Was Gollum's slip the only way?

[Halfir]

Mithadan and Child of the 7th Age: it's always a pleasure to read your well argued posts, even if I don't always find myself in agreement with them!

With regard to Tolkien's view on what mighthave happened if Gollum had not snapped off Frodo's Ring finger, I am going to quote his own theory of applicability (FOTR; Foreword), in which he stresses the freedom of the reader against the purposed domination of the author. In other words, in this instance, what the reader might believe is as good as what the author might believe!

If Gollum had not finished the Fellowship journey in his destruction of the Ring (albeit inadvertently!) I don't think the Nazgul - driven by the purposed intent of their master - would have feigned obedience to Frodo. I think the Ring - now returned to its womb, the center of power where it had been created -would have taken control- and Frodo (and Sam ) would have been obliged by it to return with the Nazgul to Barad - Dur and Sauron's welcome.

The debate over who speaks, Frodo or the Ring, when Frodo makes his decision not to destroy it, has engendered endless comment. I have always subscribed to the view that here, at the the very center of its power, it was the Ring speeking and not Frodo. At this point, Frodo, as would anyone else in Middle Earth who had made that same journey with the Ring as a burden, surrenders his will to that of the Ring's.

Tom Shippey in his excellent biography of Tolkien makes a very telling point in this respect:"Frodo does not say 'I choose not to do', but 'I do not choose to do'. Maybe (and Tolkien was a professor of language) the choice of words is absolutely accurate. Frodo does not choose; the choice is made for him."

Child of the 7th Age makes a very powerful point about the intervention of Providence, in the form of Gollum biting off the Ring finger. Interestingly enough Tolkien does not use the word 'providence', he uses 'chance'.It was chance, or Providence that Bilbo found the ring, chance or Providence that Gandalf met with
Thorin Oakshield, chance or Providence that Tom Bombadil hapened to be nearby to save the hobbits from Old Man Willow, although Tom enigmatic as ever! says:"Just chance brought me then,if chance you call it." So some Providential power or 'chance' is clearly at work, although it has to be delivered through some agency residing in ME, and seems to favor those who both act positively on their own behalf and use 'luck' in a positive way, and not to harm others.(Shippey)

Gollum's 'luck' was to be accepted by Frodo as a traveling companion, but in the final sequence at Mount Doom, that 'luck' turns against him because he uses it for ill - he reposseses the Ring - only to lose his own life - and that of his precious which he values so dearly.

Which brings me full-circle to my earlier comment regarding the Fellowship journey -in which I included Gollum! Gollum's role in the Fellowship might not be on the same lines as the Nine who set out from Rivendell (Boromir's error not withstanding) but his role as the 'tenth' member of the Fellowship is fundamental to the final cataclysmic destruction of the Ring. Indeed, at that point Gollum is what Frodo might have become if left under the domination of the Ring, and Gollums death might be seen as the 'death' of that part of Frodo's spirit that the Ring had finally controlled.