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He shook his head, as if finding words useless, and murmured: ‘I love him. He’s like that, and sometimes it shines through, somehow. But I love him whether or no.

frodo and sam
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien is one of my favorite books of all time. It’s a book I can’t read quickly. I have to practically slither my way through it between sentences and paragraphs; creep between the words hugging many of them to my heart. I can’t remember how many times I’ve read it, but each time I do I find something new to love about the book.

If asked, most people who’ve read Lord of the Rings would likely say that Frodo Baggins was the hero of the story. He was the hobbit who finally destroyed the evil ring in the fires of Mt. Doom. But I would heartily disagree. For me the hero has always been Samwise Gamgee, Frodo’s gardener, of all things. Someone who went from cutting the verge*  on “Mr.” Frodo’s lawn to being an unwilling traveling companion, but ending up with a deep regard and love for his fellow hobbit and friend.

In the picture above from Peter Jackson’s Return of the King, the third film in the epic movie series, Frodo has finally recovered from his ordeal in Mt. Doom. He has seen all of his friends except Sam. And when Sam walks in the room and smiles at Frodo, I could just hear Sam thinking the thoughts from that quote. Thinking that no matter how stubborn and foolhardy Frodo had been at times — once even sending Sam away from him thinking Sam was no longer his friend — somehow Frodo’s goodness and courage, his love for all the races of Middle-Earth had shown through all the horror in his determination to get to that mountain.

But no matter what mood had taken Frodo, Sam had loved him to the very end of the ordeal. The truth was, however, without Sam, Frodo would never have made it up that mountain at all. It was Sam’s love for and dedication to Frodo that gave the ring-bearing hobbit the physical strength to keep going.

So of all the wonderful, heroic characters in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, its Samwise Gamgee who is my hero. And I want to be just like him when I grow up.
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*British :  a paved or planted strip of land at the edge of a road :  shoulder

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Writing 101 Day 7

Hook ’em with a quote

A blank page can be intimidating. Sometimes it’s helpful to use someone else’s words to give you a boost. Today, use a quote or passage from something you’ve read to introduce your post. You’ll see a similar technique at the beginning of a book or chapter in the form of an epigraph.

You can write about anything for today’s post — the only requirement is that you begin with a blockquote, which you can create in your post editor by clicking the quotation mark icon.

The type of quote you choose is up to you. Maybe the passage is something you’d like to comment on, or is one of your favorite quotes. Or maybe you read a great essay the other day, and one of its lines made you think.

Pull a quote of any length, but ideally between one sentence to a short paragraph.