Top Five Great Sidekicks in Literature
5. Sancho Panza, Don Quixote’s devoted sidekick from Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote (two volumes, 1605 and 1614)
4. Samwise Gamgee, Frodo Baggins’s trusty sidekick in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy (1954-55)
3. Friday, Robinson Crusoe’s native manservant from Daniel DeFoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719)
2. Dr. John H. Watson, Sherlock Holmes’s confidante and biographer in Arthur Conan Doyle’s short stories, beginning with “A Study in Scarlet” (1888)
1. Patroklus, young companion of the sulking Achilles, whose death inspires Achilles to rejoin the war against the Trojans and kill Hector, from Homer’s Iliad (“Song of Ilium,” 8th or 7th century BC)
Runner up: Paul Fleming, laid-back Australian sidekick to fidgety E-Verse host Ernest Hilbert; also noted beer drinker and rugby enthusiast

4 Comments
So Sam Gamgee is one of the great sidekicks of literature — in the company of Friday and Sancho Panza, no less! — but “The Lord of the Rings” finds no place on E-Verse’s 100 best novels list? Add to that the dismissive attitude toward fantasy and science fiction — and yet here we have Samwise Gamgee? For shame, E-Verse, for shame!! :-)
Hilbert responds:
Sheesh, you genre guys really are belligerent. Isn’t it enough that Tolkien has one book on the top 100?
And Gamgee is a fine sidekick, but fine sidekicks do not a great novel make . . . .
Thanks for writing!
I’ll take that for now Hilbert. I would have included Shakespeare’s Falstaff. If I’m not mistaken, Falstaff was elevated from skidekick to star in The Merry Wives of Windsor after serving as Prince Hal’s sidekick. Inspiration for us sidekicks indeed.
Falstaff is also the name of a former brand of beer in the sixties. Paul, you and I can have a few in Ernest’s absense and ponder other literary elements whilest downing notable potables!
The Philly beer fest is coming up. Shall I assume you will be there Keith?