Rose Cotton

Family

Rose was born in T.A. 2984 (S.R. 1384), the only daughter of Tolman Cotton, the farmer whose land lay south of Bywater, and Lily Brown. She had four brothers, Tom, Jolly, Nick and Nibs, and the Cotton farm was a second home to Samwise Gamgee from childhood, for the Gamgees and Cottons were close: Sam's sister Marigold later married her brother Tom. Rose was a plain, capable, good-humoured farm hobbit of the Harfoot kind, with no interest in Elves and a great deal in Sam.

The waiting

Sam left the Shire in September 3018 without saying anything to her, and it was only on the stairs of Cirith Ungol and in the desert of Mordor, when he tried to remember water and gardens and home, that the thought of Rosie came to him among the things he had given up. Rose, for her part, was outspoken about the delay when he came back. She had expected him home in the spring of 3019, and when he rode into the farmyard in November with Frodo, Merry and Pippin at the outbreak of the Scouring, she asked pointedly what had kept him; then she told him to look after himself and come back when he had finished with the ruffians.

Mistress of Bag End

When the Shire was clean again Sam found himself torn between living with Frodo and marrying Rose, and Frodo solved the problem by inviting both to Bag End. They married on 1 May 3020, in the great year, and moved into the Hill together. Their first child, Elanor, was born on 25 March 3021, and after Frodo sailed Rose was mistress of Bag End in full. She bore thirteen children in all: Elanor, Frodo, Rose, Merry, Pippin, Goldilocks, Hamfast, Daisy, Primrose, Bilbo, Ruby, Robin and Tolman. Through seven terms of Sam's Mayoralty she kept the household, and the family took the surname Gardner in later years. She died on Mid-year's Day S.R. 1482, aged ninety-eight. On his own birthday that September Sam rode away from Bag End for the last time; the tradition in the family was that, with Rose gone, nothing held the last Ring-bearer in Middle-earth.

Died on Mid-year's Day S.R. 1482 at Bag End, aged ninety-eight.