# Peter Jackson: erect a statue to Gollum, the REAL hero of LOTR **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 26, 2002, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-jackson-erect-a-statue-to-gollum-the-real-hero-of-lotr/144928 "2002-12-26T03:43:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![tclouie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/838e76/32.png) [@tclouie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tclouie)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2002, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-jackson-erect-a-statue-to-gollum-the-real-hero-of-lotr/144928/21 "2002-12-26T20:38:35Z")
😃 That’s great if it turns out to be true! Can anyone find the letter **Qadgop** is referencing? ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2002, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-jackson-erect-a-statue-to-gollum-the-real-hero-of-lotr/144928/22 "2002-12-26T20:48:54Z")
From:[http://www.skalman.nu/tolkien/shadowland.htm](http://www.skalman.nu/tolkien/shadowland.htm) > [@](#): > > A question that consequently arises is if we are to blame Sam for his mistrust. He is only trying to protect his master, and given the past of Gollum, Sam feels that they cannot trust him. Tolkien himself is not so forgiving. He is unnecessarily hard on Sam in some of his letters, and blames him for Gollum’s failure to repent (110, 221, 234n). On the other hand, he also tells us that this was for the best: “Though the love [for Frodo] would have been strengthened daily it could not have wrested the mastery from the Ring” (330). (numbers refer to individual letters appearing in “Letters of JRRT” I’ll try to check the actual book tonight, if someone doesn’t beat me to it. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2002, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-jackson-erect-a-statue-to-gollum-the-real-hero-of-lotr/144928/23 "2002-12-26T21:34:41Z")
It’s from the crucial letter 246 (viewable at [http://www.americanidea.org/handouts/06240110.htm](http://www.americanidea.org/handouts/06240110.htm)): > [@](#): > > If [Sam] had understood better what was going between Frodo and Gollum, things might have turned out differently in the end. For me perhaps the most tragic moment in the Tale comes in II 323 ff. when Sam fails to note the complete change in Gollum’s tone and aspect. ‘Nothing, nothing’, said Gollum softly. ‘Nice master!’. His repentance is blighted and all Frodo’s pity is (in a sense\*) wasted. Shelob’s fair became inevitable. > > This is due of course to the ‘logic of the story’. Sam could hardly have acted differently. (He did reach the point of pity at last (III 221-222)4 but for the good of Gollum too late.) If he had, what could then have happened? … The interest would have shifted to Gollum, I think, and the battle that would have gone on between his repentance and his new love on one side and the Ring. … Certainly at some point not long before the end he would have stolen the Ring or taken it by violence (as he does in the actual Tale). But ‘possession’ satisfied, I think he would then have sacrificed himself for Frodo’s sake and have _voluntarily_ cast himself into the fiery abyss. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2002, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-jackson-erect-a-statue-to-gollum-the-real-hero-of-lotr/144928/24 "2002-12-26T21:36:36Z")
Shelob’s **lair**. ---
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2002, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-jackson-erect-a-statue-to-gollum-the-real-hero-of-lotr/144928/25 "2002-12-26T23:26:34Z")
Interesting, rowrrbazzle! Thanks for the link! I was always under the impression that it wasn’t completely Sam’s fault. Gollum could never fully repent. He always saw Sam as the suspicious hobbit, and should not have been surprised at Sam’s reaction. That he overreacted so terribly to Sam’s one accusation shows how little his repentence was. I also recall in a letter that if Gollum hadn’t shown up at Mt Doom, Frodo would’ve flung himself in with the ring (or did I get that mixed up?) ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2002, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-jackson-erect-a-statue-to-gollum-the-real-hero-of-lotr/144928/26 "2002-12-27T01:46:04Z")
Tolkien says in an interview that he liked Gollum “better than all the other characters.” I think this was because Gollum was more conflicted than the others. He was wicked, was given a real chance to reform and began to turn that way, but at the end Sam’s suspicions and his desire for the Ring overcame him.) ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2002, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-jackson-erect-a-statue-to-gollum-the-real-hero-of-lotr/144928/27 "2002-12-27T14:43:11Z")
Thanks for digging that up, **rowrrbazzle**. I knew I’d recalled that letter, but couldn’t find it last night! ---
**Author:** ![Engywook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bc8723/32.png) [@Engywook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Engywook)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2002, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-jackson-erect-a-statue-to-gollum-the-real-hero-of-lotr/144928/28 "2002-12-27T20:17:56Z")
Oh, we do so like to identify ourselves with the Aragorns and the Elronds and the Frodos and the Sams and the Gandalfs. But in answer to that question, “Who am I, really?” isn’t Gollum sometimes nearest the mark? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-jackson-erect-a-statue-to-gollum-the-real-hero-of-lotr/144928.md?page=1)