Gollum, post-ring.

[ZehnWaters]

So...what are we thinking would happen to Gollum if he'd lived past the destruction of the Ring? Age would have suddenly caught up with him? Why didn't it do so when he lost it? Does that only happen with it's destruction? Would he just decay into dust?

 

[Maeglin]

Good question, and I've never really understood it myself. I think the most plausible way I've been able to make it work in my own mind is that the ring must have extended life proportionate to how long one possessed it. Bilbo had the ring for, what...50ish years (I might be off on that)? Then he seemed to at the end of his physical strength when he left Middle-Earth, about 30-50 years (again, I can't remember exact numbers) after he had given up the ring. So by that logic, since Gollum had the ring for hundreds of years, that would explain why he still had plenty of strength / life left after losing the ring.

I imagine that this is addressed somewhere in "The Letters of JRR Tolkien," but I don't have my copy handy and, I must admit, I've never actually read through most of it. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable can provide something other than the conjecture I posed above.

 

[ZehnWaters]

Good question, and I've never really understood it myself. I think the most plausible way I've been able to make it work in my own mind is that the ring must have extended life proportionate to how long one possessed it. Bilbo had the ring for, what...50ish years (I might be off on that)? Then he seemed to at the end of his physical strength when he left Middle-Earth, about 30-50 years (again, I can't remember exact numbers) after he had given up the ring. So by that logic, since Gollum had the ring for hundreds of years, that would explain why he still had plenty of strength / life left after losing the ring.

I imagine that this is addressed somewhere in "The Letters of JRR Tolkien," but I don't have my copy handy and, I must admit, I've never actually read through most of it. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable can provide something other than the conjecture I posed above.

I need to get the new one.

 

[Olorgando]

Bilbo had the One Ring from 2941-3001 TA, so 60 years, seemed quite alert when the Fellowship was at Rivendell in 3018, or 17 years later, but much more aged when the Hobbits and Gandalf returned to Rivendell late September 3019 about six months after the destruction of the One Ring. They celebrated Bilbo's 129th birthday in Rivendell, and he carried on past his 131st birthday to leave M-e on 29 September 3021.

Gollum had the One Ring from 2463-2941 TA, so 478 years, and survived without it up to 3019, or 78 years later.
But remember what Bilbo said to Gandalf at the Long-expected Party:
"I am old, Gandalf. I don't look it, but I am beginning to feel it in my heart of hearts. Well-preserved indeed!" he snorted. "Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean: like butter that has been scraped over too much bread. That can't be right."

While Bilbo had begun to feel all thin and stretched, Gollum had actually become that way. He was more than four times as old as Bilbo, older even than Elros by several decades. My guess goes toward an end similar that of Saruman when the latter had his body destroyed by Wormtongue, perhaps without the mist that gathered about his body, a much smaller version of the vast darkness of Sauron against the cloud of the destruction of Barad-dûr - but both dispatched of by a west wind.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

By this point, the existence of the Ring, and his bondage to it, was likely the only thing keeping him alive; look what happened to the Nazgul when it was destroyed.

'Don't kill us,' he wept. 'Don't hurt us with nasty cruel steel! Let us live, yes, live just a little longer. Lost lost! We're lost. And when Precious goes we'll die, yes, die into the dust.' He clawed up the ashes of the path with his long fleshless fingers. 'Dusst!' he hissed.

It sounds like he knew it to be true.

 

[Ent]

It IS curious.
Bilbo remarks somewhere toward the end "Today I have passed the Old Took." So in some respects, the ring didn't age him all that much beyond the normal life-span of (older/oldest) hobbit(s).

It's almost as though when the ring passed on to the next owner, his 'normal aging' more or less resumed physically.

Gollum did not face this issue... as he'd already lived countless years beyond the normal age for 'hobbits' or 'those of hobbit-kind'. Yet... once the ring passed on, he was still hale and hardy enough to tromp around, climb down steep rock faces, endure extreme hardships, etc.

Would he really have 'gone to dust' when the ring perished? Was his body so worn already it just couldn't sustain itself any longer, as Bilbo's could, he not being 'extended' beyond normal reason?

I'll be searching. For now it remains an enigma Ent hasn't resolved either.

 

[ZehnWaters]

It IS curious.
Bilbo remarks somewhere toward the end "Today I have passed the Old Took." So in some respects, the ring didn't age him all that much beyond the normal life-span of (older/oldest) hobbit(s).

It's almost as though when the ring passed on to the next owner, his 'normal aging' more or less resumed physically.

Gollum did not face this issue... as he'd already lived countless years beyond the normal age for 'hobbits' or 'those of hobbit-kind'. Yet... once the ring passed on, he was still hale and hardy enough to tromp around, climb down steep rock faces, endure extreme hardships, etc. \

TORTURE.

Would he really have 'gone to dust' when the ring perished? Was his body so worn already it just couldn't sustain itself any longer, as Bilbo's could, he not being 'extended' beyond normal reason?

I'll be searching. For now it remains an enigma Ent hasn't resolved either.

Tolkien does seem to be rather vague about it. Likely on purpose as it maybe something that showed up in his story and then needed explanation later.

 

[Ent]

Tolkien does seem to be rather vague

Tolkien? Vague? NNNnnnoooooooo.....

 

[Glorfindel Goldtress]

View attachment 26147

Is there something about you and pet chickens we need to know? 🤔😂

 

[Ent]

I am just ever so fascinated by that fainting chicken.. i refuse to let it die.
An Ent could ponder on it for an age.

 

[Ent]

I did try out a fainting Cookie Monster... but it just wasn't the same.

 

[Glorfindel Goldtress]

I did try out a fainting Cookie Monster... but it just wasn't the same.

Oh goodness....

 

[Ent]

Oh goodness....

I lied. It was a fainting blue Sully from Monsters, Inc. The furball with the horns...

 

[Glorfindel Goldtress]

I lied. It was a fainting blue Sully from Monsters, Inc. The furball with the horns...

That does not make it better...

 

[Ent]

That does not make it better...

Ents are easily amused.

 

[Olorgando]

Ents are easily amused.

Well, Quickbeam did laugh a lot, but ... he also left the Entmoot awfully early together with Merry and Pippin ... 😏

 

[Glorfindel Goldtress]

Well, Quickbeam did laugh a lot, but ... he also left the Entmoot awfully early together with Merry and Pippin ... 😏

Wh-what are you trying to say? He couldn't have seen them as fainting chickens... Could he? Unless it's like how Treebeard would have thought they were little orcs....

 

[Olorgando]

Wh-what are you trying to say? He couldn't have seen them as fainting chickens... Could he? Unless it's like how Treebeard would have thought they were little orcs....

No, nothing like that. I'm just noticing that Ent seems to be displaying some Quickbeam-like hastiness recently ... 😏

 

[Ent]

Well... I am the youngest and only remaining Ent. I've lost my forbears, my idols, and my examples. The Elves are gone too... only humans remaining, and they're decimating and destroying the hills, forests and mountains themselves, on their way to ultimate self-destruction.

Thus, hastiness is all I see from sea to polluted sea... it should be no surprise if some of the insanity wears off in some ways... a bit of hastiness into the bargain.

That said, I do try...in spite of the increasing temptation to wonder why. 😁

 

[Ent]

Having perused all 50 references to Gollum in the current Letters I find no references from J.R.R.T. about the possibilities for Gollum after destruction of the Ring.
"no hope there, kids."
But it is very interesting reading.