XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien
From: Troels@ThisIsFake.invalid
In message
Sandman spoke these staves:
>
> In article ,
> "Clams Canino" wrote:
>>
>> "Igenlode Wordsmith" wrote
[...]
>>>
>>> I know; but I thought (at least in book terms) that it was
>>> Frodo's kindness to him that caused the long-buried
>>> Smeagol-personality to re-emerge. At the time when Bilbo
>>> encountered him, he was all Gollum!
In Tolkien's story this is, I would say, evidently the case. There is
no hint of a split personality until IV,3 'The Black Gate is Closed'
when Sam observed Gollum arguing with himself. At this point the
split personality has probably been about for a while -- most likely
it started to develop at the time during the passage of the marshes
when the Ringwraith passes over them:
From that time on Sam thought that he sensed a change in
Gollum again. He was more fawning and would-be friendly;
but Sam surprised some strange looks in his eyes at times,
especially towards Frodo; and he went back more and more
into his old manner of speaking.
Tolkien, J.R.R. /The Lord of the Rings/ (p. 630). Harper Collins,
Inc.. Kindle Edition.
>> I think that even in The Hobbit - he referred to himself as "us"
>> and "we". I was never quite sure if he was dealing with the split
>> personality, or referring to himself and The Precious. ( I read
>> LOTR first.)
Gollum uses the third person about himself as well as the first
person plural. Actually there are no hints in the speech patters to
the split personality -- it is only through the content, i.e. the
extended two-sided argument with himself, that Sam comes to think of
it as two personalities.
The only hint we at any point have in Gollum's speech patterns is
that it changes during the passage of the marshes (the reversal of
this is included above), and at that point he starts speaking of
himself as Sméagol, but we are also told that
From that moment a change, which lasted for some time, came
over him. He spoke with less hissing and whining, and he
spoke to his companions direct, not to his precious self.
Tolkien, J.R.R. /The Lord of the Rings/ (p. 618). Harper Collins,
Inc.. Kindle Edition.
Incidentally this also gives us an interpretation of Gollum's usual
use of 'My Precious' -- it is speaking "to his precious self", i.e.
not so much the Ring as some Gollumish symbiosis of himself and the
Ring (which also accounts for his use of the first person plural).
> I sort of equate them either way. Split personality or the ring is
> the same thing.
I think that this, at least in the context of Tolkien's story, is
wrong. The split personality is the result, as Igenlode points out,
of Frodo's kindness awakening a different personality, one that we
(if we discard the first edition of /The Hobbit/) have never seen
before that. Speaking to his precious in first person plural is
characteristic of _one specific_ persona, and only the emergence of
another mode of speech indicates a split personality.
> Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a great analogy as well. He didn't have
> split personality, he had a drug-induced changed personality. In
> fact, the entire premise of that book is to exlore if man has a
> dual nature, not dual personalities - I think Smeagol/Gollum is an
> excellent example of this.
I would agree that there is an element of this in Tolkien's story,
yes. He is, however, fairly clear once personality really does split
(in the scene near the end of IV,2 'The Passage of the Marshes') that
we are dealing with two distinct personalities even if they are
called 'thoughts':
Gollum was talking to himself. Sméagol was holding a debate
with some other thought that used the same voice but made
it squeak and hiss. A pale light and a green light
alternated in his eyes as he spoke.
Tolkien, J.R.R. /The Lord of the Rings/ (p. 632). Harper Collins,
Inc.. Kindle Edition.
and
Each time that the second thought spoke, Gollum’s long
hand crept out slowly, pawing towards Frodo, and then was
drawn back with a jerk as Sméagol spoke again.
Tolkien, J.R.R. /The Lord of the Rings/ (pp. 633-634). Harper
Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.
At one point it is even "'No, no! Not that way!' wailed Sméagol."
about the first thought, clearly identifying this thought, and not
the other, with the personality of Sméagol.
In /The Hobbit/ (as Tolkien saw it from the vantage point of /The
Lord of the Rings/) it would seem that the two sides, or natures, of
Gollum were not yet split out -- thus Gandalf, in I,2 'The Shadow of
the Past' tells Frodo that
There was a little corner of his mind that was still his
own, and light came through it, as through a chink in the
dark: light out of the past. It was actually pleasant, I
think, to hear a kindly voice again, bringing up memories
of wind, and trees, and sun on the grass, and such
forgotten things.
‘But that, of course, would only make the evil part of
him angrier in the end – unless it could be conquered.
Unless it could be cured.’
Tolkien, J.R.R. /The Lord of the Rings/ (p. 55). Harper Collins,
Inc.. Kindle Edition.
The implication here is that there is still only one mind, one
thought, even if it not entirely consistent (in a remarkably human
fashion).
Taking it the other way around, however, I think that the version we
are treated to in /The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey/ is consistent
with the portrayal in the /LotR/ films -- as Jackson portrayed both
the Ring and Sméagol/Gollum in the film, it would appear almost
inevitable that the split personality was firmly established in
Gollum, it being caused far more directly by the Ring (generally
Jackson portrays the Master Ring as having very far more agency than
does Tolkien -- Jackson's One Ring is in most ways a fundamentally
different thing from Tolkien's Master Ring).
So, in the universe that Jackson and accomplishes have built up in
their films, I think that the riddle-scene makes complete sense.
--
Troels Forchhammer
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