Meta-notes on LoTR: The Unnamed Actor
LoTR is a clearly spiritual and also subtly theistic work. The purpose of this file is to collect theistic references and apparent instances of divine intervention.
The Shadow of the Past:
'I can put it no plainer than by saying that Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, and not by its maker. In that case you were also meant to have it.'
'I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
'So do I,' said Gandalf, 'and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.'
Gandalf has more time than Frodo, but no more choice. A doom, as Almare explained, is a life-defining challenge, and everyone's doom is set by the Unnamed Actor.
Once a goal is defined, one generally creates a program to achieve it. But what program is there when the goal is by definition unreachable? In LoTR it seems to consist of pushing as far as one can in the right direction and then hoping or praying for a miracle - except that Frodo never had any hope, and hobbits don't have a religion. Hobbits' wishes are the equivalent of our prayers. The destruction of the Ring always depended ultimately on the Unnamed Actor. Does faithfulness to the wish then constitute success? Maybe.
Fog on the Barrow Downs:
The sword's destiny will be worked out without Merry's knowledge - by the same unnamed actor that made sure Bilbo found the Ring?
The Council of Elrond:
The voice in Faramir's and Boromir's dream is 'a voice remote but clear' from the West. It would be tempting to make this out to be Gandalf's. Is this plausible? It depends when and why Gandalf's attention was turned to Gondor. If he sent the dream, it was before he knew of any specific catastrophe coming on Gondor: Faramir's dream took place the night before the loss of Osgiliath, which happened on June 20 and Gandalf learned that the Nazgul 'had arisen again' only when he received news of that defeat from an unnamed source. The 'cloud of anxiety' that he felt '[a]t the end of June' might be a motivator, but June 19th is not very close to the end of the month.
Alternatives to Gandalf: The dream might have come directly from one of the Valar, however they do not generally act directly in LoTR; divine intervention takes place subtly and from a higher level. Galadriel is close enough to feel responsible for sending dream-messages should that be something she does, however there is no account of her ever sending any to anyone.
Most likely Gandalf was proactive about contacting Gondor once Frodo's journey had a definite destination (suggested by Gandalf) and starting date.
Bilbo volunteers - jokingly, but sincerely - to protect Frodo from the choice that will otherwise be his? Frodo feels 'as if he was awaiting the pronouncement of some doom' and 'as if some other will was using his small voice." This the second time his voice has been used by another power, and this time it isn't clear who or what that other power is. The Ring might urge him, eager to get out of there any way It can, but he ought to recognize that by now. Therefore I suspect an Authorial intrusion by the unnamed Power that meant Bilbo to find the Ring and Frodo to have It. That would make this Frodo's first prophetic moment in the biblical sense. (When you empty yourself before something greater than yourself, your capacity to receive increases beyond your previously perceived limits - R. Simon Jacobson.)
The Ring Goes South:
Elrond's charge: 'The Ring-bearer is setting out on the Quest of Mount Doom.' He does not talk about the quest to destroy the Ring, or even to find the Fire in which it was forged. Getting to Mount Doom is enough to hope for - and more than Frodo dares hope for. (At the beginning of the chapter, he called the quest 'this hopeless journey'.)
The charge laid on Frodo contains considerable irony: 'neither to cast away the Ring, nor to deliver it to any servant of the Enemy." Instead of charging Frodo to find the Fire and cast the Ring into it, Elrond forbids him to cast it away under any circumstances. No exception is made for its destruction. This stated charge includes an unstated prayer: That if the Ring-bearer should win through to the Fire, or even to the Mountain, the Unnamed Actor will arrange for the Ring to be destroyed there rather than delivered to the Enemy.
The Breaking of the Fellowship:
'Wandering aimlessly at first in the wood, Frodo found that his feet were leading him up towards the slopes of the hill.' If this is a test to see what influence the Ring will have on him, then he must be waiting to see if it influences his direction - or, more exactly, to test what will guide his steps in the absence of any parent or older brother figure. The Ring? The Unnamed Actor? His own desire for more knowledge?
