Quote:
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Originally Posted by Tuor of Gondolin
Gollum did tacitly go along with The Baggins cheating,
which brings up an interesting question, if nice
Smeagol, who only wants to play the game correctly,
had continued to insist on playing the game properly
instead of helping out Thief Baggins by only asking
for three guesses (a poor trade), would
Bilbo have had to go along with being eaten? 
Or, more to the point, how would Tolkien have
gotten Bilbo out of his predicament honorably? |
I thought about too, and conclusions I've come to are unfavorable for Bilbo - as it seems to me that both cheated from the outset (at least as the chapter stands in revision) - nor Gollum, neither Bilbo were going to stick to the promise if they've lost.
Kind of undulation of Bilbo's character through the chapter - he starts with fear (as he wakes in the dark), than goes through period of bravery uprise (as he walks in the dark holding on to his sword (yep, holding
on to it rather than simply hodling
it), than he succumbs to lies through fear (as I do not doubt he would not simply let Gollum eat him), and than again through bravery to pity (or Pity, as Gandalf later put it).