Abby Epplett, Historian

The third installment to my miniseries on the psychology of major characters in The Lord of the Rings will focus on Samwise Gamgee, later called Sam Gardner, who is considered the deuteragonist or secondary main character in the text. Unlike Bilbo and Frodo Baggins who enjoyed an enormous amount of privilege as part of the wealthy, educated elite, Sam and his family were among the lowest in the social hierarchy. Because of this disparity in status, Sam’s apparent psychological conditions were treated differently by the community than those of Bilbo and Frodo. While the Bagginses were explicitly called “mad” and “queer” for their behavior, attitudes towards Sam were less harsh. Mocking the Bagginses may have been the one way the ‘rustic’ hobbits could have an advantage over their ‘betters’, while Sam seemed to be considered another one of the villagers despite his differences.

For the second installment to my miniseries connecting psychology with history and The Lord of the Rings , I turn my focus to Frodo Baggins. As the protagonist and in-universe editor of Tolkien’s most famous work, along with one of his most polarizing characters, Frodo’s enigmatic writing style not only brought ambiguity to his unreliable narration but also indicated severe and untreated mental illness. While a diagnosis of PTSD has been applied to the character, I have not seen a more in-depth psychological profile. I wanted to present a comprehensive picture of what I think Frodo was experiencing based on my research of medieval folklore, 19 th through early 20 th century medicine, and modern diagnostic tools.

Tolkien wrote his legendarium from the 1930s to the 1970s, and while he was ahead of his time in many aspects, he could not have anticipated modern understanding of mental health. He experienced significant childhood trauma and two world wars, which are known to cause mental health disabilities. This installment will not speculate on the state of Tolkien’s mental health and its potential effect on his work. Instead, I will study the text as if it was written by in-universe characters describing themselves and those they know. This will serve as the basis for case studies reviewing explicitly stated symptoms along with the history behind the diagnosis.