Sam

SAM ~ Samwise Gamgee, born 2983 (1380 Shire Reckoning) next-to-youngest of six children, son of Hamfast "the Gaffer" Gamgee and Bell Goodchild. Of Sam there is more to be said than can be told in small bites, so thus let it be simply said that Sam was Faithful. He was first of the Fellowship with Frodo and never left his side through all the dread days and endless voyage into deepening Shadow. When Frodo parted from the Fellowship at Amon Hen Sam would not be left, and together they went into Mordor. Many were their perils, and Sam remained ever the valiant and faithful friend, even bearing Frodo with his own strength when Frodo’s failed, and then for a brief time taking up the burden of the Ring himself, when he thought Frodo had died of the spider Shelob's venom. Though his heart often quailed his spirit never did, and though his faith sometimes faltered it never failed. He walked with Frodo to the very Fires of Doom, and then awaited whatever ending that fate had designed for them. As fate had it, however, his life would be a long and prosperous one. When all the deeds of the War of the Ring were done, Sam returned with his friends to the Shire and there helped set things aright. Then using the gifts the Lady Galadriel had given him in Lothlorien, a mallorn seed and dust blessed by the touch of the Elves, Sam returned the Shire to its most fruitful greenness ever, and nurtured there the only mallorn tree to be found outside Elven lands. During that same time he married Rosie Cotton, and the two were welcomed into Frodo's household at Bag End. Then two years later, Sam made one final journey with Frodo, riding with him to the Grey Havens and bidding his dear friend a tearful - yet perhaps not final - goodbye. Thereafter Sam returned to Bag End, which Frodo had left to him, and in time became Mayor of the Shire. Sam also changed the Gamgee family name to Gardener, and with Rosie had thirteen children, one being his daughter Goldilocks who would marry Pippin's son Faramir Took. He held the seat of Mayor for seven terms, retiring at age 96. Upon the death of his wife Rose in the 60th year of the Fourth Age, (1482 Shire Reckoning) Sam last visited his eldest daughter Elanor, to whom he gave Bilbo and Frodo's Red Book, and was not seen again. Family legend tells that the last Ring-Bearer then passed down to the Gray Havens and sailed over the Sea into the West.