Gollum Escape Theories

[amysrevenge]

I have a couple possible theories. I'm not sure I would actually support any of these, and some were strongly debunked during class, but here are some (add more!).

The thing that is missing from some of these theories is motive. For his rescuers, but especially for Gollum himself. With one exception (Shelob), Gollum isn't really known for collaborating with anyone. I can see Gollum taking advantage of a fortuitious Orcish distraction in order to escape, but actively collaborating with the Orcs to set it up seems... out of character. He's a loner, and mostly an opportunist. He can certainly make plans, but the idea of involving others in his plans is so strange to contemplate. I mean, he obviously wouldn't say no to escape, but he just isn't a conspirator. I would expect a Gollum-engineered escape to involve setting up a cunning trap for his Elven escort and bolting into the shadows. Not secret communication with outside friends.

Frankly, for me, the unlikeliness of Gollum conspiring his escape with the orc raiders makes the chance-if-chance-you-call-it explanation much more palatable than it would be otherwise.

1) Chance, if chance you call it. Bad guys don't get to benefit from this, but did bad guys ultimately benefit? "Providence" needed to have Gollum lurking around the Cracks of Doom at a specific time, and Gollum in prison in Mirkwood can't really manage that, now, can he Precious?

2) Shelob's Web. Spider-based communication, why not writing on webs as per Charlotte's Web? "SOME ORC (will rescue you on Tuesday)"

3) Orc signals during previous outings to the trees. I can't imagine communication with Orcs happening within the Elf King's halls. So it has to be outside the halls. Which means during previous trips out to the trees. It's been established already earlier in the book that a paragraph of information can be contained within the simple scratching of "G3" on a pebble. So maybe the orcs left 4 slashes in the bark of a tree where Gollum would see it (and the Elves wouldn't), and then 4 days later they came and busted him out.

 

[Beech27]

My theory (that I am not convinced of, but will nonetheless state):

1) Sauron wants Gollum to be free to commit mischief or carry out some more specific plan. We know this much, at least, because Gollum wasn't simply executed after divulging his information in Mordor--he was released.

2) Sauron had Gollum tailed. A bird, or birds, seem to me most likely.

3) This being done, Sauron knows where Gollum is held, and is told, via his bird relays, that Gollum gets tree-climbing exercise breaks.

4) Sauron forms the plan, and the birds communicate it to Gollum. Perhaps he is given a scrap with writing on it.

5) Gollum is freed.

This brings us back to number 1. I think it's possible that Sauron has tasked Gollum to do something specifically; but ultimately I think it's more likely that he sees Gollum as a chaos agent, likely to interfere in whatever the good guys are up to. If nothing else, people as important as Gandalf have, to Sauron's mind, wasted time on an exhaustive chase. (I am assuming here that Sauron knew this too, though I can’t prove it.)

I also think Sauron might predict the disunity we almost see set off. If Gollum escapes, and would-be allies have less cause to trust one another--and perhaps even to quarrel openly--that's a win for Sauron. Further, they have less cause to believe in their own security. Sauron demonstrates that—to quote wildly out of context—his arm has grown long indeed.

And whatever he might gain, he risks nothing. He has plenty of Orcs, and if the whole operation goes poorly and Gollum is killed, or recaptured, he was never any kind of ally.

 

[Jim Deutch]

2) Sauron had Gollum tailed. A bird, or birds, seem to me most likely.

That seems like the weak link in your theory. If Gollum was successfully tailed all the way through his capture by Strider and imprisonment with the Elves, he would have to have escaped both the Elves and the tail, or Sauron would surely have sent a force to waylay the Company, perhaps at Rauros... and my reasoning just poisoned itself.

But going on regardless, somehow the tail has to have been broken at some point, long before the Ring entered Mordor. Moria seems like a good candidate. We're getting way ahead of ourselves, but I always thought of the attack at Rauros as Gollum's solo mischief, just like the trap at Shelob's Lair. So maybe it does all fit together...

 

[Beech27]

That's a good point. Were I to amend my theory, I'd say: Sauron does not tail Gollum, but is alerted by old contacts in Mirkwood when Gollum is brought there.

 

[WaverlyPontiff]

Sauron could have tailed Gollum till Mirkwood and even to Moria but then lost him in the mountains. I believe I remember that Gollum was weak with hunger from being in Moria for so long without food, maybe that was long enough to throw off any tail?