From The Two Towers "Shelob's Lair" (slightly edited):
‘We’ll see, we’ll see,’ Gollum said often to himself, when the evil
mood was on him, as he walked the dangerous road from
Emyn Muil to Morgul Vale, ‘we’ll see.
'It may well be, O yes, it may well be that when Shelob throws away the bones and the empty garments, we shall find it, we shall get it, the Precious, a reward for poor Smeagol who brings nice food.
'And we’ll save the Precious, as we promised. O yes.
'And when we’ve got it safe, then She’ll know it, O yes, then we’ll pay Her back, my precious.
'Then we’ll pay everyone back!’
Then we'll pay her back... Then we'll pay everyone back!
These sentences from Gollum/ Smeagol chill me, deeply, whenever I read or hear them.
Here we have encapsulated the power of that most evil of motivations: spiteful resentment.
The self-righteous, insatiable, lust for revenge.
The will to hurt, to destroy every-one, every-thing... all of divine creation.
2 comments:
You are right, but. "The Precious." "It is precious to me, though I buy it in great pain." See how Tolkien sets it up.
Chapter two.
The letters are Elvish, of an ancient mode, but the language is that of Mordor which I will not utter here. But this, in the Common Tongue is what is said, close enough.
One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
Ten chapters later.
Upon this very ring which you have here seen held aloft, round and unadorned, the letters that Isildur reported may be read, if one has the strength of will to set the golden thing in the fire awhile. That I have done, and this have I read.
Ash nazg durbatuluk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatuluk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.
It even sounds evil.
@Philip N - Those are very striking lines from Isildur - powerfully expressive of both sides of his personality; as if he knows he has, from his flaws, become enmeshed in something he recognizes to be evil but lacks the strength to escape from.
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