Gollum the Hero

[Juicy-Sweet]

Two years ago I recited Gollum's song about fish - it became classic for us. And it made me realize after a while, that in LotR there's only four characters that produce their own poetry - Sam, Tmom Bombadil, Aragorn (maybe? I'm reading his song in praise of Frodo and Sam as being improvised but it might of course be written by someone else) - and Gollum.

The thought of Gollum sitting at his lake under the Misty Mountains - my guess is he made it there - making up songs made me rethink the character entirely. I now see him as one of the most resourceful of all the LotR characters

He is an incredible traveller and explorer. There's much fuss about how incredible Aragorn is and how much he has travelled. I think Gollum is right there up with him. Gollum managed single handedly to find his way through Moria in the first go, while Gandalf had considerable difficulty finding the way the SECOND time he was there. He found his way through the Dead Marshes, seemingly being the only one that ever did so ("Swamp. Yes, yes. Come master, we will take you on safe paths through the mist. Come hobbits come. Real quickly. I found it, I did. The way through the marshes. Orcs don’t use it, orcs don’t know it. They go round for miles and miles, come quickly, swift and quick as shadows we must be.") as well as find a secret way into Mordor, something nobody else managed, ever. "One does not simply walk into Mordor" - well Gollum did pretty muct that.

This MUST demand considerable intelligence. I don''t think these things would be possible if he just scuffled around randomly and hid from everything.

His intelligence is also seen in his keen sense of danger - there are several scenes when he is the one urging the Hobbits on, before they realize the danger. Him being able to stalk the Fellowship, with some of the keest people in the world (Aragorn, Gandalf, Legolas) means he is able to judge there abilities or perception very accurately.

He has been tortured in Barad-Dur and seemed pretty unscathed by it. By Sauron in person I think? He didnt seem weirder after that than before. Maybe his somewhat fractured personality protected him? Still, I find it one of the most impressive feats in Lotr to be tortured in Barad-Dur and get out while being "up and running".

- He has held his own, more or less, against the ring for a record breaking 700 years or so. He is of course badly mangled, but nowhere near at being a servant to Sauron or a wrath. I suppose he didnt war it much. Even so - stick Frodo, not to say Boromir, in a cave with only the ring for company for just 10 years, and they would have been wraths for sure.


As well I have some questions to clear up...

1: I always wondered how he managed to be ready in West Moria right when the Ring Bearer passed by. I read somewhere it was thought he had entered Moria to escape his elven pursuers, then tried passing through and get out on the West side, but found the gate closed. How did he know one could through Moria? From orcs pherhaps? This strikes me as just too much of a coincidence. He spent 77 years looking for the ring - which could be ANYWERE in Middle Earth. Then suddenly it walks right past him, after he has been sitting camping at a closed gate for months. Boy was that lucky?

So did he KNOW of THINK the ring was passing there and then waited for it. Did he somehow learn from spying on the elves that the ring probably was west of the Misty Mountains and then deduce it MIGHT pass through Moria? Did he know the Shire was west of the Mosti Mountains? He might havelearned that Saruman was hostile to Baggeinsses - and then deduced that they could not pass over Caradhras. Another possibility I like is that the ring had given him some sort of spiritual powers of foresight, so then maybe he dreamt being in Moria and Frodo passing by, much as Frodo's visionary dreams? I wonder if there's any evidence that Bilbo "kept" some of the powers bestowed by the ring after parting with it? It makes sense to me that if one had the ring for an extended amount of time, you would have a permanent (small and unreliable) window into the spirit-world.

2: I never understood what he was doing in the Cirith Ungol Pass when he met Shelob. Does anyone know? He must have tried to get into Mordor, but what on earth did he want there?

3: I consider it an increadible feat to befriend Shelob - as being that has eaten everything she sees alive, even Orcs, for thousands of years. I imagine that no matter what, when he met her, she would lounge out to kill him on sight. Somehow, he must have been able to convince her not to eat him or kill him for fun. I think this is also one of the most herois and impossible feats in LotR, and this proves he is very ressourceful. To my knowledge, the last person that formed an alliance with Shelobs kind was Morgoth himself, with Ungoliant. Nr two was Gollum

4: Many characters in LOTR are prased as "wise and full of lore". Gollum has a great deal of knowledge on all the races (maybe except dwarfes) - he knows what the ghosts in the Dead Marshes are, while the Hobbits have no clue before he tells them.