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Is Samwise Gamgee, one of the four hobbits in the fellowship, one of the three to be the last bearers of the one ring of power, one of the two hobbits who alone infiltrated mordor and brought the ring to Mount Doom, ... an orphan?

Data:

  • He works as a gardener for Frodo. He doesn't work on his own farm, or for his family. This is a strong contrast against the non-working Frodo, Merry, and Pippin.
  • The only relationship mentioned is "gaffer" which is short for either "grandfather" or "godfather" etymology gaffer in the same way that "gammer" is short for either "grandmother" or "godmother" etymology gammer.

Thoughts:

  • I can't recall his mentioning his parents in the books or mother.
  • Sam missed "Rosie Cotton" on mount doom when he thought he was going to die. Most young men at the edge of death remember their mother. The lack of a mother, and the motherly attributes of Rosy, might allow her to be a proxy for a missing mother.[ A,B,C,D ]
  • In the "scouring of the shire", the chapter of LOTR/Return of the King where Saruman and his henchmen are evicted from the Shire, there is (as far as I can recall) no mention of Sam looking up his family except for the "gaffer".

Extensions to the question:

  • Is there a reference to Sam's extended family (mother, siblings, etc) outside of "gaffer"?
  • Is there anything to support or refute that Sam was an orphan or foster?

I consider primary content being Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, or JRR Tolkiens writings about them. Secondary but still valid would be evidence that gaffer, while derived from "Grandfather" or "godfather" was used frequently enough as "father" to mean that.

EngrStudent
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    For the record, I always assumed that "The Gaffer" was his grandfather too. – Valorum Jan 08 '18 at 01:25
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    Since gaffer is a general term, I assumed that Sam's dad was just old (he was 53 or 54 when Sam was born), and everyone just called him Gaffer like any old man might be called grandfather out of "respect" (at least in Tolkien-y language), so Sam started to do it too. – Quasi_Stomach Jan 08 '18 at 18:32
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    Just out of curiousity, how do you know what most young men on the point of death think of? And how do you manage to ascribe "motherly" attributes to Sam's girlfriend Rosie? – jamesqf Jan 08 '18 at 19:15
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    @jamesqf - I was able to interview a founder of a business that equips and gives access to expertise, air-med?, so less skilled folks can effectively deal with cases way beyond their typical training level. She had a number of young persons die during transport and was impacted (motivated) by their often confusing her or other women for their mothers as they were dying. It also comes up in a few writings of veterans, how dying men (boys at the time, really) cried out for their mothers. link – EngrStudent Jan 08 '18 at 22:20
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    "Samwise Gamgee, one of the four hobbits in the fellowship, one of the three to be the last bearers of the one ring of power, one of the two hobbits who alone infiltrated mordor and brought the ring to Mount Doom" Oh, that Samwise Gamgee. I thought you meant someone else... – The Dark Lord Jan 09 '18 at 17:26
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    @EngrStudent: Different circumstances. After the Ring was destroyed, Sam was not seriously injured, semi-conscious, or delirious. He is perfectly rational, in a situation were his death seems certain - though he's taking what steps he can to avoid it. – jamesqf Jan 09 '18 at 19:47
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    Just an aside, in the UK "gaffer" is also a term used in reference to a boss or manager. For example, football managers are often referred to as "the gaffer". I'd expect that's why he refers to his dad that way, as he works for him. – ian Jan 10 '18 at 04:02

2 Answers2

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The "Gaffer" that Sam's refers to is his father, Hamfast "Ham" Gamgee. They appear to be living in a rented Hobbit hole on Bagshot Row, presumable one owned by the Baggins family given its proximity to Bag End.

No one had a more attentive audience than old Ham Gamgee, commonly known as the Gaffer. He held forth at The Ivy Bush , a small inn on the Bywater road; and he spoke with some authority, for he had tended the garden at Bag End for forty years, and had helped old Holman in the same job before that. Now that he was himself growing old and stiff in the joints, the job was mainly carried on by his youngest son, Sam Gamgee. Both father and son were on very friendly terms with Bilbo and Frodo. They lived on the Hill itself, in Number 3 Bagshot Row just below Bag End.

The Fellowship of the Ring.

His mother is briefly mentioned in LOTR: Appendix C (The Longfather-Tree of Master Samwise) as being one Bell Gamgee (née Goodchild). She doesn't appear in the book and is most likely dead.

enter image description here

His brothers Hamson and Halfred aren't mentioned in the text and neither are Daisy and May. Marigold gets the briefest of mentions from Sam in the final novel.

"But I would dearly like to see Bywater again, and Rosie Cotton and her brothers, and the Gaffer and Marigold and all."

Interestingly, in Letter #72 (to his son Christopher) Tolkien mentioned the etymology of all of the family names and indicated that he didn't like the name Gamgee and wanted to change it to Goodchild, the name that he would ultimately choose as Sam's mother's maiden name.

Sam by the way is an abbreviation not of Samuel but of Samwise (the Old E. for Half-wit), as is his father’s name the Gaffer (Ham) for O.E. Hamfast or Stayathome. Hobbits of that class have very Saxon names as a rule – and I am not really satisfied with the surname Gamgee and shd. change it to Goodchild if I thought you would let me.

