LotR -- Book 4 - Chapter 10 - The Choices of Master Samwise

[littlemanpoet]

Originally Posted by Estelyn Telcontar

Isn’t it funny that Gollum gets the same nickname from orcs that Sam gave him – Sneak?!

I wondered about that when I reread this chapter, and felt that it broke the enchantment of Secondary Belief for me: it would verge on authorial intrusion (both arbitrary and artificial) for both Sam and the Orcs to just happen to use the same derogatory nickname for Gollum. Yes, it's plausible, but still out on a limb. So I reread the last page of two chapters ago, and noticed that Sam does NOT give Gollum this nickname: he accuses him of sneaking and calls him "villain" instead. It's Gollum who gives himself the name of Sneak, throwing it in Sam's face; maybe Tolkien is intimating that Gollum was more aware of the Orcs' knowledge of his presence than we might have thought, even having overheard the Orcs referring to himself.....?