Lembas: Part of a Balanced, Evil-free Diet

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

Interestingly, Gollum shunned the lembas and was burned by the rope without foreknowledge of where they'd come from. So, it couldn't have been a mere hatred of "good" that caused his reactions. I wonder if it wasn't the lasting influence of the Ring, beyond his own personality, that had a hand in that.

What I meant is what blantyr well summed up with "alergies". He isnt conciously aware of it, but the "better" a thing is, the more "allergic" he is to it.

And I think that his personality and the influence of the Ring are very intertwined. His personality was affected as part of the "lasting influence".

The Negative tends to be more affected by the Positive than vice-versa. For instance, Merry and Pippin could drink the orc-draught, disgusting though it was, but could Orcs have drunk miruvor?

Miruvor is too precious a drink to give to orcs as an experiment.

But, really, I think you're right here for the most part. The only counter-thing I can think of is the Nazgul. A lot of men seemed to be absolutely helpless when they came. But on the other hand, they collectively found the strength to stand and fight. In that same battle, we are told that orcs fled from Aragorn because of Anduril and just who he was. They could not find the strength.

This probably comes from the fact that the "goodies" have all at stake - they fight not only for their lives, but for their land, their kin, their nation, country, revenge, you name it. They have motivation beyond saving their own skins. The "baddies" largely care about themselves only. An exception could be the Dunlendings that were misled into believing that they should fight for revenge.

Gollum's goodie side of him was able to find the strength of mind and will to stand the Sun when it was needed, to walk into Lorien (al all!), and to overcome those "hate"s that he was aware of. He could not overcome his "alergy" to the Elven rope and lembas because he was not read for such a great callenge yet. He did not have sufficient motivation and understanding.