Near the end of The Fellowship of the Ring from J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Frodo Baggins made the difficult decision to part ways with the rest of the Fellowship. The One Ring’s corrupting influence had caused Boromir to attack him at Amon Hen, and he feared that it would do the same to his other companions. He thought it was safer for himself and Middle-earth if he carried out the rest of his quest alone. But try as he might, he could not leave his stalwart friend Samwise Gamgee behind. They traveled together for months during The Lord of the Rings, and Sam spent nearly all that time near the One Ring. Yet throughout the journey to Mordor, Sam resisted the urge to take the One Ring from Frodo. The novel does not indicate that he even felt such a temptation as Boromir had.

Sam eventually took the One Ring, but not out of personal desire. After Frodo’s encounter with the spider-like monster Shelob, Sam mistakenly believes she killed him with her venomous sting. Part of him wanted to return home, but he remembered the reason the Council of Elrond had formed the Fellowship in the first place: to ensure the destruction of the One Ring no matter what. He knew that Frodo would want him to finish the mission in his stead, so with a heavy heart, he hung the One Ring on its chain around his neck. Unlike in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King film adaptation, he also wore the One Ring on his finger from time to time, which Gandalf had warned Frodo against earlier in the story. But even when wearing the One Ring, Sam was able to resist its pull, and he later relinquished it to Frodo without hesitation. So how could Sam do what so many others throughout the history of Middle-earth could not?

Updated on March 26, 2025, by Timothy Blake Donohoo: Samwise Gamgee likely seemed like an unconventional hero in the Lord of the Rings story. Despite being different from characters such as Legolas and Gandalf, he still represented heroism in his own way. In fact, he and the other hobbits were Tolkien’s favorites, and the traits explaining this are evident in how Sam resists the One Ring. This article is updated to explore these beings further and reflect CBR’s current style guide.

Sam Did Not Want to Use the One Ring’s Power

The Hobbit Was But a Simple Gardener with Simple Tastes

Sam first placed the One Ring around his neck in the chapter “The Choices of Master Samwise” from The Two Towers. It felt heavier than it looked, which Frodo had also noticed earlier in The Lord of the Rings, but otherwise, it didn’t affect him much. Not long after, Sam heard a band of Orcs approaching. He could not escape, so he used the One Ring’s power of invisibility by slipping it on his finger. Sam hated being in the wraith world: “He did not feel invisible at all, but horribly and uniquely visible, and he knew that somewhere an Eye was searching for him.” Despite this discomfort, Sam’s plan worked. He crawled into a mountain crevice, and the Orcs paid him no mind as they moved through the area.

Sam then overheard that the Orcs had discovered Frodo’s body. He feared what vile things they might do to it and immediately put the One Ring out of his mind. As Sam followed the Orcs, he learned that Shelob’s venom had only paralyzed Frodo, not killed him. This steeled his resolve, and he swore to rescue Frodo from the Tower of Cirith Ungol, even if it meant sacrificing himself or the One Ring. He hoped that the members of the Council of Elrond would forgive him for prioritizing Frodo’s life over the mission. Sam believed that such wise individuals would have predicted that he would do so.

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The One Ring Tempted Sam With Power and Glory

It Showed Him a Vision of a Magnificent Garden

In the chapter “The Tower of Cirith Ungol” from The Return of the King, Sam begins to feel the influence of the One Ring. He slipped it on his finger again, this time “without any clear purpose,” as no Orcs were nearby. Sam still felt the searing intensity of the Eye of Sauron, but he also took note of the benefits that the One Ring offered him, such as enhanced hearing; he could tell there was a scuffle between Shagrat and Gorbag at the top of the Tower of Cirith Ungol. Wearing the One Ring still made him uncomfortable, but less so than before, which was the first step on the dangerous path towards the sort of obsession that had taken over Gollum’s mind before The Lord of the Rings. However, Sam’s single-minded determination to save Frodo kept his head clear.

