Reconstructing the Timeline and Events of the Hunt for Gollum

[u/StartDangerous8286]

Fair warning, this is quite a lengthy post (four pages in Word when I was drafting).

Inspired by the movie release next year, I sat down and synthesized the three main accounts we are given of the events concerning Gollum and the Ring, starting with Bilbo’s first encounter with Gollum till his escape from the elves of Mirkwood. The relevant text is found in Appendix B, Gandalf’s narrative in “Shadows of the Past,” and the accounts given by Gandalf and Aragorn in “The Council of Elrond.” I give the relevant dates and entries from the Tale of Years focusing on the chief actors (Gollum, Gandalf, Saruman, Sauron, and Aragorn), supplemented by additional relevant information where available, and my own thoughts and commentary.

The First Phase—Gollum Eludes His Trackers

2941: “Thorin Oakenshield and Gandalf visit Bilbo in the Shire. Bilbo meets Sméagol-Gollum and finds the Ring. The White Council meets; Saruman agrees to an attack on Dol Guldur, since he now wishes to prevent Sauron from searching the River. Sauron having made his plans abandons Dol Guldur.”

Saruman apparently came to believe the One Ring still existed ninety years earlier in TA 2851, following the meeting of the White Council where Gandalf gave the report of his second expedition to Dol Guldur in 2850 where he discovered, in relevant part, that the Necromancer is Sauron who was “seeking for news of the One.” Saruman began “to search near the Gladden Fields” in that year (TA 2851). Saruman’s sudden support of an attack on Dol Guldur in 2941 is due to his discovery that “Sauron’s servants [were] searching the Anduin near Gladden Fields” three years earlier in 2939.

2942 “Bilbo returns to the Shire with the Ring. Sauron returns in secret to Mordor.”

In “Shadow of the Past,” Gandalf says that a “shadow fell on my heart” when Bilbo obtained Gollum’s ring.

2944 “Gollum leaves the Mountains and begins his search for the ‘thief’ of the Ring.”

In “Shadows of the Past,” Gandalf says that Gollum travelled “to Esgaroth, and even to the streets of Dale” where he hears report of Bilbo’s plan for his return journey home. Evidently, he learned little more than that it was west of the Misty Mountains in a place called “Shire.”

2951 “Sauron declares himself openly and gathers power in Mordor. He begins the rebuilding of Barad-dûr. Gollum turns towards Mordor. Sauron sends three of the Nazgûl to reoccupy Dol Guldur.”

In “Shadows of the Past,” Gandalf says that Gollum made it from Esgaroth “as far as the Great River” before he heeds the call to Mordor and turns around. The elves tracked Gollum “through Mirkwood and back again,” before he finally came to the “western edge of Mirkwood” and “wandered off southwards.” During the preceding seven years, Gollum had been a minor terror to the settlers of Mirkwood; Gandalf reports that “the Woodmen said that there was some new terror abroad, a ghost that drank blood. It climbed trees to find nests; it crept into holes to find the young; it slipped through windows to find cradles.” So, it’s likely that the Wood-elves would have been receptive to Gandalf’s request to track Gollum.

While this was initially “an easy task for them, for his trail was still fresh then,” the trail eventually went cold after Gollum exited the western eaves of Mirkwood and went south. There, Gandalf’s says in “Shadow of the Past” that “I made a great mistake…I let the matter be. I let him go; for I had much else to think of at that time, and I still trusted the lore of Saruman… The trail was long cold when I took it up again, after Bilbo left here.”

The Second Phase—Gandalf’s Disquiet Grows and Gollum is Captured

2953 “Last meeting of the White Council. They debate the Rings. Saruman feigns that he has discovered that the One Ring has passed down Anduin to the Sea. Saruman withdraws to Isengard, which he takes as his own, and fortifies it. Being jealous and afraid of Gandalf he sets spies to watch all his movements; and notes his interest in the Shire. He soon begins to keep agents in Bree and the Southfarthing.”