The spiritual climax of FoTR: 'It is not good trying to escape you. But I'm glad, Sam. I cannot tell you how glad. Come along! It is plain that we were meant to go together.' For the first time, Frodo adopts the language that Gandalf used back in the Shire: "I can put it no plainer than by saying that Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, and not by its maker. In that case you were also meant to have it.' The fourth sign comes from the highest, unnamed level. The reason that Frodo can continue on his impossible suicide mission is that he can say something was meant to be and mean it. The reason that Sam can go with him is demonstrated rather than explicated. 'So Frodo and Sam set off on the last stage of the Quest together.'
The Riders of Rohan:
Aragorn introduces himself: 'I serve no man.' This leaves open the question of what entity other than a man he might serve; another subtle theistic reference.
'Seven nights ago Shadowfax returned' knowing that Gandalf would need him before Gwaihir carried Gandalf to Rohan. Another theistic reference.
The White Rider:
After his death, 'I wandered far on roads that I will not tell.' No reason is given, however, 'Naked was I sent back' although no mention is made of who did the sending. Therefore these are references either to Valinor and the Valar or to the Unnamed Actor.
The Taming of Smeagol:
Frodo 'had not Sam's faith in this slender grey line' but has achieved an articulate faith in the Unnamed Author of his doom, which Sam shares and will state to himself later and differently.
"I daresay," said Frodo. "But what he means to do is another matter."' What other matter? This can be understood in a Rohirric way and in a Gandalfian way. No one in Rohan would kill someone simply because they don't trust him because doing so would violate their sense of honor. But Gandalf, and I think Frodo, understands that all intentions are based on partial knowledge, and the the Unnamed Actor may use even bad intentions to good ends. 'My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end,' Gandalf said in The Shadow of the Past, along with the lines that Frodo now remembers: 'Be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends.' Part of wisdom is knowing that not all ends are seen; Frodo is becoming wise.
'Sam . . .seemed to sense that there was something odd about his master's mood' - not just that he was answering an absent Gandalf, but something that put 'the matter . . .beyond argument'. Is Sam aware of interference from the Ring? From the Unnamed Actor?
Elderberry Wine says, and Cara agrees, speaking of Sam's vision at Sammath Naur, that it is granted to him, and not just the result of his ability to see. Sam can see the light in Frodo all on his own, but the visions here and at Sammath Naur, both confrontations with Gollum and the Ring, are of a different and more complex quality. Who does the granting remains an open question. I think that since the visions granted to Sam are of Frodo, he has them by virtue of his being so essentially connected with Frodo - who has other visions entirely at other times entirely.
'Smeagol will swear never, never to let Him have it. Never. Smeagol will save it.' With these words, Gollum authors his own dooom; he will 'never . . . let Him have it', although that means falling alive into the Fires of Doom and dying with It. He does not make this exact oath when he calls the Ring to witness, but it is the wish of his heart, as much as is Frodo's 'I do really wish to destroy it!' (from The Shadow of the Past). Gollum's wish comes from hate and fear, Frodo's from love and fear, and the Unnamed Actor is always witness to wishes, even impossible ones - the hobbits' equivalent of prayer.
The Black Gate is Closed:
Frodo's dream - a message from or memory of Gandalf? or from the Unnamed Actor, who Frodo experiences through Gandalf? - has left him 'grim and set, but resolute. . . He cowered no longer, and his eyes were clear.'
'"I am commanded to go to the land of Mordor and therefore I shall go," said Frodo. "If there is only one way, then I must take it. What comes after must come." Not only has Frodo accepted the necessity that Sam still seeks to avoid, but his way of speaking of it has grown more harsh and grand. 'I am commanded', like Aragorn's 'I serve no man', leaves the great question open. Elrond once commanded, after Frodo volunteered; the Ring commands, but only to be put on, not to go anywhere in particular; and the content of the previous night's dream has vanished, leaving only this change of tone.
Shortly after, Sam experiences 'a look in [Frodo's] face and a tone in his voice that he had not known before' - quite likely also results of that undescribed dream.
When he decides 'His eyes were closed, as if he were dreaming, or looking inward into his heart and memory.'
'You swore a promise by what you call the Precious. Remember that! It will hold you to it; but it will seek a way to twist it to your own undoing.' Gollum swore to 'serve the master of the Precious' - which in the event he does by dying, and taking the Ring to its doom when Frodo cannot - which was surely never due to Its twisting!
Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit:
'[Sam] saw his master's face very clearly, and his hands, too, lying at rest on the ground beside him. He was reminded suddenly of Frodo as he had lain, asleep in the house of Elrond, after his deadly wound. Then as he had kept watch Sam had noticed that at times a light seemed to be shining faintly within; but now the light was even clearer and stronger. Frodo's face was peaceful, the marks of fear and care had left it; but it looked old, old and beautiful, as if the chiselling of the shaping years was now revealed in many fine lines that had before been hidden, though the identity of the face was not changed. Not that Sam Gamgee put it that way to himself. He shook his head, as if finding words useless, and murmured: "I love him. He's like that, and sometimes it shines through, somehow. But I love him, whether or no."'
Sam's love for Frodo - and Frodo's love for Sam, which is demonstrated although not stated to the satisfaction of many readers - is inseparable from the 'light . . . shining faintly within' which is intrinsic to who Frodo is: 'He's like that.' (So is Sam.) I think that Sam means that the quest has made visible qualities that Sam loved, articulately or not, all along. This love is deeply personal - as Sam said at Anduin, he would die faster if they were separated - but also inseparable from the most unselfish of impulses, the willingness to die in even hopeless defense of their homeland and (previously unknown) world. They could not love each other apart from this wider love, because it is so much part of who they both are.
The clearer, stronger light parallels both Frodo's (and Sam's) clearer, stronger will and Sam's (and Frodo's) clearer, stronger love. It reveals Frodo, love and will in their eternal aspect - 'old and beautiful' - chiselled by time and change so that the timeless and changeless becomes manifest. Much of Sam's sprituality centers around light and darkness, around finding a connection with (eternal) light as darkness engulfs him. Without this spiritual connection his will alone can't sustain him; I think that this is the meaning of the dark cloud over his heart during the first approach to Mordor.
Sam's spiritual connection is inseparable from (but not defined by) his love for Frodo. It is not like Sam to try to tease apart all these strands (especially since, as Kohelet says, a triple cord is not easily broken); light, love and doing what he has to (will) aren't separate in his life, because all work together within the context of the quest.
Light is Sam's symbol more than Frodo's; Cara points out that Frodo never sees the light in himself, only in the various objects that hold bits of the light of the Two Trees. Not everybody has the same spiritual language. Because Sam's spiritual symbols are so connected with Frodo, it is possible to miss the that dimentsion in this scene.
The Window on the West:
'Before they ate, Faramir and all his men turned and faced west in a moment of silence. . . "[W]e look towards Numenor that was beyond to Elvenhome that is and to that which is beyond Elvenhome and ever will be. Have you no such custom at meat?"'
It is as best debatable whether 'that which is beyond Elvenhome and ever will be' includes Valinor, which was once part of Arda, and will have no purpose after Arda perishes; therefore I think that it refers to the truly eternal reality beyond Valinor.
'"No," said Frodo, feeling strangely rustic and untutored.' This is a hobbit's only recorded observation of a religious ceremony, and he find it totally unfamiliar, showing that no such thing exists in the Shire. But he recognizes something of the nature of the ritual, for he goes on, '"But if we are guests, we bow to our host, and after we have eaten we rise and thank him." "That we do also," said Faramir.'
The Forbidden Pool:
'You shall go now with my blessing upon you'. Frodo will rely on this blessing; Faramir, the only person depicted taking part in a religious ritual, here acts in a priestly role. It is not clear whether he regards the source of blessing as the Valar or the Unnamed Actor but it is something more than rhetorical, and his to give.
The Stairs of Cirith Ungol:
Sam asks, echoing Bilbo's way of speaking, 'I wonder what kind of tale we've fallen into?' and Frodo instantly shares the premise that they are in one - a premise which assumes an Author, however distant, and a purpose, however unclear: 'I don't know. And that's the way of a real tale. Take anyone that you're fond of. You may know, or guess, what kind of a tale it is, happy-ending or sad-ending, but the people in it don't know.' This is religion as hobbits can conceive of it, in terms of a metaphor familiar and homely, yet almost infinitely malleable, since there are all kinds of tales, and story-telling is a way to learn about beings other than hobbits.
Sam - picking up the spiritual implications - thinks immediately of Beren and Earendil, and the light of the Silmaril: 'I never thought of that before! We've got - you've got some of the light of it in that star-glass that the Lady gave you! Why, to think of it, we're in the same tale still!' The light of Aman, blessed by Varda and captured first in the Silmaril and then in the phial connects them physically with their precursors in the 'great tale', all of whom were part of Iluvatar's 'third theme' - the living beings meant (among other purposes) to integrate, through their actions, all Melkor's/Sauron's intended discord into the Music of Creation. This framework, however incompletely intuited, gives meaning to their lives and struggles, and even their impending deaths: 'Our part will end later - or sooner.'
