A domestic drama of Samwise and Smeagol.
Act I
‘Hi! Gollum!’
said Sam. ‘Where are you going? Hunting? Well see here, old noser, you don’t
like our food, and I’d not be sorry for a change myself. Your new motto’s
always ready to help. Could you find anything fit for a hungry
hobbit?’
‘Yes, perhaps, yes,’ said Gollum. ‘Sméagol always helps, if
they asks - if they asks nicely.’
‘Right!’ said Sam ‘I does ask. And if that isn't nice
enough, I begs.’
Gollum returned quietly . . . Sam came to him a moment later and
found him chewing something and muttering to himself. On the ground beside him
lay two small rabbits, which he was beginning to eye greedily.
‘Sméagol always helps,’ he said. `He has brought rabbits,
nice rabbits. But master has gone to sleep, and perhaps Sam wants to sleep.
Doesn't want rabbits now? Sméagol tries to help, but he can't catch things all
in a minute.'
Act II
'Now, Gollum,'
he said, 'I've another job for you. Go and fill these pans with water, and
bring 'em back! '
'Sméagol will fetch water, yes,' said Gollum. 'But what
does the hobbit want all that water for? . . . '
'Never you mind,' said Sam. `If you can't guess, you'll
soon find out. And the sooner you fetch the water, the sooner you'll learn.
Don't you damage one of my pans, or I'll carve you into mincemeat.'
‘ . . . I'm going to stew these coneys.’
‘Stew the rabbits!' squealed Gollum in dismay. . .
. What for, silly hobbit? They are young, they are tender, they are nice.
Eat them, eat them!’ He clawed at the nearest rabbit, already skinned and lying
by the fire.
‘Now, now!’ said Sam. ‘Each to his own fashion. Our bread
chokes you, and raw coney chokes me. If you give me a coney, the coney's mine,
see, to cook, if I have a mind. And I have. You needn't watch me. Go and catch
another and eat it as you fancy - somewhere private and out o' my sight. Then
you won't see the fire, and I shan't see you, and we'll both be the happier.’
Act III
Sam busied
himself with his pans. `What a hobbit needs with coney,' he said to himself,
`is some herbs and roots, especially taters - not to mention bread. Herbs we
can manage, seemingly.'
‘Gollum!’' he called softly. ‘Third time pays for all. I
want some herbs.’ Gollum's head peeped out of the fern, but his looks were
neither helpful nor friendly. ‘A few bay-leaves, some thyme and sage, will do -
before the water boils,’' said Sam.
‘No!’ said Gollum. ..
‘Sméagol’ll get into real true hot water, when this water
boils, if he don't do as he's asked,’ growled Sam. ‘Sam'll put his head in it,
yes precious. And I’d make him look for turnips and carrots, and taters too, if
it was the time o’ the year. I'll bet there’s all sorts of good things running
wild in this country. I’d give a lot for half a dozen taters.’
‘Sméagol won't go, O no precious, not this time,’ hissed
Gollum. ‘ . . . this hobbit's not nice, not nice at all. . . .
What's taters, precious, eh, what's taters?’
‘Po-ta-toes,’ said Sam. ‘The Gaffer’s delight, and rare
good ballast for an empty belly. But you won't find any, so you needn’t look.
But be good Sméagol and fetch me the herbs, and I’ll think better of you.
What’s more, if you turn over a new leaf, and keep it turned, I’ll cook you
some taters one of these days. I will: fried fish and chips served by S.
Gamgee. You couldn't say no to that.’
‘Yes, yes we could. Spoiling nice fish, scorching it. Give
me fish now, and keep nassty chips!’
‘Oh you're hopeless,’ said Sam. ‘Go to sleep!’
Today I would ask you to focus on Sam, treating Gollum objectively. That is why
I have abbreviated some of the old noser’s lines. Later today we will
re-consider this scene from Gollum’s point of view.
