The thing is, half the major characters are praised half as well as they deserve, and less than half are praised half as much, and they are never told to line up and run a race or something. How do you compare Sam with any other hero? Or even a more similar twain, Aragorn and Turin? How do you tell who had the greater will, physical strength, or greatness of character? LOTR provides the solution: get a sword and call for an axe.
