![]() But as the story progresses, Frodo sees new sides of Sam in his impromptu poetry, his fascination with elves and stories, and his bravery. Frodo is Sam’s employer, and the distance between them in class and education is clear in early scenes. When a book is presented as a primary source it’s an authorial invitation to look between the lines and search for hidden truthsįrodo and Sam begin (as many great period-piece romances do) with a class difference. There’s at least one novel about a batman and his officer having a romantic relationship ( Look Down in Mercy by William Baxter, 1951), and many accounts of queer soldiers who found they could - while facing nightmarish conditions in the trenches - live out relationships that would have been impossible at home. Tolkien based Frodo and Sam’s relationship on ones he had seen and experienced in World War I - that between a usually upper-class officer and his batman, a usually lower-class man who served as his bodyguard, personal assistant, and constant companion. The exception is Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee - the Ring-bearer with an impossible burden, his loyal gardener, and the bond between them that ends up saving their world. But they do not read as intentionally romantic (and while fan interpretation is a diverse, wonderful thing, this essay is focused on authorial intent). These relationships are high drama powerful examples of male friendship and family. Boromir and Faramir have an intense brotherhood, and have complex feelings about the loyalty owed to their king, Aragorn. Gandalf takes on a sometimes kind, sometimes frustrated grandfatherly role to the hobbits. They fondly tease their other cousin Frodo, and talk down to working-class Sam. Merry and Pippin are cousins, and banter like cousins. There are many relationships between men in the book, most of them platonic. Revisiting the book in the last year, as someone who has been out for many years and who is deeply engaged in making and consuming queer stories, I was amazed to find a same-sex love story at the heart of the narrative. The essayist Italo Calvino defined a classic as “a book that has never finished what it has to say,” and The Lord of the Rings is certainly a classic. But for a long time I avoided it, for the same reason that I learned not to talk about the movies at school: The accusations of queerness somehow tied into a story about elves, hobbits, and looming evil. ![]() ![]() It’s written on my creative DNA as the first book I really loved. I listened to The Lord of the Rings before I knew how to read. So each Wednesday throughout the year, we'll go there and back again, examining how and why the films have endured as modern classics. You can go ahead and put it in your non-Shire diaries with confidence.2021 marks The Lord of the Rings movies' 20th anniversary, and we couldn't imagine exploring the trilogy in just one story. Our major new exhibition, Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth opens on 1 June 2018. Yes, that’s by the Gregorian calendar. So to Bilbo, Frodo and The Hobbit itself, let us say a very hearty Happy Belated Birthday. The first publication of The Hobbit was on 21 September 1937, which makes it 80 years and one day old today. At least that’s true when it isn’t a Leap Year - in those cases, the important date gets nudged to 13 September.Ī touch less confusing is another Hobbit anniversary. The birthday of the Baggins fell on 22 Halimath, which coincides with the Gregorian calendar’s 14 September. Today is 22 September in the Gregorian calendar but in the Hobbit’s calendar, the Shire-reckoning, today is the first day of the tenth month, Winterfilth. Happy Hobbit Day! Though today isn’t actually Bilbo and Frodo’s birthday… It’s because of this that Hobbit Day is celebrated internationally on 22 September. Readers of JRR Tolkien’s Middle-earth novels may recall that both Bilbo and Frodo Baggins were born on the 22nd day of the ninth month, albeit in different years of the The Third Age: Bilbo in the year 2890 and Frodo the year 2968. ![]() It’s Bilbo and Frodo Baggins’ birthday… or is it?
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