LotR -- Book 4 - Chapter 01 - The Taming of Sméagol

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by davem

This rope seems more than just ‘soft, strong & very, very long’ it seems to have some kind of healing power, but of a spiritual kind. It seems Frodo’s sudden blindness was not physical but ‘psychological’ - one is reminded of the kind of hysterical blindness some of the soldiers on the front in WWI suffered. This rope seems to bring light into the darkness of Frodo’s world.

Now I keep thinking of Sam lowering toilet paper over the edge of the cliff.

Anyway...Frodo's temporary blindness seems to me to have been very much the result of his shock. He was about to tumble to a certain death from the cliff face, and it is as though his body has prepared for this. The rush of fear, followed by the sudden landing could easily have caused this temporary problem. Again Tolkien shows his knowledge of simple medical facts associated with trauma.

What the rope symbolises alongside Light is simple Hope. Here is a defenceles Hobbit stuck on a cliff face with no means of escape and suddenly a rope appears. I often see that Light and Hope go together in LotR, in the Phial, and particularly in the symbolism surrounding Aragorn.

Originally Posted by Encaitare

Gollum seems averted to all sources of light -- the Sun and Moon, the elvish rope, and even the "bright eyes" of the Elves, whom he describes as fierce and terrible. We know that he was imprisoned by the Elves of Mirkwood, but perhaps the light associated with them makes his hatred for them even greater.

Originally Posted by Formendacil

If Gollum hates lights, up to and including the bright Elven eyes, is it not somewhat ironic that his own eyes shine in the dark?

As with much in Tolkien's work, this can work on many levels I think. Gollum's fear of light could simply be down to his long life spent in the total darkness beneath the Misty Mountains. His eyes seem to have grow larger to compensate, making me think of deep-sea fish and other such creatures; his hearing is certainly sharper, like that of a bat, relying on sonic communication.

Now why would he also hate things associated with Light, such as the rope and lembas? It could be alluding to something evil and dark within him; is this because he is by nature evil? Or is it because the Ring has made him so? He is certainly no ally of Sauron.

Is it that Gollum knows nothing of divinity and goodness? He seems to have led a troubled life and never had the benefit of the 'good' things, so perhaps to him, such a thing as lembas would be wholly unnatural. Of course, his fear of the rope could be down to a simple fear of captivity; he has been captured before, and he would know that to protest strongly of pain might lead to him being released from his bonds.

One thing I found interesting was the animal symbolism used for Gollum in this chapter. At first, when he is independent Gollum, he is like a spider, solitary and predatory. He also has something cat like about him with his large luminous eyes, his stealth and his ability to right himself after a tumble. He lives on his instincts and wits like any solitary creature. Then once he is subdued and is Smeagol, he has indeed been 'tamed' and he becomes like a dog, even behaves like one. So he goes from being a predator to being a servile animal, yet like all dogs, there is still something wild and wolflike hidden beneath his apparently faithful demeanour.