Sam est bien le héros de l'histoire, Tolkien l'a dit explicitement dans les Lettres 
Mais c'est bien de l'amour entre Sam et Frodon, davantage que de "l'amitié", même si cela n'a rien à voir avec une quelconque ambiguïté.
Ainsi les sentiments de Sam lorsqu'il porte momentanément l'anneau : "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". (SdA VI.1)
Le même amour entre Gimli et Legolas : "He was named Elf-friend because of the great love that grew between him and Legolas, son of King Thranduil, and because of his reverence for the Lady Galadriel." (App. A)
Le même pour Eomer et Aragorn ''Since the day when you rose before me out of the green grass of the downs I have loved you, and that love shall not fail." (VI,4).
Cet amour touche toute la communauté au sens large, comme le montre la fin des fins qu'on ne lira jamais assez
Mais c'est bien de l'amour entre Sam et Frodon, davantage que de "l'amitié", même si cela n'a rien à voir avec une quelconque ambiguïté.
Ainsi les sentiments de Sam lorsqu'il porte momentanément l'anneau : "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". (SdA VI.1)
Le même amour entre Gimli et Legolas : "He was named Elf-friend because of the great love that grew between him and Legolas, son of King Thranduil, and because of his reverence for the Lady Galadriel." (App. A)
Le même pour Eomer et Aragorn ''Since the day when you rose before me out of the green grass of the downs I have loved you, and that love shall not fail." (VI,4).
Cet amour touche toute la communauté au sens large, comme le montre la fin des fins qu'on ne lira jamais assez
Citation :1484. In the spring of the year a message came from Rohan to Buckland that King Éomer wished to see Master Holdwine once again. Meriadoc was then old (102) but still hale. He took counsel with his friend the Thain, and soon after they handed over their goods and offices to their sons and rode away over the Sam Ford, and they were not seen again in the Shire. It was heard after that Master Meriadoc came to Edoras and was with King Éomer before he died in that autumn. Then he and Thain Peregrin went to Gondor and passed what short years were left to them in that realm, until they died and were laid in Rath Dínen among the great of Gondor.
1541. In this year on March 1st came at last the Passing of King Elessar. It is said that the beds of Meriadoc and Peregrin were set beside the bed of the great king. Then Legolas built a grey ship in Ithilien, and sailed down Anduin and so over Sea; and with him, it is said, went Gimli the Dwarf. And when that ship passed an end was come in the Middle-earth of the Fellowship of the Ring.