The Tale
Frodo and Sam are summoned again
to the recess at the back of the cave, where Faramir awaits. He tells his men
to bring Gollum. Anborn carries him in, and the ranger takes the hood off
Gollum’s head, puts the wretch on his feet, and stands behind him, supporting
him.
Gollum blinks in the
lamplight, angry eyes hooded, wet hair dripping over his bony brows, a fish
still clutched in one hand. His nose is sniveling as he asks to be released. He’s
done nothing!
Faramir calmly questions
that statement. He asks, has Gollum never done anything worthy of punishment?
But the past is not for him to judge. He is here because Gollum has trespassed
where it is death to come. ‘The fish of this pool are dearly bought.’
Gollum hastily drops the
fish, saying he doesn’t want it. But Faramir says only to come to the pool
means death. He has spared him so far at the prayer of Frodo, but he has to
satisfy Faramir as well, before he can release him. Who is he, where is he
going, and what is his business?
‘We are lost, lost … No
name, no business … only empty… only hungry … A few little fishes, nasty bony fishes,
for a poor creature, and they say death. So wise they are, so just, so very
just.’
Perhaps not so wise, Faramir
answers but as just as we can be. He hands Frodo a little knife and tells him
to set Gollum free. Gollum squeals and falls to the floor, misinterpreting the
gesture. Frodo says he must trust him, cutting his bonds and raising him to his
feet. Faramir commands him to look at him. He asks if Gollum knows where he is
and if he’s ever been there before?
Gollum looks unwillingly
into his unwavering eyes, then drops his gaze and slumps to the floor. ‘Never
came here; never come again.’
Faramir deems there are dark,
locked rooms in Gollum’s mind, but on this subject, he believes him. What oath
can he swear that he’ll never return or lead any others to this place? Gollum
looks at Frodo. Master knows. If Master will save him, he will promise to It.
He crawls to Frodo’s feet, whining and pleading. Faramir asks is Frodo is
satisfied, and the hobbit assents. It is a good promise; Faramir must accept it
or carry out their law. But he hopes he won’t: he promised Gollum his safety,
and he hopes he won’t be proved false.
Faramir thinks deeply for a
moment, then surrenders Gollum into his Master Frodo’s custody, to judge him as
he will. But what will Faramir do with the Master? Frodo asks. ‘Then I will
declare my doom,’ Faramir replies.
Frodo and those under his
protection are free to travel through to the furthest ancient bounds of Gondor,
but never to return to or to reveal the location of this secret post. This will
last for a year and a day or until he comes to the Steward of Gondor to be confirmed
in this judgement. Meanwhile he and his companions are under his protection and
‘the shield of Gondor.’
Frodo bows, and at Faramir’s
word takes Gollum into his protection. Sam audibly sighs at the act. Faramir
tells Gollum that he is under Frodo’s care, but if he is found without Frodo,
he will be killed. Now, Frodo has declared he was his guide; where is Gollum
taking them?
Gollum refuses to answer,
but Frodo says he was taking them to a high pass near Minas Ithil – Minas Morgul now,
Faramir reiterates. There they hope to find a way into Mordor. Faramir asks him
if he knows the name of that path, then reveals it is called Cirith Ungol.
Gollum hisses sharply at the name. Oh, so you’ve heard of it? Yes, Gollum admits,
but what’s in a name. Master must go, and there is no other way.
Faramir wonders how he would
know that; is he familiar with all the ways of the Black Land? He tells
Anborn to take Gollum away but to watch him closely. And he warns Gollum not to
try to escape by diving into the waterfall; the pool below has sharp rocks that
would surely kill him. Anborn leaves with Gollum cringing before him. The
curtain falls again over the recess.
Faramir tells Frodo that he
is very unwise to have Gollum as a guide: ‘malice eats [him] like a canker, and
the evil is growing.’ If Gollum wants, he will have his men take Gollum to
wherever the creature will on the boundaries of Gondor, so Frodo will be done
with him. But Frodo says Gollum would never do that. He’ll follow Frodo – and the
Ring, he implies – wherever he goes. Besides, he’s made promises to Gollum.
Farmir counsels him against
Cirith Ungol, though. The place has an evil reputation, nothing known surely of
course, but old loremasters with ‘blanch and fall silent’ if it is named. There
is some dark terror there. And the way will take them near Minas Morgul, long
now the fortress of the Nazgul, haunted by ‘a shapeless fear within the ruined
walls …You will be espied. It is a place of sleepless malice, full of lidless
eyes.’
Frodo replies he has to try.
He is bound by solemn undertaking to find a way or die. If he turns back with
this Thing, where would he go? To Minas Tirith? It already caused Boromir’s
fate; what would happen then to Gondor? ‘Shall there be two cities of Minas
Morgul, grinning at each other across a dead land filled with rottenness?’
There is no time to look for another way, so he must take what path that he
can.
Faramir reluctantly agrees,
but warns Frodo again about Gollum. He has done murder before (he can see it in
him). But for now Faramir will have food prepared for their leaving.
‘I would gladly learn how
this creeping Smeagol became possessed of the Thing of which we speak, and how
he lost it, but I will not trouble you now. If ever beyond hope you return to
the lands of the living and we re-tell our tales, sitting by a wall in the sun,
laughing at old grief, you shall tell me then. Until that time, or some other
time beyond the Seeing-stones of Numenor, farewell!’
Bits and Bobs
Poor Gollum. His answers to
Faramir that he is lost, that he has no name or business, that he is only
empty, only hungry, hints at his loss of identity in his yearning for the Ring.
He may be trying to play on Faramir’s pity, but he is revealing sad truths
about his condition that he probably shies away from in normal circumstances. Malice
and desire for the Ring eats him up like a ‘canker’, an ulcer or sore, but a
word also related to ‘cancer’.
The word ‘doom’ is used in
the passage for ‘judgement’ (Faramir pronounces his doom on their case).
We get a nice tease of Minas
Morgul, our next point of destination.
Some have wondered why Faramir did not at
least explain the meaning of the word ‘Ungol’ (spider); perhaps he assumed
Frodo already knew. When questioned about the pass, Gollum first tries to lie
about what he knows, but his oath seems to give him a sharp pinch, so he is clearly
under some compulsion beyond even his … well, let’s call it his sense of honor.
‘A year and a day’ is an old
legal term to assure the full completion of a term.
I wonder what Frodo made of ‘the
Seeing-stones of Numenor’; we know what they are, but he wasn’t there
with Pippin and Gandalf.
The irony that Faramir says the rocks in the pool would end Gollum 'before his time' lies in the fact that Gollum has already lived far beyond his time. But perhaps he means 'beyond his fated time.'
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