These Three Things I Lost: 80 Years, my Desire and One Ring - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

alatar · 09-29-2008, 12:09 PM

Reading The Fellowship of the Ring for the thousandth time (as it's Fall, and eventually I would like to participate in the hundreth reread), I noticed something of a lapse in two of the main characters. Here's what jumped off the pages in this reread:

Bilbo finds the One Ring in 2941. Gollum goes in search for Bilbo in 2944. Gollum is released from Mordor 3017, goes in search of Bilbo. In 3018, Frodo takes the Ring eastward. The Nine are sent westward to find Baggins and Shire about the same time. Regardless of the exact dates, Gandalf, when speaking with Frodo in the Shire in The Shadow of the Past, says that Gollum leaves the Misty Mountains a year or two after Bilbo flees, and goes onto Dale to see what he could find out about that thieving Hobbit. He then turns westward and begins to head towards the Shire, stopping at the Anduin. He would have ended up at Bag End, but the call of Sauron proved greater than his lust for the Ring, and so he turns south, to spy on and lurk around Mordor. Eventually he is caught, and then Gollum is tortured. Given a new mission, though not broken, he is sent to continue his goal of finding Bilbo, and he makes it as far as Moria, which is where the Ring finds him.

So what's up with Gollum and Sauron? Just what were they doing for the 70-80 years from the time Bilbo finds the Ring until the time Frodo decided to finally get lost? Sure, I've killed some time now and then (thank you Internet!), but this is some professional slackerism.

Or was it simply filler? Did Tolkien need time to bring up Frodo, and to move Sauron the Sorcerer south, and so really didn't think out the time that these two, Gollum and Sauron, spend? Gollum's supposedly lusting for the Ring, yet can't find the Shire, and Sauron learns of the One, Bilbo and Shire and - let's be generous - and still takes 20 years to get his messenger calling on the mat of Bagshot Row.

And yet, in a year, members of the Fellowship circumnavigate the better parts of Middle Earth. What's going on?

09-29-2008, 12:09 PM	#1
alatar Doubting Dwimmerlaik Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Heaven's basement Posts: 2,466	These Three Things I Lost: 80 Years, my Desire and One Ring Reading The Fellowship of the Ring for the thousandth time (as it's Fall, and eventually I would like to participate in the hundreth reread), I noticed something of a lapse in two of the main characters. Here's what jumped off the pages in this reread: Bilbo finds the One Ring in 2941. Gollum goes in search for Bilbo in 2944. Gollum is released from Mordor 3017, goes in search of Bilbo. In 3018, Frodo takes the Ring eastward. The Nine are sent westward to find Baggins and Shire about the same time. Regardless of the exact dates, Gandalf, when speaking with Frodo in the Shire in The Shadow of the Past, says that Gollum leaves the Misty Mountains a year or two after Bilbo flees, and goes onto Dale to see what he could find out about that thieving Hobbit. He then turns westward and begins to head towards the Shire, stopping at the Anduin. He would have ended up at Bag End, but the call of Sauron proved greater than his lust for the Ring, and so he turns south, to spy on and lurk around Mordor. Eventually he is caught, and then Gollum is tortured. Given a new mission, though not broken, he is sent to continue his goal of finding Bilbo, and he makes it as far as Moria, which is where the Ring finds him. So what's up with Gollum and Sauron? Just what were they doing for the 70-80 years from the time Bilbo finds the Ring until the time Frodo decided to finally get lost? Sure, I've killed some time now and then (thank you Internet!), but this is some professional slackerism. Or was it simply filler? Did Tolkien need time to bring up Frodo, and to move Sauron the Sorcerer south, and so really didn't think out the time that these two, Gollum and Sauron, spend? Gollum's supposedly lusting for the Ring, yet can't find the Shire, and Sauron learns of the One, Bilbo and Shire and - let's be generous - and still takes 20 years to get his messenger calling on the mat of Bagshot Row. And yet, in a year, members of the Fellowship circumnavigate the better parts of Middle Earth. What's going on? __________________ There is naught that you can do, other than to resist, with hope or without it.