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01-04-2003, 10:05 AM | #1 |
Domesticated Swing Babe
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Why did Bilbo age so quickly, yet Gollum remained youthful?
Why did Bilbo get so decrepit after giving up the ring, yet Gollum remained agile and youthful enough to travel, after an even longer period with, then without the ring?
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01-04-2003, 02:26 PM | #2 |
Elven Warrior
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What do you mean when you say "agile and youthful to travel"? I think I'm just misunderstanding your question..
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01-04-2003, 03:18 PM | #3 |
The Buckleberry Fairy/Captain
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Gollum had the ring for what, 600 years? Bilbo only carried it for 60. My guess would be that the longer you carry it, the longer lasting its effects would be.
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01-04-2003, 03:22 PM | #4 | |
Greatest Elven woman of Aman
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Re: Why did Bilbo age so quickly, yet Gollum remained youthful?
Quote:
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01-04-2003, 03:57 PM | #5 |
Long lost mooter
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Hey, didn't I address this in another forum?
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01-04-2003, 04:51 PM | #6 |
Swan-Knight of Dol Amroth
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I would add that the Ring took over almost all of Gollum, but touched Bilbo very little. Therefore Gollum was sort of a minor Ringwraith, with different characteristics due the the difference in the Rings involved.
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01-04-2003, 04:57 PM | #7 | |
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Quote:
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01-04-2003, 05:01 PM | #8 |
Swan-Knight of Dol Amroth
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Gandalf said that Smeagol's people were "the fathers of the fathers of the Stoors." Smeagol didn't wear the ring constantly, but hid it for whiles. That was how Bilbo found it.
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"What song the Sirens sang, or what name Achilles assumed when he hid himself among women, though puzzling questions are not beyond conjecture." - Sir Thomas Browne, Urn Burial. |
01-04-2003, 05:56 PM | #9 | |
Domesticated Swing Babe
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Quote:
Bilbo was a tottering arthritic old geezer there at the end in Rivendell, constantly nodding off, unable to travel the paths of Mirkwood, the Lonely Mountain etc. (as he wished) Gollum was catching fish by hand, leaping, slinking, and hopping about with ease, taking the Hobbits to Mordor. I was at a loss for an explanation when someone asked me this!
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01-04-2003, 06:11 PM | #10 | |
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Quote:
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01-05-2003, 03:04 AM | #11 |
High King of Númenórë
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There are a lot of great points here and I think it is definitely a combination of them all. First and foremost is the shear length of time that the ring was in Gollum's keeping. He held it for over 500 years and it completely consumed him, all that he was and all that he knew. I guess you could say he became one with the ring or even became the ring itself. As was said above, he was so obssessed with the ring that his will to live and go one was just that, whereas with Bilbo it wasn't so. Granted Bilbo held the ring and craved it, but it didn't consume him as it did Gollum. Overall though, I think the whole time period is the difference here because Gollum was transformed, you can even see the entire different persona of him in the book when he speaks to his multiple personalities....
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01-05-2003, 03:10 AM | #12 |
Elven Warrior
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I think the length of time spent with the Ring is the important thing. By the time Gollum lost the Ring, it had already quite thoroughly done its work on him. Bilbo, on the other hand, had only just begun to "go Gollum." He was, after all, beginning to feel "sort of stretched, like." I like to think that it was in fact a VERY near miss, that he was at the precise turning point, where he could keep the Ring and become another Gollum (or another Sauron can you imagine!), or "fade into the West" as they say.
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01-05-2003, 03:39 AM | #13 | |
High King of Númenórë
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01-05-2003, 04:05 AM | #14 |
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I agree with what everyone else has said, but I have another point to make: Smeagol was evil (or at least not 'good') before he got the ring, wasn't he? He did kill Deagol for it. So maybe the ring had a greater influence on Gollum because he was evil in the beginning and therefore the ring had a greater influence over him, so he didn't age as much when he lost the ring. (I hope that makes sense).
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01-05-2003, 04:12 AM | #15 | |
High King of Númenórë
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01-05-2003, 04:29 AM | #16 | |
Viggoholic
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01-05-2003, 11:28 AM | #17 |
Swan-Knight of Dol Amroth
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We, in fact know little about Gollum before the Ring came into his life. We know that Deagol gave him an expensive birthday present, so that he must have had some redeeming qualities. But, apparently the Ring knew that his capacity for evil was far more than Deagol's, and so ensnared him, instead.
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"What song the Sirens sang, or what name Achilles assumed when he hid himself among women, though puzzling questions are not beyond conjecture." - Sir Thomas Browne, Urn Burial. |
01-06-2003, 06:03 PM | #18 | |
Long lost mooter
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01-06-2003, 06:09 PM | #19 |
Domesticated Swing Babe
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I think I stumbled over that recently. I see the point you all are making, but I would be more likely to think....Gollum had the ring much longer, so was technically "older", so when he lost his precious, he aged rapidly and dramatically. Wouldn't be a very interesting story though!
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01-10-2003, 08:54 AM | #20 |
Truest of Friends
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Well, I suppose it was his old arthritic hip that broke and sent him tumbling into the Cracks of Doom.
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