XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: jon.lennart.beck.its.my.name@mail.its.in.danmark   
      
   "Sandman"  skrev i meddelelsen   
   news:mr-72E19E.11423903012013@News.Individual.NET...   
      
   > I know what Tolkien says, yet Gollum is a great example of someone who   
   > had the ring for centuries without "giving in" to a desire to dominate   
   > the world. Bilbo had it for some sixty years without a single thought   
   > about world domination.   
      
      Neither of these, while they possessed the Ring, knew what it was and   
   what it could do.  Both of them wanted it as soon as they got near it;   
   Sméagol so badly that he murdered his cousin for it.  Both of them knew that   
   it could turn its wearer invisible, and used it for that purpose at need.   
   Neither knew that it was a tool for domination.  Presumably Gollum knew well   
   enough much later: between the Dead Marshes and the Black Gate Sam overhears   
   him muttering to himself about taking it back and becoming strong:   
       'No, sweet one.  See, my precious: if we has it, then we can escape,   
   even from Him, eh?  Perhaps we grows very strong, stronger than Wraiths.   
   Lord Sméagol?  Gollum the Great?  /The/ Gollum!  Eat fish every day, three   
   times a day, fresh from the sea.  Most Precious Gollum!  Must have it.  We   
   wants it, we wants it, we wants it!'   
      
   Annankákai.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)