"And so Gollum found them hours later, when he returned, crawling and creeping down the path out of the gloom ahead. Sam sat propped against the stone, his head dropping sideways and his breathing heavy. In his lap lay Frodo's head, drowned deep in sleep; upon his white forehead lay one of Sam's brown hands, and the other lay softly upon his master's breast. Peace was in both their faces." ("The Stairs of Cirith Ungol"; The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers)

With the release of FOTR, and in anticipation of the next two films, questions have arisen once again (on the Net, and probably other less electronically dependent forums) as to how this scene will be handled in the film. More basic, of course, the question: what did Tolkien intend by this? Is it explicitly homosexual (Frodo & Sam have just finished making love in the wastes before Mt. Doom), latently homoerotic (here Tolkien is considered to be a closeted gay man who hated female sexuality, if not women altogether), or are Frodo & Sam just two good ol' boys, good friends, unafraid to show physical tenderness to each other?

My knowledge of Tolkien's life is strongly dependent on Humphrey Carpenter's biography. My knowledge of sexuality is more general and anecdotal. But I am convinced we would all be healthier and happier if we saw sexual identity as a very fluid, ever-changing thing. Not many of us will journey from happy straight to well-adjusted, 100% gay. Even fewer will go in the other direction. But many of us will have sexual encounters that don't fit into the labels we allow ourselves to be labeled with. Some live very courageously without any labels. Some of us (most?) accept the labels with varying degrees of comfort.

Most of Tolkien's life-shaping experiences outside his home were masculine in the extreme: English school/Oxford and war. Home life was centred around his adored mother, as his father was dead. One of his most important male mentors was a celibate RC priest. When he married, his wife was left to tend hearth and home while he went into the (very) masculine world of work: Oxford academia. His male colleagues were the source of camaraderie and intellectual inspiration. Whether his wife would have liked to be involved in his intellectual life is hard to say. He doesn't seem to have given her a chance. Was he a closeted homosexual? He seems to have had genuine love for her, and she for him. Only Tolkien himself could truly answer the question, and he's no longer with us. But my suspicion is that he was not gay, as we now use the term. And he doesn't seem to have hated women, either. He had women students and colleagues that he worked well with.

So what are we to think of all these manly men, the very few women, and the male-hobbit-bonding in LOTR? Women in LOTR are of the earth. Arwen, Galadriel, Rosie Cotton, Goldberry, the Entwives, are all women of nature, whose power comes from the earth. They are part of nature, but they also control it. They are in tune with its seasons and rhythms. Women are home, the source, the place were wandering and warring males return. (The one exception is the warrior princess Eowyn, who is clearly depicted as an aberration who needs to be "cured.") The Ents lose the Entwives for two reasons: the Ents wander too far, and male wars displace the Entwives. For all their down-to-earth homey-ness, when Frodo and the other hobbits are confronted with these forces of nature, they become awestruck and powerless. The men do not control women. On the contrary, they seem to be rather in awe of them.

Yet they yearn for the peace and contentment the feminine can give them. Aragorn, Sam, Pippin and Merry are able to return home and find this happiness. Frodo cannot. His wounds from masculine warring are too deep. Although one of his deep wounds is from the female shelob, the worst damage is from the ring itself, creation of the uber-male, Sauron. One of the most unfortunate blunders of Peter Jackson's generally brilliant cinematic adaptation is the representation of Sauron's lidless eye as a fiery vulva. Tolkien's description is a bit different: "In the black abyss there appeared a single Eye that slowly grew . . .The Eye was rimmed with fire, but was itself glazed, yellow as a cat's, watchful and intent, and the black slit of its pupil opened on a pit, a window into nothing." ("The Mirror of Galadriel"; The Fellowship of the Ring)

Despite the overly masculine atmosphere of Oxford, Tolkien was, like the best of artists, in touch with the deepest parts of his nature: the feminine, as well as the masculine. So Sam and Frodo express the tender affection for each other that many men, straight and gay, wish they could express. Alone in a comfortless, dark and hostile world, Frodo and Sam can turn only to each other for physical and emotional safety. They are two soldiers/brother/tender-loving friends in a foxhole. Thus, the quest can be achieved, but they cannot stay there. Tolkien knows that the truly complete life must be integrated back into the rest of society. Thus the four hobbits' last task is to restore their homeland. Doing so, Sam achieves this integration. Frodo's tragedy is that he cannot. He must depart from Middle Earth to seek peace beyond this world.

Tolkien was certainly no feminist, and his women are idealized. They are, however, extremely important for a complete society, for a complete life like Sam's. The final chapters of The Return of the King may have been added late, but they are not merely "tacked on." Tolkien shows that even the idyllic world of the Shire is not immune to evil, but it can be restored through good will and grace (such as the gift of Galadriel to Sam). Some evil cannot be mended, so Frodo leaves. Eventually (according to an appendix), his children grown and his wife dead, Sam does also. And now we can think of Frodo and Sam, together in the West, finally healed, whole, and at peace.