Shelob's Lair:
'But you must be the guard and hold back the eyes. Here, take the star-glass. Do not be afraid. Hold it up and watch!' There is a possible implication here that Sam is afraid to take the Phial, but I can't tell how seriously to take it, given how many other causes there are for fear. I think that the admonition not to be afraid may apply specifically to being killed here and now because there is still something to try - in which Frodo has great confidence. He was 'meant to' carry the Ring, and if Sam was 'meant to' go with him; I think trusts whatever Power meant those things to happen, that they won't be deserted now.
Minas Tirith:
'Then Pippin looked the old man in the eye, for pride stirred strangely within him, still stung by the scorn and suspicion in that cold voice.' Why strangely? It must be a feeling he is not used to, or else stronger than he is used to. He is used to being thought not of much worth - or a clueless source of trouble - by greater people, but scorn and suspicion are new, a sort of negative being taken seriously, to which he feels an equal and opposite reaction.
'Little service, no doubt, will so great a lord of Men think to find in a hobbit, a halfling from the northern Shire; yet such as it is, I will offer it, in payment of my debt.' Gandalf will say of this, 'I do not know what put it into your head, or your heart, to do that. But it was well done.' This, together with 'strangely' above, suggests without definitely asserting Outside guidance.
The Tower of Cirith Ungol:
Sam 'was utterly alone' but not unguided. Guidance comes in this chapter when he does things for no clear reason: Like the bible says, the righteous shall live by his emunah - a word that combines faith and faithfulness, which are distinct in English. It is not Sam's frame of reference, but he illustrates it.
'Without any clear purpose, he drew out the Ring and put it on again.' He is beginning to be guided, but by what? He puts on the Ring again in the same place as before; is this because it is 'the very cleft where he had put on the Ring' and, in Shelob's criss-crossing web of time, also in some sense the same time? The Ring has no particular reason to get itself put on at this moment; on the other hand, it is constantly more insistent closer to Mordor. Even if the influence is evil, Sam's openness to it allows guidance from the Unnamed Actor as well.
'But just as he was about to pass under its great arch he felt a shock: as if he had run into some we like Shelob's, only invisible. He could see no obstacle, but something too strong for his will to overcome barred the way' - not his physical strength, but his will. For his second attempt to get past the Watchers, '[h]ardening his will, Sam thrust forward once again, and halted with a jerk, staggering as if from a blow... Then, greatly daring, because he could think of nothing else to do, answering a sudden thought that came to him' -from the Unnamed Actor? from the Phial itself? Regardless, Sam is still/again open to being guided - 'he slowly drew out the phial of Galadriel. . . .slowly he felt their will waver and crumble into fear.' This affirms Sam's intuition that the Watcher's will alone blocked his entrance.
'[A]t the vain end of his long journey and his grief, moved by what thought in his heart he could not tell' - again, Sam is being guided, and he knows tht it is through his heart - 'Sam begin to sing. His voice sounded thin and quavering...forlorn and weary. . .He murmured...fleeting glimpses of the country of his home. And then suddenly new strength rose in him' - either from himself or a gift - 'and his voice rang out, while words of his own came unbidden' - which is a bit of an oxymoron; they are his words, but coming apparently of their own volition (which may be an insight into JRR's process of writing as well) - 'to fit the simple tune.' The words are of 'western lands', 'Elven-stars', 'stars forever dwell' - an evocation of Valinor, where he and Frodo are forever connected. I don't think that this is deliberate on Sam's part, since he has only begun to intuit Frodo's eternal existence as 'one who has passed the shadows'; rather I think it is part of the same intuition. The words shape themselves to an evolving understanding, perhaps influenced by some feeling for where the new strength is coming from.
"I got through, and I'm going to get out.". . . Sam drew out the elven-glass of Galadriel again. As if to do honour to his faithful brown hobbit-hand that had done such deeds, the phial blazed forth suddenly, so that all the shadowy court was lit with a dazzling radiance like lightning; but it remained steady and did not pass. "Gilthoniel, A Elbereth!" Sam cried. For, why he did not know' - which is Sam's watchword.
