Did Gollum deserve death?

[smeagollives]

i have not red everything. but i do not think he deserves death. NOBODY deserves death.

but i think that may be death was the only way for him ever to be happy again. after all his precious was gone forever. he was old and worn, all his former friends dead and forgotten.

it was not possible for him to become himself again...

i think the only way for him to be okay was to be with his precious. of course that could not happen. so i think it was okay for him that he died. biut he did not deserve it, no human being deserves (and he was like a human being or a hobbit being better to say). no matter how bad.

[Finduilas]

Originally Posted by smeagollives

i have not red everything. but i do not think he deserves death. NOBODY deserves death.

but i think that may be death was the only way for him ever to be happy again. after all his precious was gone forever. he was old and worn, all his former friends dead and forgotten.

it was not possible for him to become himself again...

i think the only way for him to be okay was to be with his precious. of course that could not happen. so i think it was okay for him that he died. biut he did not deserve it, no human being deserves (and he was like a human being or a hobbit being better to say). no matter how bad.

Well, deserving death depends on your own beliefs. Being a Christian, I personally think that murder, and certian other crimes, deserve death. There is of course such a thing as mercy, but as afore said( I don't know if I ever said it, but I think I remember reading it) just because someone decides to be merciful, doesn't mean that the person didn't deserve death.

Oh, and I also agree with Folwrens post. (see above.)

[smeagollives]

Originally Posted by Finduilas

Well, deserving death depends on your own beliefs. Being a Christian, I personally think that murder, and certian other crimes, deserve death. There is of course such a thing as mercy, but as afore said( I don't know if I ever said it, but I think I remember reading it) just because someone decides to be merciful, doesn't mean that the person didn't deserve death.

Oh, and I also agree with Folwrens post. (see above.)

being a christian too i would not agree with that.

yes murder is a very very bad crime. there is no excuse for murdering. one time i talked with friends about this topikc. i said i could never imagine a situation in which i would become a murder. they called me a hypocrite... but i just cannot imagine a situation in which i would kill... or give orders to kill a person which is about the same.

and if i am wrong about this... if i would kill, than i would put to death myself too... because i could not go on living with that guilt.

but does a murder deserve to be killed. to my mind not. if you kill a murder, you are a murder too.

being not only a christian, but also a man i would say that we all are sinners and that we are forgiven by gods mercy alone.

i remeber when i was and had my confirmation and i told myself "yeah, from this day on, i will never sin again" and i have sinned so many a times after that and it made me feel miserable as sin.

back then in my life situation i thought there were no other choices available to me, but i was wrong. one day a saw that there always is another choice and i turned my life around. and then i saw i had been a disgrace to me family and that i had made many good people unhappy. and i have to go on living with that. i have to tell myself "those were the choices you made". i have to deal with that.

and now: i always try to do the right thing... but don`t i sin now? of course i do. everybody does all the time.
each time you put something elese first and nozt got you sin, each time you are jealous at somebodies possesssions or somebodies life you sin, each time you smoke a cigarette you sin (because "do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? you are not your own" (1 cor. 6:19)

[Bard the Bowman]

before i go any further,i would just like take my hat off to you downers,iv been reading your threads and posts and i was awed by all your knowledege on toilkens middle eart

[Morthoron]

No one deserves death; but you're going to get it sooner or later, deserving or not. Perhaps it was a mercy that Gollum died when he did, at a point beyond madness. Had he lived, the Nazgul would have taken the Ring from him, and it would have broken him utterly (and Frodo as well).

[Mithalwen]

Hm death can be a blessed release, speaking as someone who has nursed much love parents until their deaths from cancer and dementia. When we think of not dying we imagine ourselves perpetually young and strong not held in a perpetual state of pain and fear completely beyond any pleasure. I think Gollum's death was a release from the torment of his long years. He had the ring and was happy. Possibly more than he deserved as a murderer but he was essential in the end to the triumph.

[Lotrelf]

Gollum wasn't happy when he had the Ring,Mithalwen.

"He hates and loves the Ring, ashe hates and loves himself."

was what Gandalf had said. This doesn't sound like being happy to me.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Lotrelf

Gollum wasn't happy when he had the Ring,Mithalwen. was what Gandalf had said. This doesn't sound like being happy to me.

I think what Mith meant was that at the moment of Gollum's fall into the Cracks, he was then fully content. He had his Precious again, he was saving Frodo, for whom he actually did have some genuine affection, he was forever depriving Sauron of the Ring, and Gollum himself could die, finally free of the Ring's influence forever.