About
Fair day from my little online corner of the Shire. As you may be able to tell, this site is inspired by my love of The Lord of the Rings, and also of my favorite character in that novel, Sam, whose heart and pure hobbit sense made him the equal of any, Man, Elf, Orc, or Uruk-hai. Why “the Rosy Gardener”? Well, for one, it implies that I’m female, which is true, and therefore a nice thing to imply. “Rosy” is also an accurate description of my skin, which is quite pale but rather pink. But mostly, it is a hat tip to the idea of keeping this my free garden, as evidenced by the site name, and more specifically to the quote which I intend to adorn every page of this site.
Here is the longer/complete form, from Chapter 1: “The Tower of Cirith Ungol” of Book Six (in Return of the King), when Sam finds himself greatly dispairing at the possibility of journeying on without Frodo, carrying the Ring himself:
“He felt that he had from now on only two choices: to forbear the Ring, though it would torment him; or to claim it, and challenge the Power that sat in its dark hold beyond the valley of shadows. Already the Ring tempted him, grnawing at his will and reason. Wild fantasies arose in his mind; and he saw Samwise the Strong, Hero of the Age, striding with a flaming sword across the darkened land, and armies flocking to his call as he marched to the overthrow of Barad-dur. And then all the clouds rolled away, and the white sun shone, and at his command the vale of Gorgoroth became a garden of flowers and trees and brought forth fruit. He had only to put on the Ring and claim it for his own, and all this could be.
In that hour of trial it was the love of his master that helped most to hold him firm; but also deep down in him lived still unconquered his plain hobbit-sense: he knew in the core of his heart that he was not large enough to bear such a burden, even if such visions were not a mere cheat to betray him. The one small garden of a free gardener was all his need and due, not a garden swollen to a realm; his own hands to use, not the hands of others to command.
So, this is my garden, and I the gardener. It is a small plot, and all that I need and I hope it may be all that I want. After the war, Sam went back to being a gardener, and replanted the Shire, and made green and growing things. I hope these posts may be little sparks of green in a barren land. —- One note is that I do not want real names used here. I will call everyone by username and even those who know me personally, please refrain from my given name and even from other screennames you know me as… I guess I just want this to be somewhat set apart from things. Nicknames are great, however, so if you come up with something shorter for “the Rosy Gardener” (perhaps TRG or Rosy?) then that’s great. Cheers.
