How did Gollum get out of Moria?
 

If Gollum was following the Fellowship, how did he escape from Moria after the bridge of Khazad-Dum was destroyed by Gandalf?

Well noticed. I'd forgotten I'd already responded to one of the earlier iterations of these.

What I really wonder, though, is what the purpose of all this is, especially because the answers never seem to get a reply.

I was about to tell you two off for picking on the OP- and then I realised.

Um. I could understand someone accidentally posting the same topic twice- but over and over?:eek:

And as you say, he never seems to reply. Maybe he's a sock-puppet of one of the mods, providing us with conversation starters.

Yes, it's a mystery to me. I just remembered those topics, for some reason.
The subjects themselves are generally pretty good, but not so much that I want to answer them multiple times. ;)

Perhaps the Downs is becoming sentient, and getting increasingly obsessed with a handful of topics? Where's the "Tom Is Eru" and "Balrogs Have Wings"? :p

Maybe it's exactly trying to lead us away from the Bombadil and Wings topics by insisting on different ones...

Similar issues were discussed in this classic thread from years ago

http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showthr...ghlight=bridge

And now intermittent forum outages. Is someone(thing) trying to tell us something?

Maybe, for myself I roused from treeishness to see if Herald of Mandos had posted today .. maybe the servers in San Serriffe are out too...

Yes, it can be hard to get a reliable connection when your country is travelling around the globe. Also my old account is locked, for some reason.

Fitting for the OP's forum name...choosing the sock puppet of Sauron as the username.

Good catch!:D

Gollum just snuck over Durin's Bridge?
 

Perhaps Gollum just snuck over Durin's Bridge before Gandalf's battle with the Balrog, when everyone else wasn't looking? ;) Presumably that was how he got through Moria earlier, so he was near the West-gate when the Fellowship went through.

He hid behind the Balrog's wings. :smokin:

Or behind Gandalf's eyebrows. :D

From 'The Hunt for the Ring' in 'Unfinished Tales'
 

This was what Tolkien had to say about Gollum’s stay in Moria, after his escape from Thranduil’s realm, pursued by Elves and Orcs, according to ‘The Hunt for the Ring’ in Unfinished Tales:

What then happened to Gollum [in Moria] cannot of course be known for certain. He was peculiarly fitted to survive in such straits, though at cost of great misery; but he was in great peril of discovery by the servants of Sauron that lurked in Moria, especially since such dire necessity of food as he must have he could only get by thieving dangerously. No doubt he had intended to use Moria simply as a secret passage westward, his purpose to find ‘Shire’ himself as quickly as he could; but he became lost, and it was a very long time before he found his way about. It thus seems probable that he had not long made his way towards the West-gate when the Nine Walkers arrived. He knew nothing, of course, about the action of the doors. To him they would seem huge and immovable; and though they had no lock or bar and opened outwards to a thrust, he did not discover that. In any case he was now far away from any source of food, for the Orcs were mostly in the East-end of Moria, and was become weak and desperate, so that even if he knew all about the doors he still could not have thrust them open. It was thus a piece of singular good fortune for Gollum that the Nine Walkers arrived when they did. (My emphasis)

He did reply twice in this topic, but that's the only example I could find:

http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showthread.php?t=16609


The constant reposting is bizarre. Perhaps the answers are never good enough? But then, why not just continue an existing topic rather than starting a new one? Perhaps every time the Mouth of Sauron reposts, a Balrog gets its wings.

Or Gandalf uncloaks. ;)