[Diamond18]

I wonder how much of Sam's character "just happened" as Tolkien was writing the book. I mean, since as Rose Cotton said, it happens somewhere in TTT that he starts to stand out, I wonder if Tolkien started out not differentiating between Merry, Pippin and Sam as the "sidekick hobbits".

While Pippin is the one you could say I "fell in love with", there is of course that marked difference between the duo of Merry and Pippin and that of Sam.

What I'm trying to say (not very clearly, grr) is that I wonder if part of Sam's "wonderfulness" is because his character grew so from the begininng to the end of the book without Tolkien really planning on him being the hero. FotR mainly tells everything from Frodo's viewpoint, but TTT and RotK are almost all Sam.

The question that comes to my mind is this: "Is it possible to conciously create a character like Sam?"

We know that Faramir came unbidden to Tolkien's mind, but did the same happen with Sam? Did Tolkien start out with Frodo and his three sidekicks, then Sam gradually became the devoted, indispensible friend that he is? How much of the Sam we all know and love was predetermined, and how much was sheer inspiration? I just wonder. It makes sense that the best characters are the ones that seem to have lives of their own, so that the author feels he/she is no longer creating, but simply chronicling this "person".

(BTW, at certain moments I did marvel at his devotion to Frodo, but on comtemplation, I don't find it dog-like [in a bad way, anyway] or dorky. I also think it's a shame that some readers today have the mindset of love = sexual attraction, which mars the understanding of Sam's selfless love for Frodo.)