Exploring Tolkien TheOneRing.com

With the release of the new Gollum game, we decided to take a deeper dive at this character--not his motivations or history, but what Tolkien specifically said about him in his letters.

Tolkien indicates that the most moving scene in all of the Lord of the Rings was Gollum's near repentance on the stairs of Cirith Ungol, as he looked on Frodo and Sam sleeping:

"Gollum looked at them. A strange expression passed over his lean hungry face. The gleam faded from his eyes, and they went dim and grey, old and tired. A spasm of pain seemed to twist him, and he turned away, peering back up towards the pass, shaking his head, as if engaged in some interior debate. Then he came back, and slowly putting out a trembling hand, very cautiously he touched Frodo’s knee – but almost the touch was a caress. For a fleeting moment, could one of the sleepers have seen him, they would have thought that they beheld an old weary hobbit, shrunken by the years that had carried him far beyond his time, beyond friends and kin, and the fields and streams of youth, an old starved pitiable thing."

Tolkien believed that Gollum was on the precipice of redemption, and quite nearly found his love for Frodo competing with his desire for the ring!

Join us in our extended episode where we discuss the best Lord of the Rings games made, and--if we were given the opportunity to make a game--what game would each of us create in Tolkien's world. To get the extended episode, become a member at https://theonering.com/members ($4/mo and free for the 1st month)!

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Get access to the extended edition of this podcast, our private Discord chat, and  live chats. Click here!

Episode Links
Gollum Game (only buy this at a deep discount)
Game Livestream #1
Game Livestream #2


🎧 Subscribe to our Podcast
Get the Extended Podcast
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🔎 If You Like Tolkien
The Silmarillion
The Fall of Númenor
The Fall of Gondolin
The Children of Hurin
The Atlas of Middle-earth
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

Join us as we talk about Galadriel's "life-changing" event in Rings of Power season 2, the Gollum game releasing May 25, 2023, the newly announced MMO game from Amazon, if we accept the reason for Legolas walking on snow, and more!

We finish up the Akallabêth this week talking about religion in Númenor, if the Valar gave up governing Arda (and for how long), and if men of Númenor are addicted to the light of Valinor.

We reach the 2nd age of Middle-earth, and with it are compelled to bring up The Rings of Power -- and how they got even the basics wrong!

Michael, Dan, and Jonathan finish the first age of Middle-earth! We see the final destruction that Fēanor's Silmarils wrought, how Ēarendil's desperate hope drove him to Valinor, and determine that--no--Elrond and Elros are not ACTUALLY half-elven!

Join us in our extended episode where we discuss why Elwing chose to be immortal "because of Luthien", if Tolkien made parallels between the story of Earendil/Elwing and the tale of Aldarion and Erendis (from Unfinished Tales), and what's up with Maedhros yeeting himself into a chasm of fire?! To get the extended episode, become a member at https://theonering.com/members ($4/mo and free for the 1st month)!

And for our members, make sure you join our Book Club where we're be reading through Taliesin by Stephen R. Lawhead.

BECOME A MEMBER!
Get access to the extended edition of this podcast, our private Discord chat, and  live chats. Click here!

Episode 34
Livestreams on Friday (when we can schedule them!)

🎧 Subscribe to our Podcast
Get the Extended Podcast
Subscribe on Apple
Subscribe on Google

🔎 If You Like Tolkien
The Silmarillion
The Fall of Númenor
The Fall of Gondolin
The Atlas of Middle-earth
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
The Children of Hurin

 

Listen in as Michael Grumbine (from our Exploring Tolkien), John Trent from Bounding into Comics, John Carswell From The Tolkien Road podcast, The MIddle-earth Mixer, and Steve Babb from Glass Hammer talk Tolkien, movies, games, Steven Spielberg and more!