Main Narrative: The Hunt for Gollum - What Tolkien Actually Wrote

SECTION: The Shadow of Suspicion

In the year 3001 of the Third Age, a wizard began to worry.

Welcome to Ranger of the Realms. Today we are examining one of the most significant untold stories in Tolkien's legendarium - the Hunt for Gollum. With a major film adaptation on the horizon, now is the perfect time to explore what Tolkien himself actually wrote about this seventeen-year pursuit. Not what adaptations have imagined, but what exists in the canonical texts.

It begins, as so many things do, at Bilbo's birthday party.

Bilbo Baggins had just celebrated his one hundred and eleventh birthday with a party that would be talked about in the Shire for generations. He had vanished in a flash of light - a parlor trick, the hobbits thought, nothing more. But Gandalf the Grey had seen something else entirely. He had seen the way Bilbo clutched his pocket. He had heard the strange possessiveness in Bilbo's voice when speaking of his "precious" ring. And he had watched, with growing unease, how reluctantly the old hobbit parted with it.

For sixty years, Gandalf had wondered about that ring - the one Bilbo claimed to have found in a goblin tunnel beneath the Misty Mountains. Now, watching Frodo inherit the golden band, those wonderings hardened into fear.

What if this was not merely a magic ring? What if this was THE Ring?

To answer that question, Gandalf needed information. And there was only one creature in Middle-earth who could provide it - a wretched thing named Gollum, who had possessed that ring for five hundred years before losing it to Bilbo. If anyone knew its true nature, it was him.

So began the Hunt for Gollum.

This was no swift adventure. It would stretch across seventeen years. Gandalf called upon the one man he trusted for such dangerous work: Aragorn, son of Arathorn, Chieftain of the Dunedain. The Rangers already guarded the Shire in secret - now they would double their watch while their chief undertook an even darker task.

As Tolkien wrote in the Tale of Years: "Gandalf seeks for news of Gollum and calls on the help of Aragorn."

That single line conceals nearly two decades of effort.

SECTION: The Geography of Darkness

Where do you search for a creature who does not wish to be found? Aragorn's answer was simple: everywhere.

The pursuit took him across the vales of Anduin, that great river running north to south through the heart of Middle-earth. It led him through the shadow-haunted depths of Mirkwood, where spiders the size of horses spun their webs and darker things moved between the trees. He ranged across Rhovanion, the wild lands east of the Misty Mountains, following rumors and cold trails.

But most terrifying of all, the search took him to the borders of Mordor itself.

Aragorn later spoke of this with characteristic understatement: "If a man must needs walk in sight of the Black Gate, or tread the deadly flowers of Morgul Vale, then perils he will have."

Think about what this means. The Black Gate - the Morannon - was a fortress of iron and stone guarded by thousands of Orcs, the main entrance to Sauron's realm. Aragorn walked close enough to see it. The Morgul Vale was the territory of the Witch-king himself, filled with pale flowers that gave off poisonous vapors and an evil light that sickened the soul. Aragorn passed through it.

He did this alone. Not with an army at his back, not with the authority of any kingdom. Just one man, the last heir of a shattered line, walking through territories where his very presence meant death if discovered.

The Dead Marshes themselves were enough to drive men mad. This haunted wetland east of the Emyn Muil held the bodies of those who fell at the ancient Battle of Dagorlad, still visible beneath the water after thousands of years. Their pale faces stared up through the murk, reaching for the living who passed above. Tolkien acknowledged these pools "owe something to northern France after the Battle of the Somme" - flooded shell craters with bodies floating in them.

For eight years, Gandalf and Aragorn renewed their search "at intervals," meaning between other pressing duties. They sought information from the Wood-elves, who had tracked reports of a strange creature in their territory. They questioned travelers, followed whispers, investigated dead ends.

Yet Gollum remained elusive. The hunters did not know it, but their quarry had already left these lands entirely - drawn by an obsession they could not have predicted toward the darkest corner of Middle-earth.

SECTION: The Quarry's Journey

While Gandalf and Aragorn searched the north, Gollum was making a journey of his own.

After losing the Ring to Bilbo in T.A. 2941, Gollum had eventually emerged from under the Misty Mountains, consumed by hatred for "the thief." He learned from travelers near Dale that Bilbo came from a place called "the Shire." But instead of traveling west to find it, Gollum was drawn inexorably south.

Something called to him. Something dark.

The Wood-elves of Mirkwood tracked his passage through their realm. The reports they gathered painted a picture of horror: a "blood-drinking ghost" that crept into houses at night, approaching cradles. A monster that preyed on infants.

Whatever remained of Smeagol, the hobbit-like creature Gollum had once been, was nearly gone. The Ring's corruption had eaten away everything except hunger, hatred, and obsession.

By T.A. 2980 - thirty-nine years after losing the Ring - Gollum reached the Mountains of Shadow on the western border of Mordor. And there, in a high pass called Cirith Ungol, he encountered Shelob.

