Q: Why Does Sam Call Frodo Mr?
ANSWER: People trying to answer the question “Why does Sam call him Mr. Frodo” usually note that in English (British) usage Mister is a rustic or — as the Etymology Dictionary Online says — “unaccented variant of master“. “Mister Frodo” is Sam’s way of showing respect to his employer.
There is no question that Sam is being respectful toward Frodo but the Shire’s aristocratic hierarchy is often overlooked by readers, no doubt because Tolkien rarely mentions it. Frodo was, in fact, Master of Bag End and (clan) Head of the Baggins family, which was a position of some prominence within Shire society and actually made Frodo a local leader. Tolkien shared some insight into how Hobbit family leadership worked in the Shire in Letter No. 214, where he wrote:
…the titular head of the family was usually the eldest male. In the case of large powerful families (such as the Tooks), still cohesive even when they had become very numerous, and more what we might call clans, the head was properly the eldest male of what was considered the most direct line of descent. But the government of a ‘family’, as of the real unit: the ‘household’, was not a monarchy (except by accident). It was a ‘dyarchy’, in which master and mistress had equal status, if different functions. Either was held to be the proper representative of the other in the case of absence (including death). There were no ‘dowagers’. If the master died first, his place was taken by his wife, and this included (if he had held that position) the titular headship of a large family or clan. This title thus did not descend to the son, or other heir, while she lived, unless she voluntarily resigned.* It could, therefore, happen in various circ*mstances that a long-lived woman of forceful character remained ‘head of the family’, until she had full-grown grandchildren.
Laura Baggins (née Grubb) remained ‘head’ of the family of ‘Baggins of Hobbiton’, until she was 102. As she was 7 years younger than her husband (who died at the age of 93 in SY 1300), she held this position for 16 years, until SY 1316; and her son Bungo did not become ‘head’, until he was 70, ten years before he died at the early age of 80. Bilbo did not succeed, until the death of his Took mother. Belladonna, in 1334, when he was 44.
The Baggins headship then, owing to the strange events, fell into doubt. Otho Sackville-Baggins was heir to this title – quite apart from questions of property that would have arisen if his cousin Bilbo had died intestate; but after the legal fiasco of 1342 (when Bilbo returned alive after being ‘presumed dead’) no one dared to presume his death again. Otho died in 1412, his son Lotho was murdered in 1419, and his wife Lobelia died in 1420. When Master Samwise reported the ‘departure over Sea’ of Bilbo (and Frodo) in 1421, it was still held impossible to presume death; and when Master Samwise became Mayor in 1427, a rule was made that: ‘if any inhabitant of the Shire shall pass over Sea in the presence of a reliable witness, with the expressed intention not to return, or in circ*mstances plainly implying such an intention, he or she shall be deemed to have relinquished all titles rights or properties previously held or occupied, and the heir or heirs thereof shall forthwith enter into possession of these titles, rights, or properties, as is directed by established custom, or by the will and disposition of the departed, as the case may require.’ Presumably the title of ‘head’ then passed to the descendants of Ponto Baggins – probably Ponto (II).
Sam wasn’t merely being polite, but he was acknowledging Frodo’s station. On the other hand, the Gaffer (Sam’s father) was more likely acknowledging the “class difference” between his family and Frodo’s family when talking about Frodo’s parents (Mr. Drogo and Miss Primula). Primula was a daughter of Gorbadoc Brandybuck, who was Master of Buckland — essentially the lord and ruler of the Brandybuck clan in their little self-defined province outside the royally established Shire.
Buckland uses the word “land” in the most ancient etymological sense as established through the Gothic language meaning “a definite portion of the earth’s surface owned by an individual or home of a nation.” Within the Shire itself there were other similar divisions (or “folklands”) associated with specific families, such as the Tookland — where the Thains of the Shire lived. The Thainship was a hereditary office established by the heads of the various Shire families after the end of the North-kingdom — Cf. the “Prologue” to The Lord of the Rings: “…then the Hobbits took the land for their own, and they chose from their own chiefs a Thain to hold the authority of the king that was gone.”
In January 1938, in Letter No. 25 (written to The Observer) Tolkien noted that “the full list of [the Hobbits’] wealthier families is: Baggins, Boffin, Bolger, Bracegirdle, Brandybuck, Burrowes, Chubb, Grubb, Hornblower, Proudfoot, Sackville, and Took.” The heads of each of these families would be referred to as “The [family name]”. Hence, Bilbo and Frodo and other heads of the Baggins family would be called “The Baggins” in some contexts.
When Frodo left the Shire (and Middle-earth), bequeathing Bag End to Sam, he elevated Sam (and his descendants) to the status of Master of Bag End, thus establishing a new aristocratic family among the Shire-folk. Of course, Sam’s self-achieved status as one of the leaders of the uprising against Sharkey and as a friend and companion to Peregrin and Meriadoc would also have accorded him special social position among Shire hobbitry. Being elected Mayor of Michel Delving/the Shire further solidified Sam’s social elevation.
Sam then became “Mister Samwise, Master of Bag End”. As he was not the eldest of the Gamgees he does not appear to have become The Gamgee (a title that probably did not exist, given the working-class status of the family). Sam’s eldest son Frodo took the surname Gardner, implying that the change in family status signified a new start and required a distinguished name. A similar name change occurred in the family of Fastred of Greenholm and Elanor Gamgee (Sam’s daughter). Fastred became the first Warden of the Westmarch, and his descendants the Fairbairns of the Towers.
See Also
Could Sam’s Daughter Elanor Have Been A Gardener?
Did the Star of the Dúnedain Confer a Special Social Status on Sam?
How Did Bilbo and Frodo Support Themselves?
Are Hobbits Anarchists?
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