Alas, not me

At the beginning of Book 4, in the chapter called "The Taming of Sméagol," there's a beautifully subtle little touch, a single...

Recently I was asked to present a 30 minute talk on the first five chapters of Book 4 of The Lord of the Rings . (When? Later in the summer....

The scene in The Two Towers where Gollum comes back down the stairs of Cirith Ungol to find Frodo and Sam asleep is remarkable for many reas...

A question posted online in a private group set me thinking about which hand Frodo wears the One Ring on. During The Lord of the Rings  Frod...

Recently I saw someone somewhere inline asking about Gandalf's characterization of Gollum in The Shadow of the Past .   The most inquisi...

When Frodo, Sam, and Gollum reach the Black Gate and Frodo declares that he must try to enter Mordor that way, a panic-stricken Gollum slips...

Gandalf and Frodo's argument over Bilbo's pity and mercy and the death which they agree Gollum deserves versus the healing the wizar...

In my last  post I pointed out that the author of 'The Tale of Years' 'sees the moment of final transition from Sméagol-Gollum ...

It was some years ago that I first noted differences in the use of the names Sméagol and Gollum. Gandalf only calls him Sméagol when he is t...

            As close as Frodo comes to a fall, however, he never carries out his desires or threats. Unlike Sméagol with Déagol, he does not...

 What does Wile E. Coyote have to do with the One Ring? Consider the words of Gandalf in The Shadow of the Past : It was not Gollum, Frodo, ...

 Just this morning I was reflecting on the incantatory lines at the heart of the Ring verse: One Ring to rule them all, one ring to find the...

In telling Gollum's story to Frodo, Gandalf introduces him as follows: 'Long after, but still very long ago, there lived by the bank...

In my post on this subject on  9 May 2020  I did not comment on Sam's use of 'stern' to describe how he saw Frodo 'with ...

'Precious, precious, precious!' Gollum cried. 'My Precious! O my Precious!' And with that, even as his eyes were lifted up ...

While working on the scenes at Mt Doom lately, I have been staring a lot at the passage quoted just below, and reflecting on the description...

Gollum looked at them. A strange expression passed over his lean hungry face. The gleam faded from his eyes, and they went dim and g...

Another excerpt from To Rule the Fate of Many: Truth, Lies, Pity, and the Ring of Power , a much longer work I am writing at present. ...

Although we don't often think of Frodo and Boromir as alike, in critical situations with the Ring both react in similar ways. 1...

First let's take a look at two passages from Book Four Things would have gone ill with Sam, if he had been alone. But Frodo spra...