That was Sam’s last time wearing the One Ring, but he needed to overcome its influence again. When he saw Mount Doom in the distance, the One Ring’s power suddenly grew, reacting to the fires that had forged it so long ago. It gave Sam a vision of the incredible power it could grant him. He saw himself wielding a flaming sword and leading a massive army through Mordor to topple Sauron’s tower of Barad-dûr. The One Ring also preyed on his love of gardening. It showed Sam that he could transform Mordor’s dark, volcanic wasteland into sunny fields of flowers and fruit trees. Tolkien wrote, “He had only to put on the Ring and claim it for his own, and all this could be.” But again, Sam resisted the evil temptation. He bravely strode through the Tower of Cirith Ungol and rescued Frodo without any help from the One Ring.

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Not Even the One Ring Could Corrupt Sam’s Spirit

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Tolkien attributed the resistance of Samwise Gamgee to the One Ring to two main factors: “In that hour of trial, it was the love of his master that helped most to hold him firm, but also deep down in him lived still unconquered his plain hobbit-sense.” Ultimately, Sam’s greatest desire was not to defeat Sauron or transform Mordor into a paradise; he only wanted what was best for Frodo, which meant ignoring the One Ring’s temptations. Like most of the franchise’s hobbits, he lived a simple, humble lifestyle, and Tolkien explained that “the one small garden of a free gardener” was all Sam needed to be happy. Further, Sam knew that if he claimed the One Ring, Sauron would likely kill him. Throughout The Lord of the Rings, he proved himself a capable fighter, but he was far from a trained warrior, and the One Ring did not make him invincible.

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Even Isildur had lost his life to a random band of Orcs while carrying the One Ring. Some external factors kept Sam from succumbing to the One Ring’s corruption. The most important thing was that he carried the One Ring for less than two days; it did not have time to wear down his body and spirit like the other Ringbearers. Additionally, the One Ring probably wanted Sam to return it to Frodo. The One Ring had a will of its own, and its utmost desire was to return to Sauron. The One Ring had already spent months corrupting Frodo, and he was evidently on the brink of giving in to its influence. He was likelier to give it to Sauron — even if unintentionally — than Samwise Gamgee was. But this did not diminish Sam’s resilience. His ability to resist the most powerful item in The Lord of the Rings was a testament to his bond with Frodo and the strength of ordinary folk.

Tolkien Imagined Sam as the “Chief Hero” of His Story

Sam’s Rustic Simplicity Was Highlighted as an Example of Homely Heroism

J.R.R. Tolkien wrote and received many letters about the world of Middle-earth, some of which carry his personal thoughts about certain characters and events. The author received a letter from a real-life man named Sam Gamgee in 1956, who hadn’t read The Lord of the Rings. In his reply, Tolkien said, “the ‘Sam Gamgee’ of my story is a most heroic character, now widely beloved by many readers, even though his origins are rustic.” From the beginning, Tolkien had already intended for Sam to be the story’s “chief hero.”

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In Letter 131, the author once again used the word “rustic” while referring to Samwise Gamgee and favorably compared the “simple ‘rustic’ love of Sam and his Rosie” to the “highest love story, that of Aragorn and Arwen.” He further added that Sam’s unpretentious romance “is absolutely essential to the study of his character, and to the theme of the relation of ordinary life (breathing, eating, working, begetting).” As such, Sam’s unsophisticated character arc was always meant to be one of the fulcrums of the story. No matter how many battles are fought between mighty armies and magical beings, the crux of life always comes down to the basics. In other words, there is no better representation of wholesome heroism than Samwise Gamgee.