A. How would you characterize Sam’s feelings for Gollum over the course of
this little three-act play? What does Sam expect from Gollum? What drives Sam’s
changing tone of address to Gollum?
From The Two Towers, New Line Films
‘Don’t you drop
off, while I'm nodding, Mr. Frodo. I don’t feel too sure of him. There’s a good
deal of Stinker--the bad Gollum, if you understand me--in him still, and it’s
getting stronger again. Not but what I think he’d try to throttle me first now.
We don’t see eye to eye, and he’s not pleased with Sam, O no precious, not
pleased at all.’
B. Is Sam amused or regretful that he and Gollum don’t see eye to eye?
‘I wonder where
that dratted Gollum is?’ thought Sam, as he crawled back into deeper shade. ‘He
stands a fair chance of being spitted for an Orc, or of being roasted by the
Yellow Face. But I fancy he'll look after himself.’ He lay down beside Frodo
and began to doze.
C. How concerned is Sam for Gollum’s safety?
Sam goes to war, and war comes to Sam.
‘And Elves are wondrous fair to
look upon, or so 'tis said.’
‘Meaning we're not, I take you,’ said Sam. ‘Thank you
kindly. And when you've finished discussing us, perhaps you'll say who you are,
and why you can't let two tired travellers rest.’
D. Why does Sam speak as if he were in charge, and not Frodo?
He woke, thinking that he had heard
horns blowing. He sat up . . . Sam thought that he heard cries and wild
shouting also, but the sound was faint, as if it came out of some distant cave.
Then presently the noise of fighting broke out near at hand, just above their
hiding-place. He could hear plainly the ringing grate of steel on steel, the
clang of sword on iron cap, the dull beat of blade on shield . . .
‘It sounds like a hundred blacksmiths all smithying
together,’ said Sam to Frodo. ‘They're as near as I want them now.’
Sam, eager to see more, went now and joined the guards. He scrambled a little
way up into one of the larger of the bay-trees. For a moment he caught a
glimpse of swarthy men in red running down the slope some way off with
green-clad warriors leaping after them . . .
E. First they’re as near as he wants them, then he wants to see more? Were
stories of fighting part of his fairy-tale education from Mr. Bilbo?
It was Sam's first view of a battle
of Men against Men, and he did not like it much. He was glad that he could not
see the dead face. He wondered what the man's name was and where he came from;
and if he was really evil of heart, or what lies or threats had led him on the
long march from his home; and if he would not really rather have stayed there
in peace-all in a flash of thought which was quickly driven from his mind.
F. Is this train of thought Sam’s – or Tolkien’s? Where else does any
soliloquy of this nature occur in LotR?
Mumak by Cor Blok
To his astonishment and terror, and
lasting delight, Sam saw a vast shape crash out of the trees and come careering
down the slope.
Sam drew a deep breath. 'An Oliphaunt it was!' he said. `So
there are Oliphaunts, and I have seen one. What a life! But no one at home will
ever believe me. Well, if that's over, I'll have a bit of sleep.'
G. Is this another “Ted Sandyman” moment? How many of these moments does Sam
have? Have you ever had a moment like this?
H. Sam was almost crushed or impaled by a giant rampaging beast. How can he
think immediately again of sleep?
Sam – Summary for both posts.
Along with the passages discussed in these two posts, Sam also discovers the
Orcs’ feasting grounds; argues with Gollum over lighting a fire, then allows it
to smoke; hears the rangers’ whistle-signals; watches the camouflaged rangers
creep up the slope; and casually dismisses his guards once the battle is
over.
I. If Frodo “wrote” the Red Book account of the War of the Ring, why is this
chapter, in which he was a full participant, told so much from Sam’s point of
view? Or, why does Tolkien make Sam the center of so much of the action in this
entire chapter?
Text of this
chapter
Everyone is laughing for heart's ease, now that they're in Ithilien! Join me in the Reading Room this week for a squireific topic-oriented discussion of Chapter 4, Book IV of The Two Towers: "Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit".
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