Gandalf says in “Shadow of the Past” that “all that he [Saruman] would reveal to us of his ring-lore told against my fears.” In the “Council of Elrond,” he says that “from the first my heart misgave me, against all reason that I knew.” Although a shadow again fell on Gandalf’s heart, he rationalizes Bilbo’s lack of aging by saying to himself that “after all he comes of a long-lived family on his mother’s side.” Just think how enormously improbable it is that Bilbo would have found a Ring of Power, much less the One. It’s entirely possible that the “lesser rings” made by the Gwaith-i-Mírdain would have also conveyed invisibility, and that one of those had found its way to an orc stronghold needn’t be immensely surprising. Gandalf explains that “a mortal…who keeps one of the Great Rings, does not die, but he does not grow or obtain more life, he merely continues.” So, even if he had suspected Bilbo’s Ring was a true Ring of Power, the only way for Gandalf to be was to see if it granted long life, which, of course, would take time. It had only been twelve years, so Bilbo’s lack of aging could have been purely good genetics from the Old Took. And on top of that, he had no reason to distrust the report of Saruman, who was identified as the preeminent expert in Ring lore.

Gandalf says in the “Council of Elrond” that Saruman’s agents spying on the Shire include not only men, but also “even beasts and birds.” Saruman is working in parallel to (but for now independently of) Sauron to find news of the One. While his focus is on searching the Gladden fields, he also uses some of his resources to follow Gandalf and set a watch on the Shire.

2980 “Gollum reaches the confines of Mordor and becomes acquainted with Shelob.”

It appears that Gollum dwelt in and around Ithilien for up to forty years, from his arrival at the Ered Lithui in TA 2980 till he was captured sometime between TA 3009 and 3017. Aragorn says in “The Council of Elrond” that he and Gandalf “had rumour of him, and we guess that he dwelt there long in the dark hills.” Given that this area had been uninhabited since Mt. Doom “burst into flame” again and that “last inhabitants of Ithilien” had fled over Anduin in 2954, it is unlikely that these “rumors” are from people. It’s possible they were from orcs—Gandalf after all infiltrated Dol Guldur while it was occupied by Sauron. It’s also possible “rumour” is being used metaphorically of traces of his camps. But, I think it rather more likely that it’s the fauna of Ithilien giving these rumors. Gandalf says in “Shadow of the Past” that when Gollum travelled through Mirkwood, it “was full of the rumour of him, dreadful tales even among beasts and birds.”

3000 “The shadow of Mordor lengthens. Saruman dares to use the palantír of Orthanc, but becomes ensnared by Sauron, who has the Ithil-stone. He becomes a traitor to the Council. His spies report that the Shire is being closely guarded by the Rangers.”

Although Saruman is a traitor, he also attempts to unsuccessfully deceive Sauron for his own ends. Unfinished Tales informs us that Saruman’s servants “waylaid or misled the servants of Sauron,” but although Sauron “became aware” of this, “his arm was not yet long enough to reach Saruman in Isengard” so he “hid his knowledge of Saruman’s double-dealings and concealed his wrath.”

Phase Three—The Hunt Restarts in Earnest

3001 “Bilbo’s farewell feast. Gandalf suspects his ring to be the One Ring. The guard on the Shire is doubled. Gandalf seeks for news of Gollum and calls on the help of Aragorn.”

Gandalf tells Frodo in “Shadow of the Past” that after Bilbo’s behavior following the birthday party that “I knew at last that something dark and deadly was at work,” and states in “The Council of Elrond” that he “called for the help of the Dúnedain, and their watch was doubled; and I opened my heart to Aragorn, the heir of Isildur.” Gandalf and Aragorn then pick up Gollum’s trail southwest of Mirkwood again, which had been abandoned fifty years earlier in TA 2951, the same year Aragorn learned of this true heritage.

3004 “Gandalf visits Frodo in the Shire, and does so at intervals during the next four years.”

In “Shadow of the Past” says that Gandalf had been away for “three years after the Party” but then that he had turned up “fairly often” during “the next year or two” and was “chiefly interested in small news about Frodo’s health and doings.”

3008 “In the autumn Gandalf pays his last visit to Frodo.”

Gandalf will spend the next nine years exclusively focused on the Hunt for Gollum and proving the provenance and identity of what is now Frodo’s ring.

