Did Gollum deserve death?

[Mithalwen]

Originally Posted by Raynor

LotR as we know it was, presumably, assembled from notes and accounts not only from the hobbits, but also from Rohan and Gondor, where annotations and corrections were added. Nothing, anywhere, discards what we already know of Gollum.

LOTR as we know it is a work of fiction ... by someone who kneow how tales developed....

And even to suspend one's disbelief and enter into the conceit of "history" - you would have to take the Hobbit with a bucket of salt, as a infantilised, abridged version... or else you take the account of tralallally camper than a row of tents elves as a reliable documentary of the behaviour of the Noldor in Middle Earth.

I am not saying Gollum did not kill to eat I am saying that you can't take circumstantial evidence and suspicion as proof.