70 THE FAITHFUL READER ash and toxic fumes. “I can’t see any hope of it now,” Frodo says, “But still I’ve got to do the best I can.” Sam debates with the doubts in his mind: “It’s all quite useless. He [Frodo] said so himself. You are the fool, going on hoping and toiling. … You might just as well lie down now and give it up. You’ll never get to the top anyway.” But Sam ignores the voices in his head and presses on, showing his true heroism in literally carrying Frodo over his shoulders step-by-step up the scorching side of the mountain. Huddling in small breaks to conserve their energy, Sam does his utmost to encourage Frodo, and in their moments of greatest despair, they find the strength they need: There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach. Sam is reminded of the importance of their mission and why they chose to sacrifice their lives. It was Gildor, one of the Elves they met traveling to the Gray Havens back while the hobbits were still just leaving the Shire, who encouraged them to “be of good hope” because “courage is found in unlikely places.” That courage is what they need now. Without it, the peace of the entire world is in jeopardy. The War to End All Wars Tolkien knew a thing or two about courage, as he was an officer in WWI and fought at the Battle of the Somme, the first day of which killed over 57,000 and is known as the bloodiest day in the history of the British Army. He served over enlisted men who fought with so much bravery that they directly inspired his creation of Sam’s character. It is unsurprising that in the trenches and camps and the horror he witnessed every day, Tolkien began scribbling down stories of Middle-earth, focusing on Eärendil, the figure representative of the brightest star revered by the Elves. It explains why we have lines of testament from Tolkien like, “Oft hope is born when
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