10 great female characters from The Lord of the Rings

Rosie Cotton, a hobbit of the Shire

Not everyone can be gods, or impossibly beautiful elves, or tragic humans who sleep with their brothers and then throw themselves into rivers. Most people are just trying to get along and live their lives, including Rosie Cotton.

Rosie, a hobbit, grew up in the Shire and became close with Samwise Gamgee. It was always expected that the two of them would one day be married, and Rosie was disappointed when she heard that Sam had left the Shire with Frodo Baggins to go off on some quest. But she waited while he was gone, and after his return they did indeed marry, eventually having 15 children: Elanor, Frodo, Rose, Merry, Pippin, Goldilocks, Hamfast, Daisy, Primrose, Bilbo, Ruby, Robin and Tolman.

By all accounts they had a happy life together; at one point they even traveled to Gondor and stayed there for over a year as guests of King Aragorn II Elessar, Sam’s old traveling buddy.

Rosie represents a kind of alternative to all the high drama from The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. She doesn’t crave power and doesn’t have to make a heartrending choice to give up her immortal life for her beloved. She just wants to be happy, which is a counterpoint we need in this story.

The only issue with Rosie is that we don’t get enough of her. She may “represent” the simple life, but we don’t see her living much of it. Honestly, a few of the characters on this list are sketched only briefly in Tolkien’s books, and have become iconic anyway. I’m looking forward to seeing what The Rings of Power does when it explores the women of Middle-earth in more detail.

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