[Image description Tweet from @joelmuchai “When someone out of your league starts flirting with you.” Attached image is of a person sticking their tongue out at an uncomfortable-looking statue of Gollum from Lord of the Rings.]
“Gollum was captured in Mordor in the year 3017 and taken Barad-dûr, and there questioned and tormented. When he had learned what he could from him, Sauron released him and sent him forth again. He did not trust Gollum, for he divined something indomitable in him, which could not be overcome, even by the Shadow of Fear, except by destroying him. But Sauron perceived the depth of Gollum’s malice towards those that had "robbed” him, and guessing that he would go in search of them to avenge himself, Sauron hoped that his spies would thus be led to the Ring.
Gollum, however, was before long captured by Aragorn, and taken to Northern Mirkwood; and though he was followed, he could not be rescued before he was in safe keeping. Now Sauron had never paid heed to the “Halflings,” even if he had heard of them, and he did not yet know where their land lay. From Gollum, even under pain, he could not get any clear account, both because Gollum indeed had no certain knowledge himself, and because what be knew he falsified. Ultimately indomitable he was, except by death, as Sauron did not fully comprehend, being himself consumed by lust for the Ring. Then he became filled with a hatred of Sauron even greater than his terror, seeing in him truly his greatest enemy and rival. Thus it was that he dared to pretend that he believed that the land the Halflings was near to the places where he had once dwelt beside the banks of the Gladden.“
–J.R.R. Tolkien, Unfinished Tales, "The Hunt for the Ring”
(Edit: It appears that Tumblr’s new format no longer displays the content source in the upper-right corner, so here is the sourcefor the artwork.)
‘So you have been there [to Mordor]?’ Frodo insisted. 'And you’re being drawn back there, aren’t you?’
'Yess. Yess. No!’ shrieked Gollum. 'Once, by accident it was, wasn’t it, precious? Yes, by accident. But we won’t go back, no, no!’ Then suddenly his voice and language changed, and he sobbed in his throat, and spoke but not to them. 'Leave me alone, gollum! You hurt me. O my poor hands, gollum! I, we, I don’t want to come back. I can’t find it. I am tired. I, we can’t find it, gollum, gollum, no, nowhere. They’re always awake. Dwarves, Men, and Elves, terrible Elves with bright eyes. I can’t find it. Ach!’ He got up and clenched his long hand into a bony fleshless knot, shaking it towards the East. 'We won’t!’ he cried. 'Not for you.’ Then he collapsed again. ’Gollum, gollum,’ he whimpered with his face to the ground. 'Don’t look at us! Go away! Go to sleep!’
'He will not go away or go to sleep at your command, Sméagol,’ said Frodo. 'But if you really wish to be free of him again, then you must help me. And that I fear means finding us a path towards him. But you need not go all the way, not beyond the gates of his land.’
Gollum sat up again and looked at him under his eyelids. 'He’s over there,’ he cackled. 'Always there. Orcs will take you all the way. Easy to find Orcs east of the River. Don’t ask Sméagol. Poor, poor Sméagol, he went away long ago. They took away his Precious, and he’s lost now.’
'Perhaps we’ll find him again, if you come with us,’ said Frodo.
'No, no, never! He’s lost his Precious,’ said Gollum.
–J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, “The Taming of Sméagol” (Art by Peter Xavier Price)
[ID: a photo of a digitally painted tarot card depicting the Dead Marshes, a marsh filled with ghostly corpses and small blue flames. In the distance walk three figures, Sam, Frodo, and Gollum. The card border is made of vines, rings, and elvish writing, and is labeled: “V of Swords” /ID]
Lord of the Rings Tarot: V of Swords: The Dead Marshes sustain the remains of a bitter battle
![‘So you have been there [to Mordor]?’ Frodo insisted. 'And you’re being drawn back](https://64.media.tumblr.com/84092f11ba8cb24b71564d2e7e49b1e0/tumblr_n1yym1m4P41rtwlb5o1_1280.jpg "‘So you have been there [to Mordor]?’ Frodo insisted. 'And you’re being drawn back")
![”[…] We only wishto catch a fish,so juicy-sweet!” - Gollum, The Two Towers, Book IV, The Passage of](https://64.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbiw2jJxQE1r9sebro1_1280.jpg "”[…] We only wishto catch a fish,so juicy-sweet!” - Gollum, The Two Towers, Book IV, The Passage of")
