December 6, 2003

Beating Up Gollum
Eonwe

Many people have said in posts how much they hated seeing Gollum beaten by the men of Gondor or manhandled by Faramir. As a counterpoint, I remembered that a couple mentions are made in FotR of the "good guys" being rough with Gollum. I looked up the quotes last night.

In "The Shadow of the Past," Gandalf says he was "harsh" with Gollum and threatened him with fire in order to get the truth out of him quickly. And at the Council of Elrond, Aragorn describes his capture of Gollum by saying something like, "He will never love me, I fear. He bit me, and I was not kind." You don't know what really happened either time, but it is clear that Gandalf and Aragorn feel some regret at what they had to do.

Interestingly, soon after Aragorn tells his story, Gloin gets upset when he hears how KINDLY the Mirkwood Elves were to Gollum because he received much harsher treatement as a prisoner of the Elves in "The Hobbit."