The Lord of the Rings: The Passage of the Marshes (Part One)

 

The Tale

          ‘Gollum moved quickly, with his head and neck thrust forward, often using his hands as well as his feet.’ It’s hard for Frodo and Sam to keep up, but Gollum isn’t trying to escape anymore. He actually stops and waits for them. He takes them to a gully they passed by before, but here it’s a little lower, only about fifteen feet down. Gollum found it once when he was fleeing from Orcs.

He finds a way and leads them down. There is running water at the bottom, a little river flowing from the hills. He takes them southward, delighted to be splashing along the stony spring. He begins to croak a creepy little song, about how ‘The cold hard lands/ they bites our hands,/ they gnaws our feet.’ It turns into a tune praising water, and then into a riddle about fish. Baggins guessed it, long ago. ‘We only wish/ to catch a fish,/ so juicy-sweet!’

That only accentuates a worry Sam has been having: what will Gollum eat? He looks none too well-fed, and likely to try hobbit if he can’t find fish. But he won’t find Sam Gamgee napping.

They stumble tiredly along the gully for what seems a long time to the weary hobbits. The gully turned eastward and got shallower as they go. Finally, the sun starts to rise, and Gollum calls a halt. He won’t travel under its light, and they must hide. ‘Orcs and nasty things are about. They can see a long way.’

They settle down to camp on one of the large flat stones at the bottom of the gully, while Gollum scrabbles around in the stream. Frodo tells Gollum that he and Sam are going to eat a little. They don’t have much but they will share with him. ‘What is it they eats? Have they nice fishes?’

No, not fish, but he holds out some lembas. ‘Is it crunchable? Is it tasty?’ Gollum takes the wafer, showing disgust for the leaf wrapper; to him it stinks. But he breaks off a little corner of the bread and nibbles it.

Gollum spits it out and starts coughing at the taste. ‘Dust and ashes, he can’t eat that!’ Poor Smeagol must starve as he guides the hobbits as he promised. Frodo says the lembas would do him good if he tried, but perhaps in the condition he is in Gollum can’t even try yet.

The hobbits munch their lembas in silence; Sam thinks it tastes better than ever, somehow. ‘Gollum watched every morsel from hand to mouth, like an expectant dog by a diner’s chair.’ When the meal is over, he sits down a little way off and whimpers. Sam lowers his voice and tells Frodo they need to sleep a bit, but not both at the same time. Frodo tells him openly he thinks that there is no danger at the moment. Smeagol has changed, but how deep there is no telling. Sam can watch if he wishes while Frodo sleeps, but he must wake him up for his turn after two hours. He falls asleep almost instantly.

Gollum curls up and falls asleep as well, breath hissing softly through his clenched teeth. After a while Sam gets up and gently prods the sleeping creature. Sam whisper fissh into his ear, and when Gollum doesn’t even flinch, concludes that he must really be asleep. ‘And if I was like Gollum, he wouldn’t wake up never again.’

‘He restrained the thoughts of his sword and the rope that sprang to his mind, and went and sat down by his master.’

Bits and Bobs

There is an excellent recording of Tolkien reading Gollum’s little song in a hissing, creaking voice. The song is the extension of a riddle that Gollum told Bilbo in The Hobbit. There is a glint of malice in Gollum’s eyes as he recalls 'Baggins' and his losing of the Ring.

Gollum’s disgust with all things Elvish is further accentuated when he gives lembas a try. His long servitude to the evil of the Ring has left him no taste for anything as concentratedly wholesome, even spiritually nourishing, as the Elven-bread. Frodo thinks and hopes that if Gollum could ever bring himself to partake of it, it would help him, both physically and internally. But he perhaps is not ready to even want such a thing.

Gollum’s dog-like characteristics and his sufferings are once more alluded to, evoking our pity, if not Sam’s just yet. Sam instead has (suppressed) thoughts about murdering him. It is an understandable impulse, if uncharitable, and Sam is probably rational in his desire. However, it is his better nature that prevails, another step that leads to the eventual success of the quest.