MovieChat Forums > The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) Discussion > Gollum in Mordor and the fall of Moria

Gollum in Mordor and the fall of Moria

posted 6 years ago by [deleted]
12 replies | jump to latest

It's been about two decades since I read the books and I'm looking for some clarity... Is there something I'm not remembering? Did JRRT or Peter Jackson fumble the ball?

Why was Gollum in Mordor in the first place? Even if Gollum left The Misty Mountains to find the ring he has no reason to go to Moria or even close to it.

How did no-one seem to know about the fall of Moria? According to the timeline information I've found it was 24 years between the fall of Moria and the fellowship finding it in ruins. Now, Lonely Mountain was a major force in trading prior to Smaug. Wouldn't Moria have also been well known to local towns and villages? What happened there?

[–] McQualude (4231) 6 years ago

I might be way off, it's been years since reading the books but I thought Bilbo started things by wearing the ring. Sauron was alerted that the ring had been found and Gollum was captured and tortured for information. Presumably there is an untold story that fills in the details.

Not sure about Moria, I read the details at some point but is so much backstory to remember. Moria was under siege for years by the goblins so I think that squelched trade.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

From what is in Fellowship of the Ring, The Nine were already on their way to the shire prior to Frodo ever wearing the ring. Gollum was tortured prior to that too. If things were set in motion by Bilbo finding the ring and bringing it from the Misty Mountains then it would seem to me Gollum is a total non-element since Sauron should know nothing of his possession of the ring at that point.

I wasn't aware that Moria was under siege. I thought that this was a swift attack lasting a few days/weeks but admittedly, it was just a personal impression and I can't think of anything I've seen or read to justify this. Anyway, even if Moria was under siege you would think the other dwarves would have come to their aid or at least, since it would have been a known incident, it wouldn't have been a surprise that Moria had fallen.

But I do think you're right about an untold story, or at least unknown to us. Tolkien did a bunch of writings that I've never read. My understanding is that this is where much of the content of The Hobbit came from. I've only read The Hobbit and LotR but as I said it's been decades.

[–] Otter (24464) 6 years ago

What was Gollum doing in Moria? Basically, he ran the hell away from Mordor as fast as he could go, and ran back to the cave-ridden Misty Mountains planning to lurk in the caves there. Somehow he ended up in Moria, which was the biggest, most spacious, luxury cave in the Misty Mountains, full of nice underground rivers and careless goblins who weren't looking behind them.

As to Balin calling himself "King of Moria", well, the whole enterprise was a fizzle. Balin and a small group of dwarves drove some orcs out of some of the caves near the eastern entrance and thought they were hot shit, but the whole project was doomed from the start. There were far too many orcs and goblins and trolls infesting Moria for them to have ever had a hope, even if there hadn't been a balrog around.

As for why King Dain of the Lonely Mountain didn't help them, well, most of you guys have NO idea how difficult travel was in those days, or how hard it was to maintain communication across hostile territory. The only way to get messages from the Lonely Mountain to Moria was to have someone walk or ride a pony along dirt paths or frank wilderness, which would take weeks or months and which would mean crossing hundreds of miles of largely hostile territory. Dol Guldur and area round southern Mirkwood were re-infested with orcs and nazguls by that point, and it lay right between Moria and the Lonely Mountain, so anyone attempting to get from one dwarf stronghold to the next was very likely to die en route. So contact was lost, and if Dain could have tried harder to see how his kinsmen were doing, well, maybe he had a good idea of how likely they were to succeed.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

I see my mistake. It was suppose to be "Why was Gollum in Mordor?" Gollum actually seems to have followed the group into Moria somehow. He had followed them for a few days according to Gandalf.

[–] Otter (24464) 6 years ago

No, I think he'd been living inside Moria, and was astonished to find that some damn fool hobbit had brought the Precious to him!

And sorry, I was wrong about the progression of events. Gollum was captured by Mordor, released, captured by Aragorn and taken to Mirkwood, escaped from Mirkwood, ran for the Misty Mountains where there caves full of fish nice fish, and picked Moria as his cave of residence. Where indeed, the Precious came to him

[–] McQualude (4231) 6 years ago

I meant Bilbo and type Frodo by mistake.

[–] McQualude (4231) 6 years ago

Hobbits are especially resistant to magic which is how Gollum and Bilbo kept the ring for so long, and Sauron was still relatively weak during The Hobbit.

[–] TabbyS (1277) 6 years ago

Like, who are you, Stephen Colbert?

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

I'm really not sure what you're getting at. I've never really seen anything of Colbert. I know who he is but I've never seen his show.

[–] TabbyS (1277) 6 years ago

He would know your answers - a huge LOTR fan. Good show to catch if you're up late.

[–] Moonglum9 (10737) 6 years ago

I thought I remember something about Gollum being instinctually drawn to Mordor after he lost the ring because Sauron was there and he created it. He got captured trying to get in if I remember right.

[–] DoubleDee (3) 5 years ago

[deleted]