What a Hobbit Wants

Hobbits are simple creatures, their dreams small and their desires earthy. In this, they are not altogether alien to mankind. Indeed, Tolkien seems to have envisioned hobbits as a sort of essential man--an Everyman--stripped of the artifice of civilization's prestige games and left in rustic innocence. In this race of Everymen, Samwise Gamgee is the Everymanliest of the lot. His wants accord with his stature, unswelled by pride and pretense. This was revealed in his moments of testing. When standing before the Elven queen Galadriel, each of the Nine Walkers is, within the silence of his own mind, "offered a choice between a shadow full of fear that lay ahead, and something that he greatly desired" (LotR 377). Sam is not offered wealth or thrones or powers yet more arcane and potent: instead, his desire is "a nice little hole... with a bit of garden of my own" (LotR 377). This temptation is but a test and a preparation for the ordeal to come, when Sam finds himself in possession of the Ring itself, with the power to bring all his desires into reality. Before his mind's eye, the Ring raises visions of conquest and empire: the power to create and destroy. Again, Samwise, whose name means "Half-wise", chooses rightly:

[H]e knew in the core of his heart that he was not large enough to bear such a burden... The one small garden of a free gardener was all his need and due, not a garden swollen to a realm; his own hands to use, not the hands of others to command. (LotR 935)

Even on its face, Sam's humility is admirable. There is, however, more here than meets the eye, I believe. We may view Samwise Gamgee as an image of humility, but in fact what Sam wants is nothing less than mankind's lordly first estate!

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden... And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. (Genesis 2:7-8, 15)

Yes, when God made Adam, He gave him "dominion over ... every living thing" (Genesis 1:28), but the form that dominion took was gardening. But Sam's garden is not merely an occupation: it is an extension of his home, his "nice little hole". His garden is a living space--a world of his own ordered to suit his needs and comforts, which (incidentally) he later shares with a certain Rosie Cotton.

This then is the humbly modest and audaciously grand dream of Samwise Gamgee: mankind's primal task and first blessing, epitomized in a nice little hole with a bit of garden. And Katie and I are audacious enough to dream along with Sam and try to build a bit of garden of our own.