LotR -- Book 6 - Chapter 3 - Mount Doom

[davem]

Originally Posted by Kuruharan

This is going a little too far, I think. Gollum's physical life ended. There is no reason to think that Gollum was obliterated and could not go on to Mandos and so forth afterwards.

But neither is there any reason to think that he did 'go on to Mandos and so forth afterwards.' All we know is that Gollum died at the Sammath Naur. We can speculate that because a spiritual power was brought to ruin there (ie Sauron) another, opposing, spiritual power (Eru) was also participant in the events. Sam, Frodo, Gollum & the Ring were the physical particpants in the drama. Two of them perished (Gollum & the Ring) two survived.

We have no idea what happened to Gollum after the ending of his physical existence - we do know he threw away his chance of redemption on the stairs. Hence, he died in his sins, unrepentant. Unlike Frodo he never got the chance to be healed. Where there's life there's hope, as the Gaffer used to say. If Eru used Gollum as the means to His (laudable & necessary) end, thereby removing his chance of a 'deathbed' confession & repentance, does that oblige Eru to give him another chance, or did he have his chance & throw it away for good (or evil)?