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And Now for the Other Love Story

© Michael Martinez

Back in January I briefly discussed Sam and Rosie's marriage in Love, Middle-earth Style. At the time it seemed there wasn't much to say. Sam goes off on his long adventure, becomes the second-most famous hobbit in Middle-earth, comes back to the Shire and becomes the third most famous hobbit there, and Rosie pops up almost out of nowhere and says, "Okay, Sam, you've sowed your wild oats, it's time to settle down." About the biggest conflict there is the fact Sam hasn't sown any oats (oh, please, let's not go down the Sam and Frodo path, okay?). Who is this Rosie-lass anyway? Why is she important to the story? I think the second question is easier to answer than the first. Someone had to be left behind to carry on as historian. Bilbo and Frodo both left before the story was finished (and the Story, as Tolkien would put it, was the great drama unfolding from the beginning of Time until the End, so we are in it, too). Frodo's account of the War of the Ring was rather complete but he knew there were many loose ends which needed to be tidied up, and it would be Sam who would do the tidying. There was really no one else who could put it all together. So Sam had to stay behind, but Sam was a Ringbearer, and he, like Frodo, had suffered the spiritual wounding which came of bearing the Burden of the One Ring. So Sam would have to go over Sea as well. That was inevitable, long foreseen, I'm sure. But how could Sam stay in Middle-earth if he had suffered a part of the torment which drove Bilbo and frodo away from it? Rosie provides the salve which gives him the strength and the will to stay in the Mortal World for as long as possible. So she's important to Sam's part of the story and therefore to Sam, and that importance doesn't need to be shown very often. Hence, we learn very little about Rosie before Sam returns to the Shire and needs her most. Sam was born in the year 1380 (2980 in the Tale of Years) and Rosie was born 4 years later. The year of Sam's birth was the year Aragorn finished his long journeys and retired to Lothlorien, where he met Arwen for the second time and finally won her heart. 1380 was also the year that Drogo and Primula Brandybuck died, leaving 12-year-old Frodo an orphan among the Brandybucks (Bilbo adopted him 9 years later). That was also the year Theoden became King of Rohan.

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