The Shadow of the Past:
'I can put it no plainer than by saying that Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, and not by its maker. In that case you were also meant to have it.'
'I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
'So do I,' said Gandalf, 'and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.'
Gandalf has more time than Frodo, but no more choice. A doom, as Almare explained, is a life-defining challenge, and everyone's doom is set by the Unnamed Actor.
Once a goal is defined, one generally creates a program to achieve it. But what program is there when the goal is by definition unreachable? In LoTR it seems to consist of pushing as far as one can in the right direction and then hoping or praying for a miracle - except that Frodo never had any hope, and hobbits don't have a religion. Hobbits' wishes are the equivalent of our prayers. The destruction of the Ring always depended ultimately on the Unnamed Actor. Does faithfulness to the wish then constitute success? Maybe.
Fog on the Barrow Downs:
The sword's destiny will be worked out without Merry's knowledge - by the same unnamed actor that made sure Bilbo found the Ring?
The Council of Elrond:
The voice in Faramir's and Boromir's dream is 'a voice remote but clear' from the West. It would be tempting to make this out to be Gandalf's. Is this plausible? It depends when and why Gandalf's attention was turned to Gondor. If he sent the dream, it was before he knew of any specific catastrophe coming on Gondor: Faramir's dream took place the night before the loss of Osgiliath, which happened on June 20 and Gandalf learned that the Nazgul 'had arisen again' only when he received news of that defeat from an unnamed source. The 'cloud of anxiety' that he felt '[a]t the end of June' might be a motivator, but June 19th is not very close to the end of the month.
Alternatives to Gandalf: The dream might have come directly from one of the Valar, however they do not generally act directly in LoTR; divine intervention takes place subtly and from a higher level. Galadriel is close enough to feel responsible for sending dream-messages should that be something she does, however there is no account of her ever sending any to anyone.
Most likely Gandalf was proactive about contacting Gondor once Frodo's journey had a definite destination (suggested by Gandalf) and starting date.
Bilbo volunteers - jokingly, but sincerely - to protect Frodo from the choice that will otherwise be his? Frodo feels 'as if he was awaiting the pronouncement of some doom' and 'as if some other will was using his small voice." This the second time his voice has been used by another power, and this time it isn't clear who or what that other power is. The Ring might urge him, eager to get out of there any way It can, but he ought to recognize that by now. Therefore I suspect an Authorial intrusion by the unnamed Power that meant Bilbo to find the Ring and Frodo to have It. That would make this Frodo's first prophetic moment in the biblical sense. (When you empty yourself before something greater than yourself, your capacity to receive increases beyond your previously perceived limits - R. Simon Jacobson.)
The Ring Goes South:
Elrond's charge: 'The Ring-bearer is setting out on the Quest of Mount Doom.' He does not talk about the quest to destroy the Ring, or even to find the Fire in which it was forged. Getting to Mount Doom is enough to hope for - and more than Frodo dares hope for. (At the beginning of the chapter, he called the quest 'this hopeless journey'.)
The charge laid on Frodo contains considerable irony: 'neither to cast away the Ring, nor to deliver it to any servant of the Enemy." Instead of charging Frodo to find the Fire and cast the Ring into it, Elrond forbids him to cast it away under any circumstances. No exception is made for its destruction. This stated charge includes an unstated prayer: That if the Ring-bearer should win through to the Fire, or even to the Mountain, the Unnamed Actor will arrange for the Ring to be destroyed there rather than delivered to the Enemy.
The Breaking of the Fellowship:
'Wandering aimlessly at first in the wood, Frodo found that his feet were leading him up towards the slopes of the hill.' If this is a test to see what influence the Ring will have on him, then he must be waiting to see if it influences his direction - or, more exactly, to test what will guide his steps in the absence of any parent or older brother figure. The Ring? The Unnamed Actor? His own desire for more knowledge?
The spiritual climax of FoTR: 'It is not good trying to escape you. But I'm glad, Sam. I cannot tell you how glad. Come along! It is plain that we were meant to go together.' For the first time, Frodo adopts the language that Gandalf used back in the Shire: "I can put it no plainer than by saying that Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, and not by its maker. In that case you were also meant to have it.' The fourth sign comes from the highest, unnamed level. The reason that Frodo can continue on his impossible suicide mission is that he can say something was meant to be and mean it. The reason that Sam can go with him is demonstrated rather than explicated. 'So Frodo and Sam set off on the last stage of the Quest together.'
