Samwise Gamgee
Videos
Samwise Gamgee is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. A hobbit, Samwise is the chief supporting character of The Lord of the Rings, serving as the loyal companion of the protagon
Frodo and Sam guided by Gollum through the Dead Marshes. Scraperboard illustration by Alexander Korotich, 1984
Frodo has been compared to Christ, and Sam, who carried Frodo on the way to Mount Doom, to Simon of Cyrene, who carried Christ's cross to Golgotha.
Tolkien stated that the relationship of Frodo and Sam reflected that of a British officer and his batman during the First World War.
Sam's surname is from Sampson Gamgee, a Birmingham doctor who invented a surgical dressing; as a child, Tolkien knew the word "gamgee" as a name for cotton wool.
Merry Brandybuck
Videos
Meriadoc Brandybuck is a Hobbit, a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, featured throughout his most famous work, The Lord of the Rings. Merry is described as one of t
Merry (right) and Pippin in Ralph Bakshi's animated 1978 version of The Lord of the Rings
Dominic Monaghan as Merry in Peter Jackson's 2003 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King