While we continue to marvel at the steady stream of superheroes being pumped out in comics and movies, I am more interested in ordinary heroes. The ordinary hero is the man or woman behind the scenes. They are the ones who play the steady, supporting role. Natural second fiddles, they are the loyal retainers who stand by their man through thick and thicker. The ordinary hero is one of the stock characters in the hero’s quest. Don Quixote has his Sancho Panza. Holmes has Watson. Skywalker has R2D2; Poirot, Hastings; Wooster, his Jeeves; and Batman, the faithful Butler Alfred.
Speaking of Batman brings me to batmen. For those not in the know the “batman” in English parlance is a fellow from a bygone age. He was a soldier who not only fought, but was also assigned to a commissioned officer as his personal servant.
J.R.R. Tolkien said the real hero of The Lord of the Rings was Samwise Gamgee, and that his creation of Sam was inspired by the batmen he knew during his service in the First World War. In a letter to Cotton Minchin in 1956, Tolkien wrote, “My ‘Samwise’ is indeed (as you note) largely a reflexion of the English soldier—grafted on the village-boys of early days, the memory of the privates and my batmen that I knew in the 1914 War, and recognized as so far superior to myself.”
Compare then The Batman to a batman. The first is the quintessential superhero. He is a tortured genius, an outsider, a man of mystery. The superhero has a special destiny, a solitary battle against the forces of evil. He endures an inner battle that reflects the battles he endures in the outer world. He is an orphan, alone in the world. Batman is a creature of the night, a conundrum, a man with a mask, a dweller in caverns—an agonized introvert—a man who does not fear the underworld or the monsters that lurk within.
While watching Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings one is struck with how much Frodo Baggins echoes the traits of the classic superhero. He too is an orphan hero, having been adopted by Bilbo. Frodo is an introvert and a loner, always examining his own heart and motivations as he faces the battle. Like Batman, Frodo enters the underworld in the Mines of Moria, Shelob’s lair, and finally in the Cracks of Doom. Like Batman, he is a reluctant hero, a brooding warrior, and an uncertain champion.
The batman—the sidekick, the butler—on the other hand has no such complexities. He wears no mask. He needs no cloak. He has no secret identity. What you see is what you get. He is not an orphan or a loner. He may follow his officer into the cave, but he doesn’t dwell in the recesses of his psyche, getting lost in the labyrinth of self-examination. Not for the batman the paralysis of analysis.
It is therefore the batman, not The Batman, who is the real hero.
Tolkien, who was himself a humble hero, understood the little man especially well. He knew it was the ordinary hero who was the real central character. He knew the common man carried not only the bucket but the burden of the whole story. The character traits of the batman balance the eccentricities of the caped crusader. The batman is steady and predictable, if somewhat dull. The masked man is mercurial, moody, and complex. The batman is graced with normality. The Dark Knight is not. The batman Samwise longs for his Rosie, his garden, and his pint of ale. Frodo and Batman walk alone.
There is a delightful subversion in Tolkien’s championing of Sam. He gave the world superheroes in Gandalf, Aragorn, and Frodo, but in Sam, Tolkien is not only paying homage to the batmen he knew in the war, he is also honoring all the ordinary men and women who plod away at tedious jobs day in and day out. He is honoring the faithful working classes, devout men and women with simple human values who do their duty day by day on the local level.
The Shire is Tolkien’s homeland, and hobbits are his heroes. It’s not a mistake or a literary curiosity that they are little people. With his little hairy heroes Tolkien glorifies the common man. Not only is Sam the unremarkable hero of the story, but the whole salvation of Middle-earth was for people like Sam. Frodo admits as much when he says the Shire needed to be saved, but not for him.
In a world where celebrities loom large and success seems to be measured by superhuman standards, we do well to stop, observe, and treasure all the Samwise Gamgees in our world.
Why should we observe and honor the Samwise Gamgees? Because in real life, as in the epic tale, the Samwise Gamgees not only serve the hero, but they also provide the turning point of the plot and the crucial assistance on the quest. It is Sam who fights off Shelob, Sam who guards Frodo from the perfidious Gollum, Sam who rescues Frodo from the Tower of Cirith Ungol, and Sam who carries Frodo up the final ascent of Mount Doom.
Finally, Sam is the only ring bearer who resists the fatal attraction of the Ring. Only a man who marvels at the oliphant and cooks rabbit stew at the gates of Mordor could carry that off.
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Editor’s Note: The featured image is Samwise Gamgee’s residence in Bagshot Row, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Great article, thank you.
Loved this article
Thank you for eloquently stating what I think and feel about Samwise. When seeing the Peter Jackson trilogy for the first time in theater I nearly leapt from my seat with joy the moment I saw our favorite hero jump from the cliff and into the waters to follow Frodo with his heart leading the way. It was a physically awkward move, so I realized it was intentional and relaxed into the belief, “Peter Jackson gets it.” It’s my favorite moment in the LotR movies.
I must add, however, that Eowyn and Merry are equally important characters. Evil’s hold over the cast broke the moment The Witch King was punctured. In some ways Eowyn is the opposite of Samwise. She is highborn and aches to be The Hero and yet, she steps into that moment without fanfare, without glory, without the witness of her father or any other Man. She steps into that moment with her heart filled with the love of her community and Merry, joy. I love that Tolkien reminds us that women are equally important and vital to the victory.
Tolkien’s story is pure genius.
On a separate note, I invite anyone who loves the heart of The Lord of the Rings to read another trilogy of books that is combined under the title The Deed of Paksennarion, written by Elizabeth Moon. In this tale we get the indepth character development of The Humble Hero within a Tolkienesque world. When I first picked up the book and read the back cover I saw the bold endorsement, “better than Tolkien,” and chuckled. I don’t laugh at that statement anymore. Good stuff, these tales of heroes with a servant’s heart.
And Lord Peter Wimsey has his Bunter, who actually was his batman during the war. I’ve always loved the last of the Wimsey novels, and the later pastiches by Jill Paton Walsh in which Bunter is married and hobnobbing on (more or less) equal terms with Lord Peter and his wife Harriet Vane.
Agreed, very good piece. CS Lewis did a similar thing, making heroes out of ordinary people, usually children.
I enjoy the metaphor as far as it relates to faith and friendship. But when you start drawing comparisons to the roles of average people in modern society… As an American it’s hard to get excited about the British caste system or people who do a good job of being subservient. The U.S. military had similar positions but they weren’t tainted with as many undertones of indentured servitude.
Found this on the Wikipedia about U.S. military aides: Ordinarily, enlisted service members would be prohibited from performing services as an aide. “No officer may use an enlisted member as a servant for duties that contribute only to the officer’s personal benefit and that have no reasonable connection with the officer’s official responsibilities,[13] according to the Department of Defense instruction 1315.09 for Enlisted Aides.