LotR -- Book 4 - Chapter 01 - The Taming of Sméagol

[Fordim Hedgethistle]

One of my favourite chapters! I always reach it with such glee after having been away from Sam and Frodo for too long. And at long last – Gollum!!

It’s Gollum who really dominates the chapter, and he does so in some interesting ways. There’s some fascinating foreshadowing of his treachery, and of the bond that he shares with the hobbits:

Sam looked and breathed sharply through his teeth. ‘Ssss!’ he said…Look at him! Like a nasty spider crawling on a wall.’

As [Gollum fell from the cliff], he curled his legs and arms up round him, like a spider whose descending thread is snapped.

That’s two descriptions of Gollum as being like a spider in the course of only a few pages, not just that, but right at the beginning of his introduction to the story. The reference to Shelob could not be more clear, and thus in the very moment that he arrives he comes bearing with him the mark of his treachery. At the same time, the way Sam reacts to him is telling: “Ssss!” he says “sharply through his teeth.” This is an extremely Gollum-like sound and gesture, and it hints at the affinity that these three figures will come to feel for one another. Frodo’s understanding of Gollum is forged here. He has borne the Ring long enough to know almost at first glance that he and Gollum are a lot a like – there is a meeting of minds, or even souls, that Sam doesn’t understand, and this recognition is what allows the Quest to be fulfilled for it convinces Frodo to accept Gollum as his guide.

But the link between Sam and Gollum looks even further ahead to the moment upon Mount Doom when Sam will show pity to Gollum and not kill him. Sam, by that point, will have been a Ringbearer and thus understand Gollum the way Frodo does now. So if this initial meeting with Gollum contains allusions to his treachery, it also looks ahead to the moments and the virtue (Pity) that will allow that treachery to be overcome and even made to serve the purpose of the Quest. It’s compelling that the rest of the Quest is contained in this single moment: Gollum’s treachery and evil will combine with the Pity of the hobbits, there will be some kind of understanding forged between these different characters, that will somehow allow the ‘miracle’ to occur that puts the Ring into the fire.

But it’s not all fate and providence. These three characters are not just tools to an overwhelming plan, and this is made clear when Frodo misremembers Gandalf’s words to him. In “The Shadow of the Past” Gandalf says:

“Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.”

But here, Frodo remembers it as:

“Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends.”

It’s on the basis of this that Frodo spares Gollum’s life. What I think is important about this is that while Frodo is responding to the words of Gandalf, he is not slavishly following them. He is not reacting to Gandalf’s precise words, but to those words as they apply to Frodo’s own particular circumstance. It’s the difference between remembering a lesson and actually having learned it. Gandalf told Frodo an important thing about Pity, and Frodo here is able to apply that lesson rather than just trot it out. In this moment, in this place, Frodo “fears for his own safety” and knows that he will be dealing out death not “in judgement” (which is, presumably, deserved) but “in the name of justice” (that is, using justice as a pretext to justify a selfish act).

So Frodo is being influenced by the memory of Gandalf, directed even, but he is not a passive tool – he is making a freely willed choice that is setting a series of events in motion in which Gollum’s evil will be in conflict with the understanding (love?) that he forges with the hobbits.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – Tolkien was a very good writer.