Hobbits are Humbly Heroic In the World of The Lord of the Rings

Samwise Gamgee Isn’t Necessarily Unique Among Hobbits

The treatment of Samwise Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings portrays him as an earnest and endearing friend, with this being one of his own heroic traits. While these elements make Sam particularly admirable, they are apparent in hobbits as a species. Given how J.R.R. Tolkien used the novels to ruminate upon his own worldview, hobbits appear to be almost an author insert. Tolkien resented and worried about the increasingly industrial world of modernity, especially when it came to his native England. Preferring the simple life of the countryside, he saw such a lifestyle as the greatest thing that one would want to yearn for. To this end, the hobbits themselves were representatives of traditional English folk who lived in this manner, even if it was in a somewhat cartoonish capacity. Their simplicity is evident in how, beyond the comforts of food, home and hearth, they seek very little and actively shun vainglorious adventure or similar pursuits.

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Hobbits completely lack ego; others see this and a similar lack of ambition as a good trait. This egolessness is a big reason why Samwise Gamgee could resist the One Ring, as he and the other hobbits were known for not harboring the thoughts that would make the ring so poisonous. All the other races had vices that they dealt with, such as the inherent greed of dwarves. Even the royal elf Galadriel sought power in her way, but that wasn’t so for the hobbit Samwise Gamgee. Similarly, there was no real lust in the hobbits’ hearts, with their relatively small dreams matching the rest of their stature. Even the hobbits’ size represented the writer’s memories of his blissful youth, as Tolkien was around three to four feet in height then.

These qualities set the perfect precedent for a species that went against the grain in their complete lack of ego. It is worth noting that Samwise Gamgee was still somewhat unique compared to his best friend. Bilbo and Frodo were a lot more “worldly” and knowledgeable than other hobbits, despite still reflecting the culture of the Shire so much. On the other hand, Sam lacked these experiences entirely and was just as ignorant, so to speak, as any other hobbit. This ignorance made it more logical why Sam could resist the One Ring, as it could not cultivate any selfish desires due to lack of knowledge – unlike Boromir. Thus, while he wasn’t as great of a fighter or swordsman as the other members of the fellowship, his selfless heart was able to protect the most critical parts of the journey. Sam’s actions fulfilled Tolkien’s words about the smallest hands being those that change the world, and those of Samwise Gamgee were a few that did just that.

The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings is a series of epic fantasy adventure films and television series based on J. R. R. Tolkien’s novels. The films follow the adventures of humans, elves, dwarves, hobbits and more in Middle-earth.

First Film

The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring

Latest Film

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

First Episode Air Date

September 1, 2022

Cast

Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Orlando Bloom, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Sean Bean, Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis, Hugo Weaving, Liv Tyler, Miranda Otto, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies, Martin Freeman, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Charlie Vickers, Richard Armitage

Character(s)

Gollum, Sauron

Where to Stream

M, Prime Video, Hulu

Video Game(s)

LEGO Lord of the Rings, The Lord of the Rings Online, The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum, The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Lord of the Rings: War in the North, The Lord Of The Rings: Battle For Middle-Earth, The Lord of The Rings: Battle For Middle-Earth 2, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Summary

The Lord of the Rings is a long-running fantasy franchise created by J.R.R. Tolkien. The core series consists of four primary books: The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, the Two Towers, and The Return of the King, all of which have been adapted into films. The Lord of the Rings core franchise centers around Frodo Baggins, a living being known as a hobbit, and a group of heroes from the various kingdoms such as the kingdom of man, the kingdom of dwarves, and the kingdom of elves. Together with the great wizard Gandalf, the group will embark on a perilous quest across Middle Earth to take The One Ring to Mount Doom to destroy it, before it can corrupt anyone and return to the hands of the evil entity known as Sauron, hellbent on conquering all of Middle Earth. The original novel/prequel films, The Hobbit, stars Frodo’s uncle Bilbo Baggins as he embarks on a quest from the comfort of his home and seeks the treasure of a dragon known as Smaug. Bilbo stumbles upon The One Ring on his quest, and finds himself amidst a great war. The most recent media for the franchise is the currently airing The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, airing exclusively on Prime Video.

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