t h e s h a d o w o f t h e p a s t 73

‘You ought to begin to understand, Frodo, after all you

have heard,’ said Gandalf. ‘He hated it and loved it, as he

hated and loved himself. He could not get rid of it. He had

 

no will left in the matter.

‘A Ring of Power looks after itself, Frodo. It may slip off

treacherously, but its keeper never abandons it. At most he

 

plays with the idea of handing it on to someone else’s care –

and that only at an early stage, when it first begins to grip.

 

But as far as I know Bilbo alone in history has ever gone

 

beyond playing, and really done it. He needed all my help,

 

too. And even so he would never have just forsaken it, or cast

 

it aside. It was not Gollum, Frodo, but the Ring itself that

 

decided things. The Ring left him.’

‘What, just in time to meet Bilbo?’ said Frodo. ‘Wouldn’t

an Orc have suited it better?’

‘It is no laughing matter,’ said Gandalf. ‘Not for you. It

was the strangest event in the whole history of the Ring so

far: Bilbo’s arrival just at that time, and putting his hand on

 

it, blindly, in the dark.

‘There was more than one power at work, Frodo. The

Ring was trying to get back to its master. It had slipped from

 

Isildur’s hand and betrayed him; then when a chance came

 

it caught poor De agol, and he was murdered; and after that

Gollum, and it had devoured him. It could make no further

 

use of him: he was too small and mean; and as long as it

 

stayed with him he would never leave his deep pool again.

 

So now, when its master was awake once more and sending

 

out his dark thought from Mirkwood, it abandoned Gollum.

 

Only to be picked up by the most unlikely person imaginable:

 

Bilbo from the Shire!

‘Behind that there was something else at work, beyond any

design of the Ring-maker. I can put it no plainer than by

 

saying that Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, and not by its

maker. In which case you also were meant to have it. And

that may be an encouraging thought.’

‘It is not,’ said Frodo. ‘Though I am not sure that I under-

stand you. But how have you learned all this about the Ring,