The lyricism of Gollum

Just as Shakespeare gave the monster Caliban some of the most haunting words in The Tempest; so Tolkien gives Gollum some of the most evocative passages in The Lord of the Rings. 

Gollum is not only surprisingly well-informed; but during the time he is (mostly) dominated by his Smeagol persona, and remembers his early life - he is capable of poetry. 

Here are three of my favourites:

Gollum turned to the right, southward more or less, and splashed along with his feet in the shallow stony stream. He seemed greatly delighted to feel the water, and chuckled to himself, sometimes even croaking in a sort of song.

 

The cold hard lands 

they bites our hands, 

they gnaws our feet. 

The rocks and stones 

are like old bones 

all bare of meat. 

But stream and pool 

is wet and cool: 

so nice for feet! 

And now we wish... 

‘Ha! ha! What does we wish?’ he said, looking sidelong at the hobbits. ‘We’ll tell you,’ he croaked. ‘He guessed it long ago, Baggins guessed it.’ A glint came into his eyes, and Sam catching the gleam in the darkness thought it far from pleasant. 

Alive without breath; as cold as death; 

never thirsting, ever drinking; 

clad in mail, never clinking. 

Drowns on dry land, thinks an island 

is a mountain; thinks a fountain 

is a puff of air. So sleek, so fair! 

What a joy to meet! 

We only wish... 

to catch a fish, 

so juicy-sweet! 

++

‘Yes, yes,’ said Gollum. ‘All dead, all rotten. Elves and Men and Orcs. 

The Dead Marshes. There was a great battle long ago, yes, so they told him when Smeagol was young, when I was young before the Precious came. 

It was a great battle. Tall Men with long swords, and terrible Elves, and Orcses shrieking. They fought on the plain for days and months at the Black Gates. 

But the Marshes have grown since then, swallowed up the graves; always creeping, creeping.’

++

‘On, on, on,’ said Gollum. ‘We never went that way, but they say it goes a hundred leagues, until you can see the Great Water that is never still. 

'There are lots of fishes there, and big birds eat fishes: nice birds: but we never went there, alas no! we never had a chance. 

'And further still there are more lands, they say, but the Yellow Face is very hot there, and there are seldom any clouds, and the men are fierce and have dark faces. We do not want to see that land.’ 

‘No!’ said Frodo. ‘But do not wander from your road. What of the third turning?’ 

‘O yes, O yes, there is a third way,’ said Gollum. ‘That is the road to the left. 

'At once it begins to climb up, up, winding and climbing back towards the tall shadows. When it turns round the black rock, you’ll see it, suddenly you’ll see it above you, and you’ll want to hide.’ 

‘See it, see it? What will you see?’ 

‘The old fortress, very old, very horrible now. 

'We used to hear tales from the South, when Smeagol was young, long ago. O yes, we used to tell lots of tales in the evening, sitting by the banks of the Great River, in the willow-lands, when the River was younger too, gollum, gollum.’ 

He began to weep and mutter. The hobbits waited patiently. 

‘Tales out of the South,’ Gollum went on again, ‘about the tall Men with the shining eyes, and their houses like hills of stone, and the silver crown of their King and his White Tree: wonderful tales. 

'They built very tall towers, and one they raised was silver-white, and in it there was a stone like the Moon, and round it were great white walls. 

'O yes, there were many tales about the Tower of the Moon.’