[Firefoot]

As far as other routes go: even if Frodo and Sam had seen a map and known about the open entrance to Mordor in the east, it would have been entirely impractical. As near as I can tell, just from the Dead Marshes to the eastern end of the Ash Mountains is about 450 miles - and that's just one way. So they're looking at about a total of 900 miles (not even taking into considerations the mountains that extend southward into Mordor). Not only would this take an excessive amount of time, but they are also on limited food supplies - I think Sam estimates in the Emyn Muil that they have about enough lembas to last for three weeks - not nearly enough for a 900 mile trek. And of course there is time - which is certainly an issue. Much of the hope in destroying the Ring was in speed. Sauron was moving; they had to make their move now. Gandalf says about following the sea south as opposed to Moria: "As for the longer road: we cannot afford the time. We might spend a year in such a journey, and we should pass through many lands that are empty and harbourless." Isn't this basically the same scenario?

Why does Smeagol think Frodo is going to Mordor?

As other people have said, I find this a fascinating question, one I had not thought of before. The destruction of the Ring has not crossed his mind (Mount Doom: "Wicked masster cheats us, cheats Smeagol. ... He mussn't hurt Preciouss!"). He understands that their mission is secret, and that they do not aim to hand the Ring over to Sauron, hence the secret way through the Marshes and his persuasion not to go through the Black Gate. We know that Gollum was previously "drawn to" Mordor; perhaps Gollum thinks Frodo is in the same position? Most likely, though, is that Gollum thinks Frodo intends to claim the Ring as his own and challenge Sauron.

We know Gollum is anything but slow on the uptake, and would have known that the Hobbits wanted to enter Mordor if they had asked to go to the Gate. It is incredibly tricksy of him to do this, possibly as a delaying tactic? Or to dishearten them so much that they accepted the perilous pass of Cirith Ungol?

I think perhaps a bit of both. Certainly Gollum would want to keep Frodo with him for as long as possible. And also, by taking them to the Black Gate as Frodo asked, the hobbits will see how well guarded the place is, as Smeagol already knows. It will force the hobbits to trust him that there is a less guarded way. Otherwise, the hobbits would simply have to take his word that the Black Gate was impossible to pass.

I think this chapter really shows the reader the reality of the incredibly hopeless task Frodo has been given. In sight of the forbidding descriptions of the mountains and the Teeth of Mordor, this hopelessness is certainly understandable! We see how little hope Frodo and Sam have in the mission (and like Esty, the "he had never had any real hope in the whole affair from the beginning, but being a cheerful hobbit he had not needed hope, so long as despair had been postponed" quote is among my favorites), but also their determination to see it through shines through. Even in light of the foreshadowing that Frodo would not be able to finish, we can see his strength of character, both by the description Tolkien gives us and by the way he speaks to Gollum. The hobbits are down but not out, and throughout the despair in the chapter, there are enough gleams of hope that it encourages us that the hobbits may still make it.

On the whole, this is one of my favorite chapters. The action scenes are great - many of them number among my favorites - but I think that it's really the passages in chapters like this one that keeps me coming back to the book.