Bill Ferny flinched and shuffled to the gate and unlocked it. ‘Give me the key!’ said Merry. But the ruffian flung it at his head and then darted out into the darkness. As he passed the ponies one of them let fly with his heels and just caught him as he ran. He went off with a yelp into the night and was never heard of again.
‘Neat work, Bill,’ said Sam, meaning the pony.
(RK 6.viii.999)
Given Sam's love for the pony and loathing of Ferny, it's hard to see why Sam would have given it the name of a villain who had cruelly mistreated it. As a joke? Perhaps, but to me at least that doesn't seem a joke Sam was likely to make. It would seem hurtful to Bill and too good for Ferny. I just don't see it as in his character. Contrast this with the humor we hear of in The Grey Havens, where we learn that the renewed Bagshot Row came to be known as Sharkey's End, a 'purely Bywater joke' for the place where the Saruman met his end (RK 6.ix.1021-22). But Sam was not from Bywater and Saruman was hated. The bitterness of the joke was founded on a very real sense of Saruman's deserts.
Now to be honest I can only admit that my incredulity proves nothing. It's not much of an argument. Yet who else could Bill the pony be named after? Is there any other alternative? There is, though I concede it's not the strongest or most direct. I just like it better.
What if Bill the pony is named after Bilbo? After all Sam loved the old hobbit, whom he met again in Rivendell after many years, and as far as we can tell it was in Rivendell that Sam first began using the name for the pony. It is there in any event that our attention is drawn to this fact. The text, moreover, supplies us with a parallel for a hobbit naming a pony after a beloved friend. In Minas Tirith Frodo gets a pony which he will ride all the way home. He named the pony 'Strider' and the only time its name is mentioned is in conjunction with Bill (RK 6.ix.1027):
On September the twenty-first they set out together, Frodo on the pony that had borne him all the way from Minas Tirith, and was now called Strider; and Sam on his beloved Bill.
There is, of course, one other character called Bill. Sam had known about him since childhood, but was reminded about him by seeing his mortal remains shortly before arriving at Rivendell. This was William 'Bill' Huggins, one of the three trolls who captured Bilbo and were turned to stone as a consequence of Gandalf's ventriloquy.
ReplyDeleteIt might seem that a character who would rather eat a pony than ride one would not be the best namesake for Sam's friend, but observe: immediately after seeing Bill's stone body, Sam entertained his companions with a rendition of 'The Stone Troll' - his own poem, and one not without a mite of sympathy for the troll who 'sat alone'. Add to this the ascription to Sam of 'Perry-the-Winkle' - where the Lonely Troll turns out to be both respectable and lovable - and we have evidence that Sam had a breadth of empathy that extended even to isolated and unloved trolls, whatever his fellow hobbits thought of them.
Perhaps Bill the pony was named after Bill the troll, who never had a chance to be respected or loved, to make amends for him being made a villain in Bilbo's old story.
Thanks, Clive. I hadn't thought of Bill the troll. It's an interesting thought. Tom
DeleteI've always found it odd, as well, that Sam would name the pony after Bill Ferny when Ferny is a terrible person! It seems to give the impression Sam is unimaginative (like, "I'll just give the pony the same name as the owner because I can't think of anything else") when in reality when can see Sam is creative from the poetry he composes. I'd taken it as a bit of a "joke" then because I couldn't think of a better explanation, although I also don't really see how it's funny.
ReplyDeleteI've always imagined Sam using the name Bill in order to almost 'cleanse' the name of its negative association with Ferny. Though I also like the idea of him coming to the idea of it being a nod to Bilbo.
ReplyDeleteEqually, I like Clive's idea, that it could be a nod to Bill Huggins. Sam would've adored that story, and just as plenty of people name their pets (or even children) after LotR characters, Sam could've been doing the same.