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Valorum
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  • As a side note, is there any information about Sam’s siblings? I don’t recall him ever even mentioning them… – Janus Bahs Jacquet Jan 08 '18 at 00:27
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    Am I reading it wrong or Sam has 9 children ? – atakanyenel Jan 08 '18 at 12:52
  • @atayenel it seems the line next to Primr.. is still continuing, so he has at least 10 children. – Mathias711 Jan 08 '18 at 13:01
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    @atayenel 13 actually, the chart just gets cut off there. – hobbs Jan 08 '18 at 13:03
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    @hobbs - I cropped it because it's unreadable in the large format. You can see the full thing by clicking the link – Valorum Jan 08 '18 at 14:37
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    "Samwise (the Old E. for Half-wit)" -> TIL – Jay Jan 08 '18 at 19:19
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    "She doesn't appear in the book and is most likely dead." What makes you think she's dead? – eirikdaude Jan 09 '18 at 10:46
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    @eirikdaude - Because Sam doesn't mention her when he's talking about returning to the Shire and she isn't mentioned in the passage about Sam's living situation. It's highly unlikely in Tolkien's rural fantasy that she would be divorced so hence dead. – Valorum Jan 09 '18 at 12:23
  • And he doesn't even visit her grave at any point in the book? That's just weird >_> – eirikdaude Jan 09 '18 at 12:26
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    @eirikdaude In Death and funerary practices in Middle-earth by Pat Reynolds, he argues that Tolkien does not describe the funerary practices of the Hobbits because they can be presumed to be common. In Anglo-Saxon England, a rough comparison to the Shire, cremation was one of the common treatments of the deceased. The ashes would have been placed in an urn, which may have been kept a long time before burial. – called2voyage Jan 09 '18 at 15:13
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    @eirikdaude In other words, Sam's mother's urn may have been something he saw every morning on the mantle, and thus not a particularly notable element of the story. Where visiting a grave might make a detailed scene in which we can get to know a character, seeing an urn on a mantle would be part of the mundanity of the morning routine which Tolkien cared not to detail. – called2voyage Jan 09 '18 at 15:17
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    The women in Tolkien's stories often fade to the background or are assumed. That's not a value judgment, just a statement of fact. It's far more likely he just didn't ever think of Sam's mother, then after adding her to the genealogy, he forgot to go back and write about her. It's unlikely she died in childbirth or it would be mentioned (besides, 6 live births is a good run for a Hobbit), so if deceased, her death must have been both uneventful ("exciting" family deaths are reported), and well before the events of LotR. Equally, she could've lived as long as Hamfast. Status: unknown – Rich Jan 09 '18 at 22:26
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    If one of Sam's daughters (the last one shown before the image is cropped) is Primrose, is Katniss another daughter? – JK. Jan 10 '18 at 00:32
  • Wait Sam's children "Merry" and "Pippin" must have been named in honor of the other "Merry" and "Pippin", then . . . right? – geometrian Jan 10 '18 at 00:58
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    Looking at the genealogy posted by @valorum, it would appear Sam's mom lived between 1326-1428. Sam's first daughter Elanor the Fair was born in 1421, which is 7 years before Sam's mom died. I'm pretty sure he and Rose weren't having children until he got off the mountain. So despite her not being mentioned, it would seem that she's alive and see's Sam's first four children born. – baronnoraz Jan 10 '18 at 01:27
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    @baronnoraz, thats Ham Gamgees birth-death, note: Rose (far right) shows her birth year, but not Sams, and Sam shows his birth year but not rose, showing that the birth-death year is of the listed family member, not the spouse. – BaneStar007 Jan 10 '18 at 05:53
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    @Rich Eowyn and Galadriel are the exceptions that prove the rule--they stand out because they are given more focus than women usually receive in the story. That said, the main argument against Sam's mother's status being unknown (as opposed to dead) is that Sam mentioned seeing Marigold, his sister, who is a woman that has no good reason for being more important than his mother. – called2voyage Jan 10 '18 at 21:12
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    @called2voyage - and also this passage "Both father and son were on very friendly terms with Bilbo and Frodo. They lived on the Hill itself" – Valorum Jan 10 '18 at 21:27
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    @called2voyage Tolkien never talked about his own mother much in his published letters. I believe this has been (scuse the choice of phrase) done to death elsewhere: when something in Tolkien's writing is unstated, it's left unknown, instead of making things up, for whatever reason, whether that's a desire for completeness, however artificial, or to make others feel better about the institutional sexism he grew up with and didn't do much to subvert. If you want Sam's mother to have been dead, write that story, but it's fanfic. Tolkien didn't make a decision. – Rich Jan 16 '18 at 18:05
  • @called2voyage As to Eowyn & Galadriel (and Luthien and her analogue, Arwen), these are great examples of the sexist trope of putting a female character on a pedestal to glorify some idealized perfect woman. Similarly, Ioreth was only mentioned when she was useful: a name and gender attached to some exposition. She wasn't allowed to smoke pipe-weed or be annoyed or any normal activity. In other words, not the exception. I love Tolkien, but to pretend he wasn't perpetuating sexism is naive. Let the fact of it inform your analysis. It's what he would've wanted, were he alive today! – Rich Jan 16 '18 at 18:19
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    @Rich You misunderstand me. I agree with you that Tolkien was perpetuating sexism, and I was saying that Eowyn and Galadriel stand out for exactly that reason. Ultimately, you are correct that it would be uncanonical to state as a matter of fact that Sam's mother is dead, but it is hardly fanfic to make a convincing argument from the details we do have. "Unknown", sure, but probably dead. – called2voyage Jan 17 '18 at 14:58
  • @called2voyage Yes, I misunderstood you. Thank you for the clarification! – Rich Jan 18 '18 at 00:54
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Actually, it mentions that the gaffer was taught by his cousin Holmand Greenhand how to garden, and used his experience to work for the owners of Bag End. It is also mentioned that Samwise took over the work when his dad was too old to continue. Heck, they even live on the hill itself, in Number 3 Bagshot Row, just below Bag End itself!

Hobbiton
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    Hi, welcome to SF&F. This would be a much better answer if you included relevant quotes from the books or other writings of Tolkien, the way the accepted answer does. You also should avoid posting answers that don't add anything to existing answers. – DavidW Jan 15 '20 at 03:12