The Lord of the Rings: The Taming of Smeagol (Part Four)

 

The Tale

 

‘Gollum collapsed and went as loose as wet string. Sam got up, fingering his shoulder. His eyes smouldered with anger, but he could not avenge himself; his miserable enemy lay grovelling on the stones whimpering.’

Gollum begs and whines not to be hurt. He didn’t mean to hurt them, but they leapt on him ‘like cats on poor mices.’ He tries to appeal to their pity by proclaiming his loneliness and invokes reciprocity: ‘We’ll be nice to them if they’ll be nice to us.’

Sam wants to tie him up and leave him so the wretch won’t follow them anymore, but Gollum points out with sobs that that will kill him. Frodo says if they’re going to kill him, they should do so outright, but they can’t. He has done them no harm. Sam rubs his Gollum-bitten shoulder and begs to differ. Gollum means to harm them; probably ‘throttle us in our sleep.’ Frodo says what he has done and what he means to do are separate matters.

Frodo pauses a while in thought. Gollum lies still and stops whimpering, awaiting his judgement. Sam just glowers. But Frodo seems to hear, quite clearly, his distant conversation with Gandalf about Gollum, when Frodo declared that it was a pity Bilbo hadn’t stabbed the creature long ago, and that he deserved death.

‘Deserves death! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give that to them? Then be not so eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends.’

Frodo lowers his sword. He says out loud that he won’t kill Gollum; now that he sees him he does pity him. But he is still very afraid. Sam just stares at him; he seems to be talking to someone unseen. Gollum grovels a bit more and calls them nice hobbits for sparing his life.

They won’t kill him, but they can’t let him go, either. Gollum must go along with them and help them if he can. ‘One good turn deserves another.’ Gollum agrees with him eagerly. He will show them safe paths, yes. But a glint of cunning flickers in his eyes. ‘And where are they going in these cold hard lands, we wonders, yes we wonders?’ Sam sucks his teeth and glowers at Gollum but says nothing. But next he is amazed at Frodo’s straightforward answer.

Gollum knows that or guesses well enough. They are going to Mordor, and Frodo (calling him by his old name Smeagol) believes Gollum knows the way. Gollum covers his ears at the open speaking of the name of Mordor, as if it hurts him. He gabbles in horror. Yes, he guessed it, and he doesn’t want them to go that way. It is full of ashes, dust, thirst, pits, and Orcs everywhere. ‘Nice hobbits mustn’t go to – sss – those places.’

Frodo presses him. But Gollum has been there? And he is being drawn back?

Gollum at first agrees, then shrieks no! He went there once by accident, but ‘we’ won’t go back. Then suddenly his manner changes, and he speaks sobbing, but not to them. It seems he is having a mind/memory encounter, just as Frodo did, but with … someone else. He begs to be left alone, and whimpers at how his poor hands were hurt. He doesn’t want to go back. He’s tried to find It, and he can’t; there are Dwarves, Men, and Elves everywhere, always watching. He’s tired. He gets up and shakes a bony, fleshless fist at the East. ‘We won’t!’ he cried. ‘Not for you.’ Then he falls to his face. ‘Go away! Go to sleep!’

Frodo says that Sauron (though he does not speak the name) will not go away at Smeagol’s command, but if he wants to be really free of the Dark Lord, Frodo will help him. But ‘that I fear means finding us a path towards him. But you need not go all the way, not beyond the gates of his land.’

Gollum cackles. Well, he’s always at home. Plenty of Orcs East of the river who will take them to him. Don’t ask Smeagol; he went away long ago. They took his precious and he is lost in the dark.

Frodo suggests perhaps they will find him again if he goes with them, but Gollum does not believe it. Nevertheless, Frodo commands him to get up. He asks the poor creature if he can find a path better by night or day. The hobbits are tired, but if he says night they’ll leave right away.

‘The big lights [Sun and Moon] hurt our eyes, they do,’ Gollum whined. ‘Not under the White Face [moon], not yet. It will go behind the hills soon, yess. Rest a bit first, nice hobbits!’

‘Then sit down,’ said Frodo, ‘and don’t move!’  

Bits and Bobs

It has been noted that Gollum uses the word nice for anything that he likes (or in the case of nice hobbits, anyone that he wishes to ingratiate himself with) and nasty for anything he dislikes. There is mostly nothing as definite as good or evil in his terminology (except for good Smeagol); it is all about his feelings and whether it furthers his cause.

Also, it is to be noted that he whimpers or squeaks when he is frightened and hisses when he is angry, and seems to use ‘I’ when he is being more sincere and ‘we’ when he is being devious. He is obviously under some compulsion from Sauron to seek out the Ring and bring it back, but even the Dark Lord’s power cannot overcome Gollum’s desire to take it for himself.  

I did not notice until this reading the parallel between Frodo/Gandalf’s and Gollum/Sauron’s inner monologues and their influence on their decisions. Gandalf’s is totally advisory, of course, while Sauron’s is plainly coercive.

It is the pity of Frodo (despite his fear) that is the turning point of his quest, and that will ultimately lead to its success. Sam once again ‘sucks his teeth’ at Frodo’s seeming oddity, and despite his anger and suspicion refrains from striking Gollum when he’s down. It is a natural virtue that may bloom in time into real ‘charity’, a spiritual fellow-feeling and understanding of others and their position.