[Kalimac]

This question was inspired partly by the discussion on the last thread about whether we wished Gollum had lived or not. Gollum, of course, got the Ring by murdering his friend Deagol for it. The odd thing is that - in Gandalf's account anyway - Deagol doesn't seem to be terribly overcome by the Ring when he first fishes it out of the water. True, he won't give it Smeagol - "I have given you a present already, more than I could afford" - but neither does he seem to be struck with the instantaneous and extremely powerful lust for it which hits Smeagol. (If he'd been that impressed by it, surely he would have kept a closer eye on Smeagol to make sure he didn't try anything).

So, my questions: first of all, was Smeagol's reaction a response to some sort of call from the Ring? Like speaking to like, if I may put it that way, since Smeagol has a tendency to enjoy digging into the dirt and has a fairly nasty personality, the Ring may have somehow been on his wavelength and found him a more suitable master, personality-wise, than Deagol. Second, if Deagol had lived (a stretch, I know, but suppose he'd been out fishing alone that day) would he have made a more Bilbo-like Ringbearer? His reaction on finding it is certainly a lot more like Bilbo's - "Oh, how nice, now let's get on with what we were doing before" - and since he's not portrayed as being as wormy as Smeagol, he may well have used it only to hide when unpleasant callers came and so forth. Ultimately, of course, *something* would happen...but what?

Just wondering what everyone thinks. Of course, the ultimate consequences for ME if Deagol had lived is a natural spinoff question...