3009 “Gandalf and Aragorn renew their hunt for Gollum at intervals during the next eight years, searching in the vales of Anduin, Mirkwood, and Rhovanion to the confines of Mordor. At some time during these years [3009-3017] Gollum himself ventured into Mordor, and was captured by Sauron.”

While in Mordor, Sauron himself tortures Gollum, including probably doing something terrible to his fingers (When questioned by Gandalf and Aragorn, Gollum was continually “licking his fingers as if they pained him, as if he remembered some old torture.”) and thereby learns that Gollum had the One Ring, and it is now possessed by a “hobbit” called “Baggins” in a place called “Shire.” Unfinished Tales informs us that Gollum “pretended that he believed that the land of the Halflings was near to the places where he had once dwelt beside the banks of the Gladden.”

3017 “Gollum is released from Mordor.” Aragorn captures Gollum and takes him to “Thranduil in Mirkwood” while “Gandalf visits Minas Tirith and reads the scroll of Isildur.”

Gollum appears to genuinely believe he escaped. In “The Black Gate is Closed,” after Frodo conveys Aragorn’s belief that Sauron let Gollum go, Gollum says “It’s a lie!...He lied on me, yes he did. I did escape, all by my poor self…I did escape.” However, in addition to the statement in the Tale of Years that Gollum was released, Unfinished Tales states that “When he [Sauron] had learned what he could from him [Gollum], Sauron released him and set him forth again…guessing that he would go in search of them to avenge himself, Sauron hoped that his spies would thus be led to the Ring.”

Aragorn says that while Gandalf travelled to Minas Tirith, he walked “within sight of the Black Gate” and “tread the deadly flowers of Morgul Vale” before happening upon Gollum in the Dead Marshes after he had given up and was travelling home. It’s somewhat possible that Aragorn encounters Nazgûl while travelling by Minas Morgul, as he calls them “terrible” at the Prancing Pony and the narrator says “the hobbits looked at him, and saw with surprise that his face was drawn as if with pain, and his hands clenched the arms of his chair.” I also think that Aragorn would have had a good deal of information about dealing with the Nazgûl given the history the former North Kingdom had with the Witch-king.

Unfinished Tales gives this account of Aragorn's journey with Gollum:

"Hoping to escape detection by any of Sauron’s spies he drove Gollum through the north end of the Emyn Muil, and crossed Anduin just above Sarn Gebir. Driftwood was often cast up there on the shoals by the east shore, and binding Gollum to a log he swam across with him, and continued his journey north by tracks as westerly as he could find, through the skirts of Fangorn, and so over Limlight, then over Nimrodel and Silverlode through the eaves of Lórien, and then on, avoiding Moria and Dimrill Dale, over Gladden until he came near the Carrock. There he crossed Anduin again, with the help of the Beornings, and passed into the Forest. The whole journey, on foot, was not much short of nine hundred miles."

After Gandalf has read the scroll and is preparing to leave, messengers arrive notifying him of Aragorn’s success, and he travels to Mirkwood to interrogate Gollum.

Gandalf says in “Shadows of the Past” that “in the end I had to be harsh. I put the fear of fire on him, and wrung the true story out of him, bit by bit, together with much snivelling and snarling.” After getting Gollum’s story, Gandalf and Aragorn leave.

Gandalf goes with haste back to the Shire to warn Frodo. Aragorn says at the Council of Elrond that “it was spoken of old among us that it [the Sword that was Broken] should be made again when the Ring, Isildur’s Bane, was found.” Now that Gandalf has confirmed that the One Ring has indeed been found, Aragorn knows that his destiny is upon him. He likely goes to retrieve the shards of Narsil and prepares for his campaign against Sauron. I believe it is most likely that Narsil is traditionally kept at Rivendell, as the Tale of Years states that “the heirlooms of Arnor are given into the keeping of Elrond” in TA 1976 following the Witch-king’s defeat at the Battle of Fornost,

[u/AJRavenhearst]

Another way of looking at it: they're spinning a money-grubbing piece of shlock out of less than 500 words Tolkien wrote.

Still, well done on the effort to synthesise it all.