Welcome back to my series of posts exploring how J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel The Lord of the Rings is vastly superior to its film adaptations. This one is perhaps the most significant thematic change in all of Peter Jackson’s movie trilogy. Today we’ll take a look at something the films neglected: the culmination of the chief hero’s character arc.
In the Movie Trilogy
In the films, Gollum attacks Frodo and Sam near the doorway into Mount Doom, and Sam holds Gollum off so Frodo can get to the Cracks of Doom. Sam wounds Gollum and then runs after Frodo, who’s now fallen under the sway of the One Ring. Frodo refuses to destroy the Ring, but Gollum bites off Frodo’s finger.
As the two fight over the Ring, Frodo and Gollum both tumble from the ledge. Gollum falls into the fire, but Frodo hangs on. Still obsessed with the Ring, Frodo nearly lets go, but Sam encourages him to hold on long enough for the Ring to melt. Sam pulls Frodo to his feet, and the two flee the exploding volcano.
In the original script for the films, the scene ended with Frodo simply shoving Gollum into the Cracks of Doom. This would have been even further removed from the book. Indeed, it would have been an utter betrayal of Tolkien’s masterpiece. Luckily, the writers realized this at the last minute and reshot the scene to be slightly more faithful.
Not only would it have been psychologically impossible for someone in Frodo’s condition to deliberately cause the Ring’s destruction; the scene they originally shot would have run counter to the most central themes of The Lord of the Rings. But even the scene they used is but a poor imitation of the book’s magnificent, stirring climax.
The Strength of Samwise
As we saw throughout Book Four, protagonist Samwise Gamgee interprets Frodo’s kindness towards Gollum as implying some degree of “blindness.” When the two enemies fought at Cirith Ungol, Sam’s desire to kill Gollum caused the book’s chief hero to momentarily forget about Frodo. We’re about to see all this come to a head.
While searching for water in Mordor, Sam saw Gollum approaching Frodo as he slept. Gollum heard Sam coming and slipped away. As Frodo and Sam neared the mountain of fire, Frodo fell to the ground, barely able to crawl. Sam lifted Frodo onto his back, and since Sam wasn’t directly carrying the Ring, its great weight didn’t affect him.
Later, as the hobbits crawled up the slopes of Orodruin, on the road that ran from Barad-dûr to Sauron’s forges, Frodo caught a glimpse of the Eye of Sauron as it looked northward towards Aragorn’s assault. Although the Eye didn’t see the hobbits, Sam had to keep Frodo from putting on the Ring.
Pity and Mercy
Sam carried Frodo the rest of the way until Gollum ambushed them near the Sammath Naur, the forge where the Ring was made. Gollum, much weakened by his own journey through Mordor, failed to overpower Frodo. Indeed, wielding the power of the One Ring, Frodo commanded Gollum to leave him, lest Gollum be cast into the Fire of Doom.
Sam prepared to finally finish Gollum off, while Frodo entered the Sammath Naur alone. Sam drew Sting and charged Gollum, but the creature only grovelled and begged upon the ground. Sam knew that Gollum deserved to be executed and that it would be the safest course of action. Before his ordeal at Cirith Ungol, Sam wouldn’t have hesitated to strike.
But having carried the Ring himself for even a single day, Sam now knew something of what the Ring could do to someone. He now had some faint idea of how Gollum must have suffered over the centuries, and how he still suffered. Sam found he couldn’t bring himself to kill the wretched hobbit:
‘Oh, curse you, you stinking thing!’ he said. ‘Go away! Be off! I don’t trust you, not as far as I could kick you; but be off. Or I shall hurt you, yes, with nasty cruel steel.’
Samwise Gamgee, The Lord of the Rings (Book Ⅵ, Chapter Ⅲ)
The Destruction of the Ring
Sam ran after Frodo and didn’t look back, and he didn’t see Gollum follow him into the Sammath Naur. When Sam found Frodo at the brink of the chasm, the bearer of the Ring could not destroy it. Frodo claimed the Ring for his own and put it on the third finger of his right hand, turning invisible.
Before Sam had the chance to cry out, Gollum attacked him from behind and briefly knocked him unconscious. Sam recovered in time to see Gollum bite off Frodo’s finger. Gollum danced for joy at the edge of the chasm, his Precious still wrapped around Frodo’s finger; in his elation, Gollum fell into the fire, taking the Ring with him:
Frodo gave a cry, and there he was, fallen upon his knees at the chasm’s edge. But Gollum, dancing like a mad thing, held aloft the Ring, a finger still thrust within its circle. It shone now as if verily it was wrought of living fire.
‘Precious, precious, precious!’ Gollum cried. ‘My Precious! O my Precious!’ And with that, even as his eyes were lifted up to gloat on his prize, he stepped too far, toppled, wavered for a moment on the brink, and then with a shriek he fell. Out of the depths came his last wail Precious, and he was gone.
The Lord of the Rings (Book Ⅵ, Chapter Ⅲ)
Sam carried Frodo out of the Sammath Naur, and as Barad-dûr crumbled, Frodo was himself again. Sam lamented Frodo’s maimed hand, but Frodo said that they should forgive Gollum, as the Ring would never have perished if not for the creature.
The Chief Hero
Bilbo, Gandalf, Frodo, and Sam all showed mercy and compassion to this creature who perhaps didn’t altogether deserve it. Of all those who spared Gollum’s life, none struggled quite as much as Sam, who was overcome several times by an understandable urge “to deal out death in judgement.”
If the chief hero had killed his enemy on the slopes of Orodruin, the quest would have ended in ruin, and Sam had to carry the One Ring for a day to understand Gollum’s agony. In the end, when Frodo failed, it was Samwise Gamgee who had to overcome his own personal flaws in order to save the world.
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