[MLD-Grounds-Keeper-Willie]

Well, I never had thought of it as fear. A good thought but quickly rejected in my mind. I'm not one of those Sam fans, in fact sometimes I hate him, but that's another story. However, I doo admire a lot of his qualities and actions. I think that the fear is what made it so easy for him to step out of the Shire to follow Frodo. Of course he was loyal and brave. Those quotes Nurumaiel gave do clearly show his loyalty to Frodo, and his friendship to him also. However, even though he says it, doesn't mean it is so. He might say that but when the time comes he might not prove that thruthful to his word. It seemed hard for him to leave the Shire, even to follow Frodo. However, he still did. I think had he known the full dangers of taking up the quest he would have had a dilemma on his hands on whether to leave the Shire or to avoid the danger. His naive quality at that point allowed him to miss the realization of what he was getting into. And besides that, there's the fear of not obeying Gandalf's order to go with Frodo. I think his loyalty to Frodo was the real reason he went though, not fear.