How Frodo and Sam Were "Mostly Gay" - Fantasy Magaze

Contents:

• LORD OF THE RG TAPS A GAY ARCHETYPE
• ‘LORD OF THE RGS’ IS STILL GAYER THAN EVER
• GRACE RANDOLPH SAVAG GALADRIEL IN ‘THE LORD OF THE RGS: THE RGS OF POWER,’ CLAIMS ELROND IS GAY
• THE LORD OF THE RGS FAN SE EMBARRASS ITSELF BY PROMOTG EASILY DISPROVABLE GAY ELV THEORY
• ‘LORD OF THE RGS’ ACTOR VIGGO MORTENSEN FENDS CISN TO PLAY GAY ROLE
• HOW FRODO AND SAM WERE “MOSTLY GAY”

LORD OF THE RG TAPS A GAY ARCHETYPE

Note: This say ntas discsn of homophobia and mentn of suici. Outsi of the safe darkns of the theater, the Mordor-like wasteland of middle school, the movi were synonymo wh the favored sult of the time — “gay. Early-2000s preteen Ameri was a time of gay jok, of “no homo, ” of mockg voic and slurs, and secret, punive vlence enacted the locker room agast anyone who had a whiff of otherns.

He never would have wrten about gay people! He faced a urt-martial 1918 after one of his letters scribed “homosexual relatns wh men his pany. Two years before The Lord of the Rgs was published, war-wng breaker and geni mathematician Alan Turg stood trial for “homosexual acts and gross cency” — that is, beg ught his own home wh another man.

Lewis wrote a letter to Sheldon Vanken (later reprted Vanken’s tobgraphy) that Lewis had received a letter om a “p male homosexual [... The only mentn is a bland reference his bgraphy by Humphrey Carpenter: “As to homosexualy, Tolkien claimed that at neteen he did not even know the word. Tolkien wrote of the openly gay poet W.

‘LORD OF THE RGS’ IS STILL GAYER THAN EVER

As scribed by thor Reynolds Price, at least one member of Tolkien’s iend group, the Inklgs, “separated om his wife and lived a quietly homosexual life.

She beme an in the gay male muny for wrg sympathetilly about same-sex relatnships ancient Greece.

Bilbo and Frodo’s home of Bag End is scribed by other hobbs as “a queer place, and s folk are queerer” — an adjective which had a strong nnotatn of homosexualy by the late 1800s. It’s tricky to apply morn labels to people that they did not claim life — but morn labels clu “straight” and “cisgenr” jt as much as “gay” or “transgenr.

GRACE RANDOLPH SAVAG GALADRIEL IN ‘THE LORD OF THE RGS: THE RGS OF POWER,’ CLAIMS ELROND IS GAY

One of them was Geofey Bache Smh, a poet whose work is nsired homoromantic by morn rears. “Homosexualy the First World War. THE LORD OF THE RINGS giv a signifint purpose and meang to endurg male-male partnerships that many more overtly gay narrativ do not.

The homoerotic aspects of this motif of male partnership are strikgly evint Tolkien’s novel, which Sam is portrayed as much more than jt a close iend to Frodo. While ’s te that Tolkien had a wife and raised a fay, extremely close male iendships were the primary foc of his social life, and ’s clear om his poignant pictns of male pannship that somethg eply homoerotic if not homosexual stirred his soul, somethg that was perhaps both aroed and cshed the trench of World War I.

This same-sex nfiguratn of self-actualizatn echo closely the dividuatn procs for gay men scribed by gay-centered psychologist Mch Walker, who has brought a much-need homosexual perspective to Jungian psychology and elucidated the signifince of “a special, erotic, tw ‘brother’ who is felt to be the ‘source of spiratn’” a gay man’s psyche. Walker has termed this ner archetypal figure the “Double, ” who appears the unnsc ner world of all men, straight or gay, as the unrpng for ego inty and the source of “brotherly love. ” Yet for gay men, Walker explas, this archetypal beg is erotilly charged and be the primary “soul figure, ” exactly the role that Sam plays for Frodo, as “a soul-mate of tense warmth and closens” who n “unlock creative procs” and lead to “signifint self-realizatns.

THE LORD OF THE RGS FAN SE EMBARRASS ITSELF BY PROMOTG EASILY DISPROVABLE GAY ELV THEORY

The relatnship between Frodo and Sam is not only an o to same-sex love but also an archetypal dynamic wh each gay man, where self-reflectn may reveal the existence of an ner lover or a “soul figure” and gui who lov jt as Sam lov Frodo, and who, like Sam, n spur to reach our greatt potential. In the two films so far released, Jackson has elected not to show much of the homoerotic behavr that the novel scrib as occurrg between Sam and Frodo.

This means that gay filmgoers mt e their imagatns to “re-eroticize” the partnership between Sam and Frodo even as they wns a particularly rich, eroticized portrayal of the shadow the form of Gollum. Gollum’s embodiment of both shadow and eros actually parallels the unnsc psyche of so many gay men, where homosexual eros has been eply reprsed due to the relentls shamg of parents, relign, and society. Here is a strikg image for each gay man to nsir as a possible reflectn of his own ferr, fantile, cshed, gay shadow-self.

How hearteng that the film also amplifi Frodo’s growg empathy wh Gollum, offerg a visn of the approach a gay man n take when nontg his own feelgs of ferry. For any gay man wishg for te self-disvery, the solutn may be to follow Frodo and velop empathy for his own “ner Gollum.

‘LORD OF THE RGS’ ACTOR VIGGO MORTENSEN FENDS CISN TO PLAY GAY ROLE

” In facg the shadow this way, a gay man may also ga a fuller experience of prevly reprsed homosexual eros. Jt as Gollum fds himself an active argument wh another part of himself, so too a gay man n engage his own “ner Gollum” a dialogue of ever-growg unrstandg.

HOW FRODO AND SAM WERE “MOSTLY GAY”

Jt as Frodo to know Gollum the ntext of his partnership wh Sam, so too a gay man n enjoy the support of his own “soul figure” the nontatn wh his shadow, g the film saga as spiratn for this relatnship. Although Jackson has downplayed the homoerotic aspects of the “double” relatnship between Sam and Frodo, the films still offer a powerful visual pictn of affectnate male-male partnership and s symbolic importance. Wh some referencg to the origal novel and a ltle erotic fantasy, gay filmgoers n rtore the sexual unn of Frodo and Sam (as well as the other pairgs, such as Merry and Pipp, Gimli and Legolas, Aragorn and Boromir).

Each of n embark on our own psychologil versn of this journey orr to bee more whole, self-actualized, and liberated, thereby molg a new way of gay beg and beg for a eply troubled and hateful world sperately need of a more thentilly lovg alternative.