dreamflower | International Tolkien Reading Day (Reply)

For "International Read Tolkien Day" I'm choosing a passage from The History of the Hobbit which shows how the encounter would have gone with Gollum IF the One Ring had NOT been the One Ring, but merely a magic ring of invisibility with no other particular power... (Transcription behind cut...)

Bilbo turned round and waited, wondering what it could be that the creature was making such a fuss about. This turned out very fortunately; For Gollum came back, and made a tremendous chatter and whispering and croaking; and in the end Bilbo [found>] understood that Gollum had a ring, a wonderful beautiful ring, a ring that he had been given for a birthday-present ages and ages before in old days when such rings were less uncommon. Sometimes he had kept it in his pocket; usually he kept it in a little hole in the rock on his island; sometimes he wore it—wore it when he was very, very hungry and tired of fish, and crept along the dark passages looking for stray goblins. The (being very hungry) he ventured even into places where torches were lit and made his eyes blink and smart; but he was safe, O yes quite safe; for if you slipped that ring on your fingers, you were invisible; only in the strongest of sunlight could you be seen, and then only by your shadow, and that was [a faint >] only a faint shaky sort of shadow.

I don't know how many times Gollum begged Bilbo's pardon. And he offered him some fish caught fresh to eat instead (Bilbo shuddered at the thought of it) …but he said 'no thank you' quite politely.

He was thinking, thinking very hard—and the idea came to him that he must have found that ring, that he had that very ring in his pocket. But he had the wits not to tell Golum. 'Finding's keeping' he said to himself; and being in a very tight place I think he was right, and anyway the ring belonged to him now.

But to Gollum, he said: "Never mind, the ring would have been mine now if you could have found it, so you haven't lost it. And I will forgive you on one condition.'

"Yes, what is it, what does it wish us to do, my precious?"

"Help me to get out of these places," said Bilbo.

To this Gollum agreed, if he wasn't to cheat, though he would very much like to have just tasted what Bilbo was like. Still he had lost the game…; and also there was the sword, and also Bilbo was wide awake & on the look out, not unsuspecting as the Gollum liked to have things which he caught.

That is how Bilbo got to know that the tunnel ended at the water and went on no further on the other side, where the mountain wall was dark and solid. He outght to have turned down one of the side passages before he came to the bottom, but he couuldn't follow the directions he was given to find it. So he made Gollum come and show him.

As they were going up the tunnel together, Gollum flip-flapping along, Bilbo going very quietly, Bilbo thought he would try that ring. He slipped it on.

"Where are you…,where is it gone to?" said Gollum at once peering round with his long eyes.

"Here I am following behind," said Bilbo, slipping off the ring, and feeling very pleased to have it in his pocket. So on they went while Gollum counted the passages to left and right: 'one left, one right, two right, three right, one left' and so on. He began to get very shaky and afraid as he got further from the water, and at last he stopped by a low opening on the left ('six right, four left').

"Here's the passage [addedhe whispered]; it must squeeze in and sneak down, --we dursn't go with it, my precious, no we dursn't go with it, my precious, no we dursn't: Gollum!"

So Bilbo slipped under the arch, and said goodbye to the nasty miserable creature, and very glad he was."

(The History of the Hobbit: J.R.R. Tolkien edited by John D. Rateliff, Chapter V, "Gollum", p. 160-161)

(This is part of how the story originally appeared; it has not been reprinted in the first edition text since 1951, except as a part of The Annotated Hobbit.)