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Shade of Carn Dûm
Posts: 300</TD><TD></TD></TR></TABLE>
The Ring
Now I really, really hate EzBoard. My really long post just got lost...in cyberspace. Not that I can reproduce it exactly <img src=wink.gif ALT="
"> but here we go:
Objects in Middle Earth seem to have a life of their own. Gurthang spoke to Turin. The Silmarils burnt the hands of only those that they deemed not worthy. What is to say that the Ring did not? The Ring is treacherous in itself. The fact that it left Gollum was not because Sauron made it do so; but for several reasons. It could see nothing in Gollum and was no use:
<blockquote>
Quote:<hr> "It could make no further use of him: (Gollum) he was too small and mean; and as long as it stayed with him he would never leave his dep pool again."<hr></blockquote>
And 2.: Summons. Sauron and the Nazgul could not, as they were, tell the Ring to come out of hiding and return. Sauron, in the TA, did not even know where the ring was; he was
looking for it. These summons were heard by the Ring, and in order to make it's way back to Mordor the Ring realises it must leave Gollum:
<blockquote>
Quote:<hr> "A Ring of Power looks after itself, Frodo.
It may slip off treacherously, but it's keeper never abandons it...It was not Gollum, Frodo, but the Ring itself that decided things. The Ring left
him." (Gandalf to Frodo, FoTR The Shadow of the Past)<hr></blockquote>
<blockquote>
Quote:<hr> "There was more than one power at work, Frodo. The Ring was trying to get back to its master. It had slipped from Isisldur's hand and betrayed him; then when a chance came it caught poor Deagol, and he was murdered; and after that Gollum and it had devoured him...So now, whe its master was awake once more and sending out his dark thought from Mirkwood, it abandoned Gollum."<hr></blockquote>
<blockquote>
Quote:<hr> "Behind that there was something else at work, beyond any design of the Ring-maker. I can put it no plainer than by saying that Bilbo was
meant to find the Ring, and
not by its maker."<hr></blockquote>
From these we learn several things. That Gollum
apparently (despite the text I still believe that Gollum had a corner of his own mind) had no control, that the Ring controlled him. That it left him because its Master was sending out summons (partly) and because Gollum was hindering it's cause; and that the Ring had
wanted Bilbo to find the Ring. Also, that it (not Sauron) had betrayed Isildur, and
it had caught Deagol, establishing some sort of independence within the Ring; but this independance was no doubt
bound to the Will of Sauron, and for that reason he was able to summon it.
I agree with BW's point on all mortals in ME entering into the world with open hearts; but Gollum was always enquisitive from the beginning "diving into deep pools" and the Ring, as TLW pointed out (as did numerous others) corrupted this love for deep and dark places, his wants for revenge and repentance over the killing over Deagol, his torn mind and hatred of light into something darker, more sinister. Twisting his bad qualities.
Z - I disagree with Gollum being less resistant towards the Ring.
<blockquote>
Quote:<hr> "Even Gollum was not wholly ruined. He had proved tougher tahn even one of the Wise would have guessed."<hr></blockquote>
Gollum held the Ring for many hundreds of years, and had not fully crossed over to 'the spiritual side;' that is, he was not a wraith in full, but rather a wretched, withered soul. Seeing Frodo sleeping peacefully and remembering his path just made him all that more wretched, even if it did awaken the Smeagol-will. He was beyond cure; but definitely not less resistant.
That post was longer than the first one. <img src=rolleyes.gif ALT=":rolleyes">
PS, my 300th post. Woohoo! <img src=biggrin.gif ALT="
">
-
enep</p>
Edited by: <A HREF=http://www.barrowdowns.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_profile&u=00000041>enep</A> at: 2/13/01 6:12:03 pm