Frodo Is The Greatest Hero Of LOTR (Even If Tolkien Picked Samwise)

Like Frodo, Sam technically is willing to give up everything for the quest. He selflessly pours all of himself into the effort and nearly dies in the process. But at the end of the day, he's amply rewarded for his pains. He saves the world, frees his country, and serves as its mayor for half a century. He gets the girl, inherits Bag End, has a huge family, and even gets to follow Frodo across the seas in old age.

Sam isn't the only one, either. Gandalf is a hero, too, and in the end, he gets to go home and retire. Aragorn is also a hero. He gets to be the king. Merry, Pippin, Legolas, and Gimli all become respected leaders within their communities.

Frodo, though? He is the only one who gives everything. Early in "The Fellowship of the Ring," Frodo tells Gandalf, "I feel that as long as the Shire lies behind, safe and comfortable, I shall find wandering more bearable: I shall know that somewhere there is a firm foothold, even if my feet cannot stand there again." It's a prescient moment that correlates with a similarly moving soliloquy at the end of the story. In "The Return of the King," one of the last things Frodo tells Sam is, "I have been too deeply hurt, Sam. I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them." 

Frodo loses everything in the successful completion of a nearly impossible quest. And for that reason, he is the greatest hero of the story.