She was ancient beyond reckoning, the last child of Ungoliant, a spider of monstrous size who had dwelt in those mountains since before Sauron claimed the land. She cared nothing for rings or dark lords - only for food. Everything that moved was prey.

Somehow, Gollum survived the encounter. More than survived - he became useful to her. The Orcs who guarded the pass knew him as "Her Sneak." He brought her food, guided victims to her lair, worshipped her after his fashion. In return, she let him live.

Tolkien describes this period with chilling brevity: Shelob's darkness "cut him off from light and from regret."

For years, Gollum dwelt in this arrangement, neither fully in Mordor nor fully out of it. But eventually, his luck ran out.

SECTION: The Prisoner of Barad-dur

At some point between 3009 and 3017, Sauron's servants captured Gollum and brought him to Barad-dur.

What happened in that dark tower remains one of the most significant events in the War of the Ring - not for what Sauron learned, but for what he failed to learn.

Under torture, Gollum revealed two pieces of information: "Baggins" and "Shire."

These words would send the Nine Riders thundering across Middle-earth. Gandalf later expressed his horror to Frodo: Sauron now possessed "nearly all of the information he required" to find the Ring. The Enemy knew a hobbit had it. The Enemy knew where hobbits lived.

But here is what Sauron did not know: the precise location of the Shire. And this is where Gollum's story becomes extraordinary.

"From Gollum, even under pain, he could not get any clear account," Tolkien writes in Unfinished Tales, "both because Gollum indeed had no certain knowledge himself, and because what he knew he falsified."

Gollum lied. Under the full terror of Sauron's interrogation - a process that would have shattered most beings - Gollum deliberately misdirected the Dark Lord. He told Sauron that the land of the Halflings was near the Gladden Fields, hundreds of miles from the Shire's true location.

This deception bought the Free Peoples precious time. When the Ringwraiths finally rode forth, they searched the wrong area first. Frodo was already gone from Bag End before they arrived in the Shire.

Why did Gollum lie? Not from courage, certainly. Not from any love of hobbits or hatred of evil. The answer lies in what Sauron had done to him.

Under torture, something unexpected happened. Gollum's terror transformed into hatred. As Tolkien explains: "He became filled with a hatred of Sauron even greater than his terror, seeing in him truly his greatest enemy and rival."

Rival. That word is crucial. In Gollum's twisted mind, Sauron was competition - another being who wanted the Ring. And Gollum would not help a rival find HIS Precious.

This rivalry was personal. Sauron had forged the One Ring. He wanted it back. Gollum had possessed it for five centuries. He wanted it back too. From Gollum's perspective, Sauron was simply the largest obstacle between himself and the Precious - and so Gollum fed the Dark Lord lies.

SECTION: The Capture and the March

In February of 3017 - or possibly 3018, the texts differ - Aragorn finally found his quarry.

The hunter had despaired. Years of searching had yielded nothing. He later told the Council of Elrond: "I, too, despaired at last, and I began my homeward journey."

Then fortune intervened. Along the edges of the Dead Marshes, that haunted wetland where the faces of ancient dead still peer up through stagnant pools, Aragorn discovered what he had sought for so long.

"And then, by fortune, I came suddenly on what I sought: the marks of soft feet beside a muddy pool. But now the trail was fresh and swift, and it led not to Mordor but away. Along the skirts of the Dead Marshes I followed it, and then I had him."

The moment of capture is almost cinematic: "Lurking by a stagnant mere, peering in the water as the dark eve fell, I caught him, Gollum. He was covered with green slime."

What was Gollum doing there, staring into water where the dead floated just beneath the surface? We never learn. But Aragorn seized him, and the creature fought back the only way he could.

"He will never love me, I fear; for he bit me, and I was not gentle."

What followed was, by Aragorn's own account, the worst part of his entire journey. Not walking near the Black Gate. Not passing through the poison flowers of Morgul Vale. The worst part was dragging Gollum back to civilization.

"I deemed it the worst part of all my journey, the road back, watching him day and night, making him walk before me with a halter on his neck, gagged, until he was tamed by lack of drink and food, driving him ever towards Mirkwood."

Nearly nine hundred miles on foot. Fifty days of constant vigilance, controlling a creature who fought and schemed every moment. Aragorn forced Gollum through the north end of the Emyn Muil, then came to the Anduin. Unable to use any bridge - that would attract attention - Aragorn bound Gollum to driftwood and swam across with him.

Think about this image: a man swimming a great river while towing a gagged, haltered creature lashed to floating wood. This was not the work of a storybook hero. This was the brutal, unglamorous labor of a Ranger.

The journey continued north. At the Ford of Carrock, the Beornings helped Aragorn cross the river again. Finally, on the twenty-first of March, he delivered his prisoner to Thranduil's realm in northern Mirkwood.

The Wood-elves took custody of Gollum. And here, something strange occurred. Despite everything Gollum was, despite the horror he represented, the Elves showed him kindness. They "pitied him" and "allowed him to climb a tree that stood alone."

It was a small mercy. It would have enormous consequences.

