In praise of Sam's Pans

[Nar]

Sam ... took out all the things in his pack. Somehow each of them had become dear to him, if only because he had borne them so far with so much toil. Hardest of all it was to part with his cooking-gear. Tears welled in his eyes at the thought of casting it away.
'Do you remember that bit of rabbit, Mr. Frodo?' he said.' 'And our place under the warm bank in Captain Faramir's country, the day I saw an oliphaunt?'
...
'Talking won't mend nothing,' he muttered to himself, as he gathered up all the things that they had chosen to cast away. ... 'Stinker picked up that orc-shirt, seemingly, and he isn't going to add a sword to it. ... And he isn't going to mess with my pans!'

With that he carried all the gear away to one of the many gaping fissures that scored the land and threw them in. The clatter of his precious pans as they fell down into the dark was like a death-knell to his heart.

Sam loves his pans like a carpenter loves his tools, like a sculptor loves his chisel. Sam's craft and art is caretaking, and far away from his garden and grandfather, with Frodo his only charge, Sam's pans are his most treasured tools ... his 'precious', you might say. The cloaks may be more useful, but Sam's pans seem nearest his heart-- most representative of who Sam is in himself.

Smeagol's 'precious' is only useful to him, Sam uses his 'precious' to take care of his master, such is the difference between them. And yet like Smeagol with his precious, Sam's treasured pans go into a 'gaping fissure'. Sam willingly casts them away for the mission and for love of Frodo. Both Frodo and Sam lose everything but each other --and this seems to be neccessary for the fulfullment of the quest. Agree or Disagree? Why or why not?

For that matter, do you have anything to say in praise of Sam's pans? Or Sam himself?

I hate to think of those pans lying in that dark fissure until the end of time. Maybe someone found them just as someone found the ring. If Sauron's 'precious' gets to be found and found again, I think Sam's 'precious' should be found.

[ October 09, 2002: Message edited by: Nar ]