The Riders of Rohan:
Aragorn introduces himself: 'I serve no man.' This leaves open the question of what entity other than a man he might serve; another subtle theistic reference.
'Seven nights ago Shadowfax returned' knowing that Gandalf would need him before Gwaihir carried Gandalf to Rohan. Another theistic reference.
The White Rider:
After his death, 'I wandered far on roads that I will not tell.' No reason is given, however, 'Naked was I sent back' although no mention is made of who did the sending. Therefore these are references either to Valinor and the Valar or to the Unnamed Actor.
The Taming of Smeagol:
Frodo 'had not Sam's faith in this slender grey line' but has achieved an articulate faith in the Unnamed Author of his doom, which Sam shares and will state to himself later and differently.
"I daresay," said Frodo. "But what he means to do is another matter."' What other matter? This can be understood in a Rohirric way and in a Gandalfian way. No one in Rohan would kill someone simply because they don't trust him because doing so would violate their sense of honor. But Gandalf, and I think Frodo, understands that all intentions are based on partial knowledge, and the the Unnamed Actor may use even bad intentions to good ends. 'My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end,' Gandalf said in The Shadow of the Past, along with the lines that Frodo now remembers: 'Be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends.' Part of wisdom is knowing that not all ends are seen; Frodo is becoming wise.
'Sam . . .seemed to sense that there was something odd about his master's mood' - not just that he was answering an absent Gandalf, but something that put 'the matter . . .beyond argument'. Is Sam aware of interference from the Ring? From the Unnamed Actor?
Elderberry Wine says, and Cara agrees, speaking of Sam's vision at Sammath Naur, that it is granted to him, and not just the result of his ability to see. Sam can see the light in Frodo all on his own, but the visions here and at Sammath Naur, both confrontations with Gollum and the Ring, are of a different and more complex quality. Who does the granting remains an open question. I think that since the visions granted to Sam are of Frodo, he has them by virtue of his being so essentially connected with Frodo - who has other visions entirely at other times entirely.
'Smeagol will swear never, never to let Him have it. Never. Smeagol will save it.' With these words, Gollum authors his own dooom; he will 'never . . . let Him have it', although that means falling alive into the Fires of Doom and dying with It. He does not make this exact oath when he calls the Ring to witness, but it is the wish of his heart, as much as is Frodo's 'I do really wish to destroy it!' (from The Shadow of the Past). Gollum's wish comes from hate and fear, Frodo's from love and fear, and the Unnamed Actor is always witness to wishes, even impossible ones - the hobbits' equivalent of prayer.
The Black Gate is Closed:
Frodo's dream - a message from or memory of Gandalf? or from the Unnamed Actor, who Frodo experiences through Gandalf? - has left him 'grim and set, but resolute. . . He cowered no longer, and his eyes were clear.'
'"I am commanded to go to the land of Mordor and therefore I shall go," said Frodo. "If there is only one way, then I must take it. What comes after must come." Not only has Frodo accepted the necessity that Sam still seeks to avoid, but his way of speaking of it has grown more harsh and grand. 'I am commanded', like Aragorn's 'I serve no man', leaves the great question open. Elrond once commanded, after Frodo volunteered; the Ring commands, but only to be put on, not to go anywhere in particular; and the content of the previous night's dream has vanished, leaving only this change of tone.
Shortly after, Sam experiences 'a look in [Frodo's] face and a tone in his voice that he had not known before' - quite likely also results of that undescribed dream.
When he decides 'His eyes were closed, as if he were dreaming, or looking inward into his heart and memory.'
'You swore a promise by what you call the Precious. Remember that! It will hold you to it; but it will seek a way to twist it to your own undoing.' Gollum swore to 'serve the master of the Precious' - which in the event he does by dying, and taking the Ring to its doom when Frodo cannot - which was surely never due to Its twisting!
Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit:
'[Sam] saw his master's face very clearly, and his hands, too, lying at rest on the ground beside him. He was reminded suddenly of Frodo as he had lain, asleep in the house of Elrond, after his deadly wound. Then as he had kept watch Sam had noticed that at times a light seemed to be shining faintly within; but now the light was even clearer and stronger. Frodo's face was peaceful, the marks of fear and care had left it; but it looked old, old and beautiful, as if the chiselling of the shaping years was now revealed in many fine lines that had before been hidden, though the identity of the face was not changed. Not that Sam Gamgee put it that way to himself. He shook his head, as if finding words useless, and murmured: "I love him. He's like that, and sometimes it shines through, somehow. But I love him, whether or no."'
Sam's love for Frodo - and Frodo's love for Sam, which is demonstrated although not stated to the satisfaction of many readers - is inseparable from the 'light . . . shining faintly within' which is intrinsic to who Frodo is: 'He's like that.' (So is Sam.) I think that Sam means that the quest has made visible qualities that Sam loved, articulately or not, all along. This love is deeply personal - as Sam said at Anduin, he would die faster if they were separated - but also inseparable from the most unselfish of impulses, the willingness to die in even hopeless defense of their homeland and (previously unknown) world. They could not love each other apart from this wider love, because it is so much part of who they both are.
The clearer, stronger light parallels both Frodo's (and Sam's) clearer, stronger will and Sam's (and Frodo's) clearer, stronger love. It reveals Frodo, love and will in their eternal aspect - 'old and beautiful' - chiselled by time and change so that the timeless and changeless becomes manifest. Much of Sam's sprituality centers around light and darkness, around finding a connection with (eternal) light as darkness engulfs him. Without this spiritual connection his will alone can't sustain him; I think that this is the meaning of the dark cloud over his heart during the first approach to Mordor.
Sam's spiritual connection is inseparable from (but not defined by) his love for Frodo. It is not like Sam to try to tease apart all these strands (especially since, as Kohelet says, a triple cord is not easily broken); light, love and doing what he has to (will) aren't separate in his life, because all work together within the context of the quest.
Light is Sam's symbol more than Frodo's; Cara points out that Frodo never sees the light in himself, only in the various objects that hold bits of the light of the Two Trees. Not everybody has the same spiritual language. Because Sam's spiritual symbols are so connected with Frodo, it is possible to miss the that dimentsion in this scene.
The Window on the West:
'Before they ate, Faramir and all his men turned and faced west in a moment of silence. . . "[W]e look towards Numenor that was beyond to Elvenhome that is and to that which is beyond Elvenhome and ever will be. Have you no such custom at meat?"'
It is as best debatable whether 'that which is beyond Elvenhome and ever will be' includes Valinor, which was once part of Arda, and will have no purpose after Arda perishes; therefore I think that it refers to the truly eternal reality beyond Valinor.
'"No," said Frodo, feeling strangely rustic and untutored.' This is a hobbit's only recorded observation of a religious ceremony, and he find it totally unfamiliar, showing that no such thing exists in the Shire. But he recognizes something of the nature of the ritual, for he goes on, '"But if we are guests, we bow to our host, and after we have eaten we rise and thank him." "That we do also," said Faramir.'
The Forbidden Pool:
'You shall go now with my blessing upon you'. Frodo will rely on this blessing; Faramir, the only person depicted taking part in a religious ritual, here acts in a priestly role. It is not clear whether he regards the source of blessing as the Valar or the Unnamed Actor but it is something more than rhetorical, and his to give.
The Stairs of Cirith Ungol:
Sam asks, echoing Bilbo's way of speaking, 'I wonder what kind of tale we've fallen into?' and Frodo instantly shares the premise that they are in one - a premise which assumes an Author, however distant, and a purpose, however unclear: 'I don't know. And that's the way of a real tale. Take anyone that you're fond of. You may know, or guess, what kind of a tale it is, happy-ending or sad-ending, but the people in it don't know.' This is religion as hobbits can conceive of it, in terms of a metaphor familiar and homely, yet almost infinitely malleable, since there are all kinds of tales, and story-telling is a way to learn about beings other than hobbits.
Sam - picking up the spiritual implications - thinks immediately of Beren and Earendil, and the light of the Silmaril: 'I never thought of that before! We've got - you've got some of the light of it in that star-glass that the Lady gave you! Why, to think of it, we're in the same tale still!' The light of Aman, blessed by Varda and captured first in the Silmaril and then in the phial connects them physically with their precursors in the 'great tale', all of whom were part of Iluvatar's 'third theme' - the living beings meant (among other purposes) to integrate, through their actions, all Melkor's/Sauron's intended discord into the Music of Creation. This framework, however incompletely intuited, gives meaning to their lives and struggles, and even their impending deaths: 'Our part will end later - or sooner.'
