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Originally Posted by davem
My feeling is that they don't kill him because they never actually needed to - killing in self defence is one thing. Executing someone in cold blood is another. I'm uncomfortable with the idea that they simply kept Gollum around because he might prove 'useful'.
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I am in agreement here -- it was quoted earlier that even orcs were given mercy if they asked.
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Originally Posted by The Field of Cormallen
And those that were deepest and longest in evil servitude, hating the West, and yet were men proud and bold, in their turn now gathered themselves for a last stand of desperate battle. But the most part fled eastward as they could; and some cast their weapons down and sued for mercy.
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Though the text does not explicitly state what happened after this, the expectation is that those who asked mercy were given it, and the ones who continued fighting were probably slain or driven off.
Gandalf said "Do not be too eager to deal out death
in judgement" [emphasis mine] This says nothing of dealing out death in clean battle, only (in my opinion) of pronouncing sentence on deeds done previously.