Gollum...

[Jessica Jade]

Turn to Chapter 5 in FotR, in the 8th paragraph, Sam tells Frodo to look back... "On the far stage, under the distant lamps, they could just make out a figure: it looked like a dark black bundle left behind. But as they looked it seemed to move and sway this way and that, as if searching the ground. It then crawled, or went crouching, back into the gloom beyond the lamps."
We don't know it's Gollum until Moria.

I was always positive that that was a Ringwraith. At that point in the book, the four hobbits were fleeing from the pursuit of the Black Riders. Also, as someone said before, someone would have seen/heard Gollum if he'd been following them already. As for Rivendell, Gollum would have been very afraid to enter there, because he is terrified of elves. ("Fierce elves with bright eyes," as he says to Sam and Frodo in Emyn Muil.) IF he had been following them already, he'd have waited til they got out of Rivendell and picked up their trail again later, but its unlikely he would have waited outside Rivendell for months while the fellowship was formed and the decision to destry the ring in Morder was made. SInce he lusted for the ring so much, he'd have probably tried to go into Rivendell to seek it, and in that case he would've been caught/seen by an elf.

I think that he didn't meet the Fellowship until he discovered that they were passing through Moria. My theory is that he had been there already, for months, and when they entered, he followed because he felt the presence of the Ring. I agree that Orcs helped him escape because Sauron thought that Gollum would reveal where the Ring was hidden if he sucessfully found it. Maybe he followed the Orcs to Moria, but he probably tried to hide from them because he hated and feared them. They probably didn't know he was there, or, if they did, they wouldnt' capture him, because 1) he probably isn't very good to eat since he's so skinny and 2)Sauron probably didnt' want him killed since he (sauron) believed that Gollum might be a means to finding the Ring.

As for him escaping Moria, well, it'd be much easier for him, knowing his agility, size, and unnatural strengths. He IS and expert at caves, and shadowy dark places, so he would have known that labryinth of Moria far better than anyone could have. There was surely more ways to exit Moria other than over the Bride of Khazad Dum.

[ March 29, 2002: Message edited by: Jessica Jade ]