Gandalf, too, came to question the prisoner. His methods were harsh by necessity: "I put the fear of fire on him, and wrung the true story out of him, bit by bit, together with much snivelling and snarling."

From Gollum, Gandalf learned the truth he had feared for seventeen years. This was indeed the One Ring. And Sauron was searching for it.

SECTION: The Unconquerable Wretch

There is a passage in Unfinished Tales that reveals the true significance of Gollum's resistance to Sauron.

"He did not trust Gollum, for he divined something indomitable in him, which could not be overcome, even by the Shadow of Fear, except by destroying him."

Indomitable. Tolkien uses this word twice when describing Gollum's nature. "Ultimately indomitable he was, except by death, as Sauron did not fully comprehend, being himself consumed by lust for the Ring."

This is a profound observation. Sauron, the master of domination, could not dominate Gollum. Not fully. Not in the way that mattered.

Why? The answer reveals something fundamental about evil's limitations.

Sauron understood power through a binary framework. There were those who dominated and those who were dominated. The strong and the weak. The masters and the slaves. His entire worldview, from the forging of the Rings to the ordering of his armies, operated on this principle.

But Gollum fit neither category. He existed in a space Sauron's mind could not map.

He was not strong - no one would call him powerful. He possessed no armies, no magic, no allies. He could not resist Sauron through might or will in the heroic sense. Yet he was not truly dominated either. Under torture, he withheld information. Under threat of death, he schemed.

Gollum's corruption, ironically, protected him. His obsession with the Ring was so total, so consuming, that it left no room for Sauron to fill. You cannot dominate a being who has already given himself entirely to something else.

Sauron made a calculation: release Gollum and follow him. Surely this creature would lead spies straight to the Ring. "Sauron perceived the depth of Gollum's malice towards those that had 'robbed' him," Tolkien writes, "and guessing that he would go in search of them to avenge himself, Sauron hoped that his spies would thus be led to the Ring."

It was a reasonable strategy, by Sauron's logic. Use the tool, track the tool, find the prize.

But Sauron's spies could not follow Gollum through Aragorn's capture. They could not rescue him from a Ranger's grip. The tool slipped away, and with it, Sauron's best chance to find the Ring before it reached Rivendell.

SECTION: The Mercy That Would Save Middle-earth

In April of 3018, Gandalf arrived at Thranduil's halls to question the prisoner.

What he learned horrified him. Gollum had been to Mordor. Gollum had been interrogated by Sauron himself. The Dark Lord knew about hobbits, knew the name Baggins. The chase had been won - but the war for information had been lost.

Gandalf raced south to warn Frodo.

Two months later, on June 20th, Orcs attacked the Woodland Realm. In the chaos of battle, Gollum escaped. Legolas would later report to the Council of Elrond that the assault seemed designed for exactly this purpose: "It then seemed plain to us that the attack had been made for his rescue."

The pursuit had failed. After seventeen years, Gollum was loose again - and now he knew where to find hobbits.

Or so it seemed.

But Gandalf had told Frodo something crucial before these events unfolded, something that would prove prophetic:

"My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end; and when that comes, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many - yours not least."

This is the philosophy that runs through the entire pursuit. Not strategy. Not utility. Mercy.

When Frodo expressed disgust at Gollum, wishing Bilbo had killed him, Gandalf replied with words that became the most highlighted passage in The Fellowship of the Ring according to Kindle readers:

"Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends."

Tolkien was explicit about what this means. In his letters, he wrote that mercy "is only truly present when contrary to prudence." True compassion cannot be calculated. It cannot be shown because it might prove useful later. It must be offered freely, even foolishly, against one's own interests.

Gandalf could not know that Gollum would survive. He could not know that the creature would eventually guide Frodo and Sam to Mordor. He certainly could not know that Gollum's obsession would accomplish what no hero's strength could achieve - destroying the Ring at Mount Doom.

All Gandalf knew was that even the most wretched creature might have some role to play.

The seventeen-year quest was never really about capturing Gollum. It was about preserving him. Preserving the possibility of redemption, or at least the possibility of providence working through corruption.

In the end, what did the Hunt for Gollum actually accomplish?

It extracted information - both from Gollum through Gandalf's questioning and from Gollum's very existence, which confirmed the Ring's nature. It established the danger: Sauron was searching. It bought time through Gollum's misdirection, time that allowed Frodo to escape the Shire.

But perhaps most importantly, it kept Gollum alive when killing him would have been simpler. It moved him to the Elves, who showed him the first kindness he had experienced in centuries. It set in motion the chain of events that would put Gollum exactly where he needed to be at the end of all things.

Tolkien called this eucatastrophe - the sudden turn from tragedy to triumph that characterizes the deepest stories. The pursuit's apparent failure was actually its greatest success. The creature who escaped was the creature who would save the world.

And that is what Tolkien actually wrote about the Hunt for Gollum: a seventeen-year pursuit across the darkest corners of Middle-earth, carried out by two of its greatest heroes, to preserve the life of one of its most pathetic creatures - because even the wise cannot see all ends, and mercy, offered without calculation, can change everything.