Gollum: Truth in Prophecy?

[Lady Adara]

Gollum: looks like he's ready to drop over dead at any minute, tries to kill everything else in sight, speaks in third person, is generally creepy and evil.

But is he really evil? Gandalf said to Frodo that he thought Gollum still had a part to play, for good or ill. That was clearly true, but how evil was Gollum? Was what he did done out of pure evil intent?

I think I'll let this one go a bit before I say something...

~ Adara

[Lady Elwen]

The short answer: yes and no.

The long answer:

Nothing begins as evil; everything begins pure until exposed to some form of corruption, and even then, only begins to be corrupted in and of itself if it begins to act by such corruption.

Such is the case with Gollum - he begins, to all essentials, as a Hobbit, living peacefully, and then he is pur upon by the Ring and its effects. It takes hold of him, perhaps more quickly and strongly than it would to someone else, but it did anyway. And so he begins to act upon it, giving in to the evil that is trying to corrupt him.

The act that he performed in Orodruin was despicable, yes, but Gandalf was right. Had Gollum not arrived there to bite the Ring off of Frodo's finger, Frodo would have been discovered by Sauron and Middle-earth would have fallen under his dominion.

Defining evil is the hard part; there is none that you can label by the book. Here you can go both ways and switch back and forth and then arrive at no conclusion. Gollum performed horrible acts and never repented, but he did so by an outward drive and as such cannot necessarily be termed as "evil".

As Thomas Fuller once said, "He that falls into sin is a man; that grieves at it, is a saint; that boasts of it, is a devil."


~ Elwen

[Elbereth]

I say that while he had a purpose, he was evil to the core after being so exposed and influenced by the Ring and driven away by all others. Many believe that Sam's "sneak" line is the only reason that Gollum didn't actually "repent", but I think that he was so far gone into the influence and call of the Ring that only death could have saved him.

He already committed the ultimate crime of murder - and that of his best friend. I think that that is basically "hitting bottom" for most circumstances, and he was willing to do it again to gain the Ring.

He certainly had a part to play, because if he hadn't bitten off Frodo's finger and attacked him (vice versa, actually), the world would have fallen apart, but even so...

~ Elbereth