Shelob's Lair:
'But you must be the guard and hold back the eyes. Here, take the star-glass. Do not be afraid. Hold it up and watch!' There is a possible implication here that Sam is afraid to take the Phial, but I can't tell how seriously to take it, given how many other causes there are for fear. I think that the admonition not to be afraid may apply specifically to being killed here and now because there is still something to try - in which Frodo has great confidence. He was 'meant to' carry the Ring, and if Sam was 'meant to' go with him; I think trusts whatever Power meant those things to happen, that they won't be deserted now.
Minas Tirith:
'Then Pippin looked the old man in the eye, for pride stirred strangely within him, still stung by the scorn and suspicion in that cold voice.' Why strangely? It must be a feeling he is not used to, or else stronger than he is used to. He is used to being thought not of much worth - or a clueless source of trouble - by greater people, but scorn and suspicion are new, a sort of negative being taken seriously, to which he feels an equal and opposite reaction.
'Little service, no doubt, will so great a lord of Men think to find in a hobbit, a halfling from the northern Shire; yet such as it is, I will offer it, in payment of my debt.' Gandalf will say of this, 'I do not know what put it into your head, or your heart, to do that. But it was well done.' This, together with 'strangely' above, suggests without definitely asserting Outside guidance.
The Tower of Cirith Ungol:
Sam 'was utterly alone' but not unguided. Guidance comes in this chapter when he does things for no clear reason: Like the bible says, the righteous shall live by his emunah - a word that combines faith and faithfulness, which are distinct in English. It is not Sam's frame of reference, but he illustrates it.
'Without any clear purpose, he drew out the Ring and put it on again.' He is beginning to be guided, but by what? He puts on the Ring again in the same place as before; is this because it is 'the very cleft where he had put on the Ring' and, in Shelob's criss-crossing web of time, also in some sense the same time? The Ring has no particular reason to get itself put on at this moment; on the other hand, it is constantly more insistent closer to Mordor. Even if the influence is evil, Sam's openness to it allows guidance from the Unnamed Actor as well.
'But just as he was about to pass under its great arch he felt a shock: as if he had run into some we like Shelob's, only invisible. He could see no obstacle, but something too strong for his will to overcome barred the way' - not his physical strength, but his will. For his second attempt to get past the Watchers, '[h]ardening his will, Sam thrust forward once again, and halted with a jerk, staggering as if from a blow... Then, greatly daring, because he could think of nothing else to do, answering a sudden thought that came to him' -from the Unnamed Actor? from the Phial itself? Regardless, Sam is still/again open to being guided - 'he slowly drew out the phial of Galadriel. . . .slowly he felt their will waver and crumble into fear.' This affirms Sam's intuition that the Watcher's will alone blocked his entrance.
'[A]t the vain end of his long journey and his grief, moved by what thought in his heart he could not tell' - again, Sam is being guided, and he knows tht it is through his heart - 'Sam begin to sing. His voice sounded thin and quavering...forlorn and weary. . .He murmured...fleeting glimpses of the country of his home. And then suddenly new strength rose in him' - either from himself or a gift - 'and his voice rang out, while words of his own came unbidden' - which is a bit of an oxymoron; they are his words, but coming apparently of their own volition (which may be an insight into JRR's process of writing as well) - 'to fit the simple tune.' The words are of 'western lands', 'Elven-stars', 'stars forever dwell' - an evocation of Valinor, where he and Frodo are forever connected. I don't think that this is deliberate on Sam's part, since he has only begun to intuit Frodo's eternal existence as 'one who has passed the shadows'; rather I think it is part of the same intuition. The words shape themselves to an evolving understanding, perhaps influenced by some feeling for where the new strength is coming from.
"I got through, and I'm going to get out.". . . Sam drew out the elven-glass of Galadriel again. As if to do honour to his faithful brown hobbit-hand that had done such deeds, the phial blazed forth suddenly, so that all the shadowy court was lit with a dazzling radiance like lightning; but it remained steady and did not pass. "Gilthoniel, A Elbereth!" Sam cried. For, why he did not know' - which is Sam's watchword.