Gollum the Hero

[Ardent]

Originally Posted by Juicy-Sweet

...it made me realize after a while, that in LotR there's only four characters that produce their own poetry - Sam, Tmom Bombadil, Aragorn (maybe? ...) - and Gollum.
...

In addition to those you and others have added:

Goldberry sings many songs that "began merrily in the hills and fell softly down into silence..."
Galadriel sings of leaves of gold.
Treebeard leads the Ents with a battle song.
The Ent Quickbeam sings of Rowan trees.
An Eagle sings of the fall of Sauron.
The chant of the Wight in the Barrow.

Then there are the songs in The Hobbit by Dwarves, Elves and Goblins. As I have said in other threads, the songs of the various individuals and races all have their own character. Gandalf noticed the similarity between Gollum and Bilbo's riddles, which is what first roused his suspicion about Gollum's origins.

Originally Posted by Juicy-Sweet

...
1: I always wondered how he managed to be ready in West Moria right when the Ring Bearer passed by. I read somewhere it was thought he had entered Moria to escape his elven pursuers, then tried passing through and get out on the West side, but found the gate closed. How did he know one could through Moria? From orcs pherhaps? This strikes me as just too much of a coincidence. He spent 77 years looking for the ring - which could be ANYWERE in Middle Earth. Then suddenly it walks right past him, after he has been sitting camping at a closed gate for months. Boy was that lucky?...

In Appendix B, The Tale of Years, it says that after Orcs invaded the Elves kingom in Mirkwood gollum escaped then, while Gandalf was imprisoned by Saruman:

"All trace of Gollum is lost. It is thought that at about this time, being hunted by both the Elves and Sauron's servants, he took refuge in Moria; but when he had at last discovered the way to the West-gate he could not get out."

I don't think we are meant to suppose Gollum knew the Ring would pass by, but it is another of those circumstances that confirm what Gandalf said about the Ring:

"...it abandoned Gollum... Behind that there was something else at work, beyond any design of the Ring-maker."

and about Gollum himself:

"...he is bound up with the fate of the Ring. My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet..."

Originally Posted by Juicy-Sweet

... stick Frodo, not to say Boromir, in a cave with only the ring for company for just 10 years, and they would have been wraiths for sure.
...

Boromir yes, he was already undone by its proximity in daylight, but I'm not so sure about Frodo, at least not before being stabbed by the Morgul blade. In fact the Witch King probably knew about the resilience of Hobbit folk from the capture of Smeagol, and that would explain why the blade was used. The only reason Gollum was not similarly enslaved by a blade was because it was thought he could track the Ring and so lead Sauron to it. In the story it is unclear whether he escaped or was released, but again Apendix B explains:

Year 3017 TA - Gollum is released from Mordor. He is taken by Aragorn in the Dead Marshes, and brought to Thranduil in Mirkwood.

.

[Pervinca Took]

In fact the Witch King probably knew about the resilience of Hobbit folk from the capture of Smeagol, and that would explain why the blade was used.

Would the Witch King have realised that Gollum was originally a hobbit, though? (Or of a hobbitlike folk, as Gandalf put it). Even Gollum doesn't identify with other hobbits as being of his own kind.

[Ardent]

Originally Posted by Pervinca Took

Would the Witch King have realised that Gollum was originally a hobbit, though? (Or of a hobbitlike folk, as Gandalf put it). Even Gollum doesn't identify with other hobbits as being of his own kind.

Gandalf made the connection so if Sauron got the riddles out of Smeagol he too could have deduced a similarity. But even if he didn't make the deduction Gollum was stil a creature which, like Thrain II and other Dwarves, had withstood becoming a wraith. That would be enough to imply that there would be others. The morgul blade would have been an insurance against this kind of resilience.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

"Tolkien might have a better excuse for having wild coincidences advance his plot than most authors."

Like Pratchett's million-to-one chance: according to the rules of Narrative Causality, if you can get the odds of success of something ridiculous pushed up to a million to one, it's guaranteed to work.

[Juicy-Sweet]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

"Tolkien might have a better excuse for having wild coincidences advance his plot than most authors."

Like Pratchett's million-to-one chance: according to the rules of Narrative Causality, if you can get the odds of success of something ridiculous pushed up to a million to one, it's guaranteed to work.

And then again, it adds to Gollum's glory.

Being at the right spot at the right time out of sheer luck is the mark of great people