Winter has the workforce feeling more burnt out than Frodo at the steps of Mount Doom, trying to remind himself of the taste of food and the feeling of cool grass beneath his hobbit feet.
There’s no exhaustion quite like the chronic fatigue of Frodo when he finally reaches the lava field of Mordor. Dragged down by the weight of the One Ring, contemplating his 1800-mile journey, and wishing his destiny would just play out already, Frodo exhibits a moment of pure humanity. Sometimes, it’s easy to let the evils, the fatigue, and the adult responsibilities of the world get you down, but unlike Frodo, who literally carried the fate of the world around his neck, LOTR fans simply need to commute to work, finish folding the laundry on the chair, and order takeout for dinner. Our lives are quite simple in comparison.
However, the real difference between Lord of the Rings fans and our 4th favorite hobbit is that we don’t have our trusty gardener by our side. Without a faithful friend like Samwise Gamgee (Samwise the Brave), Frodo would have never made it so far as Brie. One step further, Mr. Frodo, and I’ll be farther from home than I’ve ever been. Although the duo became a trio fairly quickly, as Gollum would insist on tagging along, Sam was always by Frodo’s side. Even when he wasn’t physically there, when Gollum laid a lembas bread trap for him, he was with his boy in spirit. And it’s this combination of mental fortitude and Fellowship that brought the Ring all the way to its fate at Mount Doom.
Although Frodo gets a lot of the credit as the Ring Bearer, it was truly Sam who made it all come together. Without Sam, Frodo would still be wrapped up in Shelob’s web somewhere, waiting for Gollum to ransack his belongings and steal the corrupting ring. Alas, hobbits are stronger in groups, and Mr. Frodo certainly needed the help of everyone in the Fellowship, including Gandalf, Legolas, Aragorn, Gimli, and even Merry and Pippin. Without his crew of wayward soldiers, the Ring would have never made it.
That’s the kind of friendship that LOTR fans seek, and with every rewatch, every quote, and every reminiscent moment spent in the Tolkienverse, they get one step closer.
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