Which Vala tripped Gollum?

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Pervinca Took

No definitive answer perhaps, but what is your personal guess?

Which Vala do you think caused Gollum to teeter on the edge of the Sammath Naur?

Eru himself would have commanded it, perhaps, but to whom might he have delegated the task? And how many of the Valar were watching, and how many of them exerted their powers in those final minutes? Who put it into Frodo and Sam's minds, as they rested on the slopes of Orodruin, that they must get up and push on to the Cracks of Doom, before it was too late.

My guess would be Manwe, perhaps (regarding Gollum's sudden loss of balance). Ulmo seems to intervene more than most in the fates of the peoples of Middle-earth, but I'd find it difficult to imagine him keeping watch around a parched, waterless land. Unless he had taken it upon himself to watch from the Sea of Nurnen.

Et vous?

How do you know any of them did? I mean, couldn't Gollum just have tripped and fell?

[urbanhiker]

I'm with Nerwen on this one. Fate steered Gollum's feet, just like Fate steered Bilbo's hands in the dark under the Misty Mountains. The event had already been played out in the great music of the Ainur before time, and like the rest of the world and everything in it, was merely the physically manifested playback of their music.

[Oddwen]

I don't know about that. Aule was famous for leaving tools lying around his workspace, and Sauron learned much from him. That might be a stretch, but that's as close as you're going to get without Tolkien verifying it in one of the histories.

[littlemanpoet]

I think Gollum tripped himself. Oh, but then that would make Gollum a Vala. Hmmm......

[sneha]

I think Manwe. If there was water around I would have definitely gone with Ulmo!

[Galadriel55]

I think that going in so "mathimatical-theorem-y"* into this topic (and other similar topics) just ruins the mystery and the trust-in-fate feel. Not that I am against this speculation, but I am avoiding thinking too deeply about this question. I want to leave it as something mythical and mysterious.

*Not that I have anything against math or theorems either, just, you know...

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by littlemanpoet

I think Gollum tripped himself. Oh, but then that would make Gollum a Vala. Hmmm......

Actually, I used to wonder if Gollum hadn't in fact committed suicide by deliberately stepping close to the brink of the chasm and looking away. I rejected that when I read in HOME that Tolkien had considered that idea and decided against it. Still, maybe Gollum didn't make himself fall, but at the same time didn't care if he did. He could die with the Precious and save Frodo at the same time if it happened. And then Fate was free to finish things...

[Calacirya]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

Actually, I used to wonder if Gollum hadn't in fact committed suicide by deliberately stepping close to the brink of the chasm and looking away. I rejected that when I read in HOME that Tolkien had considered that idea and decided against it. Still, maybe Gollum didn't make himself fall, but at the same time didn't care if he did. He could die with the Precious and save Frodo at the same time if it happened. And then Fate was free to finish things...

I believe that this idea is closest to the most probably truth, at least from the perspective of Gollum. He surely had no intentions of dying, but it wasn't a terrible end as long as he had the Ring. The carelessness of his misstep really brings foreshadowed elements together, such as:

As spoken by Eru in The Simarillion:

These too in their time shall find that all that they do redounds at the end only to the glory of my work.

And, arguebly, just as importantly, Gandalf tells to Frodo in The Fellowship of the Ring:

For even the very wise cannot see all ends. I have not much hope that Gollum can be cured before he dies, but there is a chance of it. And he is bound up with the fate of the Ring. My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end; and when that comes, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many – yours not least.

Just to name a poignant two.

[Sarumian]

It seems, that very moment was the time when little folk was in charge and great powers (warriors, kings, wizards, elves, wraiths, Sauron and even Valar) could just stand and watch. Of cause it was in the Music but I wouldn't describe it as Eru's intervention.

Gollum dancing on the edge shows us that his soul was not completely subjugated by The Ring as he still was able and free to do such a foolish thing! Imagine Sauron sitting there and saying: "What the hell you are doing! Stop it!!!".

But what made Gollum to fall? His fate? His fate was bound to The Ring. And I tend to think (Copiright ) that it was The Ring that made him to fall. Sauron put his malice into The Ring; he made it capable of bewitching and destroying whoever bore it. What he didn't expect, as it seems to me, is that The Ring's final "intention" was not only to return to its Master but to destroy him in the end - because self-destruction is inherent to evil as the example of Melkor shows. Dancing Gollum provided an excellent shortcut to destruction of Sauron and three others who used to bare The Ring, so The One didn't miss the chance. But it was neither a mere chance nor Eru-From-Machine.

[Calacirya]

Originally Posted by Sarumian

What he didn't expect, as it seems to me, is that The Ring's final "intention" was not only to return to its Master but to destroy him in the end - because self-destruction is inherent to evil as the example of Melkor shows. Dancing Gollum provided an excellent shortcut to destruction of Sauron

Wow, that is a truly profound idea. I never thought about it that way, but it does seem like a very likely thing that Tolkien would have conjured in his own mind. What a great thought.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Sarumian

What he didn't expect, as it seems to me, is that The Ring's final "intention" was not only to return to its Master but to destroy him in the end - because self-destruction is inherent to evil as the example of Melkor shows. Dancing Gollum provided an excellent shortcut to destruction of Sauron and three others who used to bare The Ring, so The One didn't miss the chance. But it was neither a mere chance nor Eru-From-Machine.

If you're going to make that leap though, you might as well say that Sauron's impetus for diffusing his power into an inanimate object was also willfully self-destructive. That, because the "will" of the Ring was in effect Sauron's own essence. Evil may destroy itself in the end; in fact Tolkien's Middle-earth seems rife with examples of that. That doesn't mean though that evil desires its own end. Quite the opposite: Ungoliant, Saruman, and Shelob cling to whatever life is there for them. Sauron too rebuilds himself each time his physical body is "killed", a little weaker and bound to the world with every reincarnation. That doesn't stop his desire to live in the world, though.