The Lord of the Rings: The Passage of the Marshes (Part Five and Last)

 

The Tale

Sam wakes up, thinking he’s heard Frodo call him. But Frodo is still asleep; he’s slid down towards the bottom of the pit. Gollum is right next to him, and at first Sam thinks he’s trying to rouse Frodo. But then he hears that the gangrel creature seems to be holding a debate with himself: Smeagol, whose eyes shine with a pale light, and Gollum, whose eyes shine green and who makes their voice hiss and squeak.

          Smeagol is his better self, if motivated mostly by fear. He clings to the promise he swore to Frodo by, if not on, the Precious, and is afraid to break it.

          The Gollum side points out they swore never to let Him have it. But it’s getting closer to him with every step. What are the hobbits up to?

          But Smeagol promised to help the master.

          But if we took it, we’d be the master, and we could help ourselfs.

But nice master took the cruel rope off. He speaks nicely to me.

We could still take it and not hurt the nice master. We would be good as fish.

But the Precious holds the promise.

Then we take it and then we hold the promise! Make the other, the nasty suspicious hobbit crawl.

But not the nice hobbit?

Not unless we want to. Still, he’s a Baggins, and a Baggins stole it. We hates Bagginses.

Not this one.

Yes, all who take the Precious.

But He’ll see if we get it! He’ll take it from us!

Oh, yes, He sees. He heard us make silly promises, and He and his wraiths are searching for it. But if we take it – not for him! Smeagol protests – if we take it, we can escape even from him.

‘Perhaps we grows very strong, stronger than Wraiths. Lord Smeagol? Gollum the Great? The Gollum! Eat fish every day, three times a day, fresh from the Sea. Most Precious Gollum! Must have it!’

But there are two of them, Smeagol points out. Not now. Not yet.

Gollum begins to protest, then pauses a long while. ‘She might help. She might, yes.’

Not that way, Smeagol wails, but Gollum’s hands, which have been reaching out for Frodo’s neck each time his voice spoke, are now reaching out closer than ever. Sam thinks the debate has gone on long enough.

Before Sam thought the only danger was Gollum just wanting to eat them; now he realizes the creature is responding to the terrible call of the Ring. He stretches and yawns, pretending that he’s just woken up, and asks the time. Gollum stands up hissing for a moment, as if he wonders if Sam heard anything, then collapses back into his old fawning behavior.

He even goes so far as to say, ‘Nice Sam!’ He’s been on watch and let the sleepy heads slumber, but now it’s evening and time to go. Sam says it’s high time too, and wonders if it would be just as dangerous to part with Gollum now as to take him with them. He goes down to wake up Frodo.

Frodo is feeling strangely refreshed. He had had a good dream, which he cannot remember, but whose mood remains. ‘His burden was less heavy on him.’ Gollum greets him ‘with dog-like delight’ and Frodo smiles on him.

‘You have guided us faithfully and well.’ This is the last stretch. All he has to do is guide them to the Gate and then he can go wherever he wants – but not to their enemies. ‘Poor Smeagol’ agrees, but says that when they get to the Gate, they might not like the looks of it at all. ‘Let’s get it over!’ grumbles Sam.

They scramble their way out of the pit and make their way through the dead land. Almost immediately they feel the terror of a Nazgul passing over again. They cower awhile, but it passes. Towards midnight a third goes over them. This time Gollum collapses, gibbering. Three times is a threat, he cries. He thinks the Nazgul are aware of them and are homing in. He won’t budge for any kind words or encouragement; Frodo has to command him angrily, hand on sword-hilt. ‘Then at last he rose and went before them like a beaten dog.’

‘So they stumbled on through the weary end of night, and until the coming of another day of fear they walked in silence with bowed heads, seeing nothing, and hearing nothing but the wind hissing in their ears.’

Bits and Bobs

Poor Gollum, or Smeagol, or however you want to call him. Here you can see that all his ideal of the good has shrunken down to mere appetite. “His mentality has reduced all the beauty of the world to a small pickled fish.” - Love and Death. When he struggles to express how he’ll act, Gollum can only say ‘as good as fish.’ The Ring tempts everyone according to their capacity; when it assails Sam later, it offers him a gigantic garden, as big as the world. The reach of Gollum’s imagination is – fresh fish, three times a day.

Perhaps we can see the hand of Irmo, or Lorien as he is called, the Vala or ‘guardian spirit’ of dreams, in this passage. Sam is woken from his sleep just in time to hear Gollum’s debate by what seems to be the voice of Frodo calling. Frodo awakes from his ‘visited’ dreams refreshed by the fair vision granted him ‘in this land of disease.’ Perhaps these little nudges and encouragements that seem to happen when most needed are commonplace divine helps that give that added little boost when most needed. We shall see more such instances later.

Lowly, wretched Smeagol. Whether delighted or beaten, his better nature is still to be doglike. ‘Nice Sam’? Ooh, what a hypocrite! For all his fears, the three passes of the Nazgul are not a threat; they are simply their coincidental comings and goings on Sauron's business - who, just a reminder, is He. Who She is, is yet to be seen.