Oxonmoot 2024

Debates about the nature of Sam and Frodo’s relationship have been varied and contentious. Is their relationship romantic or one of deep friendship? Can it be interpreted as sexual, or it is merely platonic? Is it strictly akin to relationships between batmen and officers during the First World War, or is that paradigm itself complicated by the nature of ambiguous affection in the trenches? These questions cannot be answered simply, and this paper aims to look at their relationship from a different perspective. By reading Sam and Frodo’s relationship through the eight forms of love known as the “Greek Loves”, we can perhaps gain a deeper understanding of their relationship. By reading Sam and Frodo through the Greek Loves we can see how, throughout the Lord of the Rings, they exhibit flavours of all eight forms of love, not as distinct from one another, but as an overlapping and continuous spectrum of love.