier. i'm on the two towers now, so looking forward to even more LMAO

[heartfullofwtf]

SAM!!!!!!

THATS FOR FRODO!!

THATS FOR THE SHIRE!!

AND THATS FOR MY OLD GAFFER!!!!!!!!!!

[dailykafka]

— February 25, 1912 / Franz Kafka diaries

[eqqtt]

Come, Frodo. Walk beside me, and let your thoughts find rest

[friendfrodofulloflove]

So presumably Tolkien started with the Ring and then had a whimsical little pipe-smoke in the woods where he came up with the guy who would break his heart the most while being destroyed by it? Or did I misunderstand

[friendfrodofulloflove]

Now not to take back what I said about how Frodo not being young is important, BUT the Ring “pausing” him has more effects than on just his looks. I don’t get the impression he changed too much in almost any way between 33 and 50. Even if you figure a hobbit weathers less in that time than we do, that’s a strange thing, not to reshuffle your life in any way at all. The bit about wistfully looking off to the mountains, thinking of adventure… I don’t think he would have stopped entirely, but he does it pretty often I gather, and that’s a young hobbit’s game.

[frodocore]

good morning samfro nation

[wynandcore]

Reading the books for the first time, it’s been hard but fun. I loved this interaction

[friendfrodofulloflove]

how. ON EARTH THE FUCK. did i never see that Gollum made up a story about getting the Ring on his birthday (to avoid thinking about how he killed his closest person for it) and Frodo ACTUALLY GOT THE RING ON HIS BIRTHDAY (when he would have much preferred his closest person to stay with him).

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

You know, it's kinda funny how much of high fantasy centers around kings and nobility and courtly intrigue considering that the archetypal high fantasy, Lord of the Rings, had the rather explicit moral of "saving the world is up to this backwater hick and his gardener because no politician, least of all inherited nobility, would have the ability to see past their own ambition and throw away a weapon". Oh sure, Aragorn is a great king and all, but there's a reason he's over there running a distraction ring while the hobbits do the real work. Sauron loses because he gets distracted by kings and armies and great battles (i.e. typical high fantasy stuff) letting Frodo and Sam sneak through his back door and blow it all to hell.

Just saying, maybe old Jirt knew what he was saying when he said that the small folk doing their best and holding to each other was more powerful than a dozen alliances and superweapons and we should respect him for it.

[nikosheba]

doing my yearly new year’s day watch of the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies and the thing that’s struck me most an hour and a half in is that Sam has spent years hanging on all of Frodo’s stories about the Elves and listening to him speak and sing in Elvish and then they get to Rivendell and Frodo’s like “Sam!!! it’s Elves!!! you love Elves!!” and Sam’s like “yeah no they’re fine”

and Frodo somehow does not understand that what Sam actually loves is spending time with The Shire’s Local Elf Expert

[friendfrodofulloflove]

No listen the Quest was THE FIRST TIME Frodo ever left the Shire. How fucked up is that???

[friendfrodofulloflove]

Not gonna lie, Frodo getting his wish to be with Bilbo again is. It’s. Man.

[friendfrodofulloflove]

Listen the movies (specifically TTT which i saw first) got me into LOTR and idk if I would have ever read it otherwise and I’m grateful. Not only that, they are some of the best movies ever, in my opinion. A labor of love, just like the book. And I’m very fond of EJW’s Frodo. BUT. Making him young really does take away something special about Frodo. It might really just be that one change— I could buy movie-Frodo growing into book-Frodo in many ways as he gets older. But 50-year-old Frodo, who’s gotten a chance to really fully grow into his pettiness and sarcasm and good humor, and time to grow around the deep wound of losing his parents like that and time on top of that to get used to missing Bilbo too, time to choose to live the way he does, affectionate but also private, thoughtful and kind, studying and tramping around under moonlight, thinking of leaving but not yet, not yet… this lovely person is who he is going to be for his life. And then that happens to him. It’s not the same at all as the crushed potential of youth, which is often portrayed in war stories. He has the other qualities you mourn in young soldiers anyway, brightness and enthusiasm for life and a belief in goodness, and all that is more notable for his age, if anything.

[friendfrodofulloflove]

Oh… It is funny and endearing that Frodo couldn’t help but sigh wistfully over the Shire to the point that Merry caught on and launched a whole Conspiracy to keep him from disappearing. It’s wonderful that Sam could tell what was up when Frodo was about to leave the Fellowship. But no one caught on when Frodo was planning just such another departure, at the end. And why is that. I think it’s because… Frodo didn’t really want to go alone those first two times. He felt like he had to,, but there was a lot of reaching-for-sunlight left in him those times. He couldn’t help but reach a little, even unconsciously. The final time, he was truly emotionally isolated and didn’t let on at all. But I don’t know that he didn’t have the same secret wish, a little bit, not to be let go.