Thank you all for bringing up the question. I had never sat down and run through the figures before, so it was quite a treat to realise that yes, Gollum did start to age naturally after he lost the ring.
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But do you think it would it happen immediately or would Gollum's age catch up overnight, so maybe Gollum would die in his sleep.
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Groundskeeper, that's a good question. We don't really know how fast Bilbo aged, because it was nearly six months after the destruction of the ring till Frodo saw him again. He could have aged gradually in that time.
However, I think it
likely that it did happen very suddenly. After all, the Towers of Baradur fell immediately.
Actually, the fact that Gollum was a teenager, and a rather rebellious mean-spirited one, explains a great deal about his almost child-like behavior. I don't think he had the maturity - no offense to mature teenagers, I'm referring to a particular type who refuses any concept of personal responsibilty (we all know at least one) - to give up what was 'his' regardless of his feelings for Frodo. He did kill his best friend for the ring after all, someone he knew much longer than Frodo.
I'm sure his immature rather paranoic perspective, 'everyone's against, everyone hates me, it's all their fault, I deserve better' is exactly what the ring worked on to gain control of him. Not difficult to gain a foothold in that.
In Sam, I believe his desire to help Frodo was exactly what the ring tried to work on in him to tempt him. It failed to tempt him with the usual visions of grandeur because it was so against Sam's personality. After Sam's refusal, despite even the power of the ring in Mordor, it attempted a more subtle path. "I would use the ring out of a desire to do good." But those kinds of good intentions are harder to twist.
Doug, yeah, Bilbo's age was one of those things I winced about in the theatre, but I refused to allow it to detract from my enjoying Rivendell. Rather like a cruise to the San Juan islands. Sometimes you have to ignore the annoying loud couple next to you to appreciate the view.
-Maril