[Azaelia of Willowbottom]

Ultimately, there is no one single hero to Lord of the Rings. Its nine central characters, and many of the various people with whom they cross paths all have their struggles and their own heroic moments.

Now that that's said, for the sake of discussion, I'm going to narrow it down to just two characters for a moment: Frodo and Sam.

Frodo
If Lord of the Rings has a central character, it would be him. The beginning of FOTR is narrated with a definite slant towards him. Sam is nothing much more than a quirky sidekick, like Merry and Pippin. As the story travels on, Frodo becomes less reachable to readers: through his shouldering of the burden of the Ring, he becomes less "human", and more of something else. Yes, he suffers greatly, and that's a powerful thing, because he understood, and took it on anyway. But it's a distant, contained sort of suffering, high and sad, painful and beautiful, in its own right--like that of the Elves. Frodo's is the kind of sadness that hits you in the head, if you follow me...

One of my friends with whom I frequently talk Tolkien says that her favorite character is Frodo, because he suffered so much for the good of everyone else. I find Frodo slightly less accessable and easy to relate to for just that reason.

Sam
Somewhere along the journey, almost without my notice of the exact moment of change, Sam becomes less of the cute, bumbling sidekick, and more of a person, with depths of astonishing truth, hope, and wisdom. It's almost an inversion of Frodo. Sam becomes more reachable as the story travels on: Sam becomes less of a caricature and more of a "human" through his shouldering (once or twice literal, and many times figuratively) of the harsh burden of his own best friend. Sam, too, suffers greatly, but it is much more the heartbreaking kind of suffering, open and immediate and all too real, deep and powerful. His is the kind of sadness that hits you in the heart...

I disagree with my friend. My favorite character, and not just of the two, but of the whole book, is Sam, because he went through so much, not in the name of everyone else, but in the name of one person.

It may be Frodo who takes up the actual burden of the Ring...but it is Sam whose indomitable hope and belief in love and true friendship, and in simple things, like gardens and stars, who ensnares readers' hearts, and who makes me cry, every time.