[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

It seems to me that the Ring is attempting a new line of attack with Sam. Earlier it has tried to tempt him with a vision of power, but this has failed in the face of his humility and devotion:

Already the Ring tempted him, gnawing at his will and reason. Wild fantasies arose in his mind; and he saw Samwise the Strong, Hero of the Age, striding with a flaming sword across the darkened land, and armies flocking to his call as he marched to the overthrow of Barad-dûr. And then all the clouds rolled away, and the white sun shone, and at his command the vale of Gorgoroth became a garden of flowers and trees, and brought forth fruit. He had only to put on the Ring and claim it for his own, and all this could be.
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: he knew in the core of his heart that he was not large enough to bear such a burden, even if such visions were not a mere cheat to betray him. The one small garden of a free gardener was all his need and due, not a garden swollen to a realm; his own hands to use, not the hands of others to command.

I would lay particular emphasis on the idea of sharing the burden, which seems to imply that the Ring is taking Sam's concern and love for Frodo, which was formerly his greatest bulwark against its temptation, and perverting it to try to make him claim it as his own. 'The road to Hell,' as the saying goes, 'is paved with good intentions', and moreover in Tolkien's writing evil's greatest delight is in leading the virtuous astray, probably because of the tragedy of the fall. Nowhere is this more apparent than in chapter XI of the Silmarillion:

And [the Valar] mourned not more for the death of the Trees than for the marring of Fëanor: of the works of Melkor one of the most evil. For Fëanor was made the mightiest in all parts of body and mind, in valour, in endurance, in beauty, in understanding, in skill, in strength and subtlety alike, of all the Children of Ilúvatar, and a bright flame was in him. The works of wonder for the glory of Arda that he might otherwise have wrought only Manwë might in some measure conceive.

Fortunately Sam has an advantage that Fëanor did not: he is not the mightiest of the children of Ilúvatar and at bottom he knows it. This gives him the humility which, when combined with the hobbitish virtues of resilience and common sense, is enough to carry him back to his master, the Ring's appointed bearer. Frodo is by this time sufficiently under the Ring's control to snatch it back jealously, relieving Sam of the need to resist it again.

<font size=1 color=339966>[ 3:48 PM January 16, 2004: Message edited by: The Squatter of Amon Rûdh ]