LITMIR.BIZ

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Road to Middle-earth, especially the chapter ‘Lit. and Lang.’ Both that book and Shippey’s J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century (2000) are useful references for studying the influence of Tolkien’s philological interests on his literary works. The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary by Peter Gilliver, Jeremy Marshall, and Edmund Weiner (2006), and ‘The Word as Leaf: Perspectives on Tolkien as Lexicographer and Philologist’ by Gilliver, Weiner, and Marshall, in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings: Sources of Inspiration, ed. Stratford Caldecott and Thomas Honegger (2008), are also essential readings on Tolkien and Philology.

Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien. Collection of paintings, drawings, and designs by Tolkien, with foreword and notes by *Christopher Tolkien, first published in Great Britain by George Allen & Unwin, London, and in the United States by the Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, both in November 1979. See further, Descriptive Bibliography Ei2.

      The images first appeared in a series of Tolkien calendars issued by Allen & Unwin (*Publishers) from 1973 to 1979, excepting 1975. A revised edition was published in 1992. The book was allowed to go out of print after the publication of J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator (1995) by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull, in which most (but not all) of the images in Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien were also reproduced, with greater definition.

      A list of Tolkien’s published art is included in the second volume of the Reader’s Guide. See also *Art.

Pity and mercy. In The Lord of the Rings the pity of Bilbo, Frodo, and Sam, each of whom spares Gollum’s life, is clearly shown as having led to the ultimate success of the *quest. In the account of Bilbo’s encounter with Gollum under the Misty Mountains it is said that, as Bilbo fled from Gollum, who suspected that Bilbo had found his ring, the Ring slipped on Bilbo’s finger, making him invisible, and that Bilbo followed Gollum until they came to an opening that led to the lower gates: ‘There Gollum crouched at bay, smelling and listening; and Bilbo was tempted to slay him with his sword. But pity stayed him, and though he kept the ring, in which his only hope lay, he would not use it to help him kill the wretched creature at a disadvantage. In the end, gathering his courage, he leaped over Gollum in the dark, and fled away …’ (Prologue). In Book I, Chapter 2, when Frodo learns that through Gollum Sauron has probably discovered the whereabouts of the Ring, he cries: ‘What a pity that Bilbo did not stab that vile creature, when he had the chance!’ To which Gandalf replies: ‘Pity? It was Pity that stayed his hand. Pity, and Mercy: not to strike without need. And he has been well rewarded, Frodo. Be sure that he took so little hurt from the evil, and escaped in the end, because he began his ownership of the Ring so. With Pity.’

      There are several points to be made about these passages. One is the use of ‘pity’ in the conventional phrase ‘what a pity’, often used to indicate regret or disappointment about comparatively minor events or mishaps; but this is not the focus of the present article. That usage is clearly different from the ‘pity’ shown by Bilbo, which falls within the second definition of the word in the *Oxford English Dictionary (OED): ‘a feeling or emotion of tenderness aroused by the suffering, distress or misfortune of another, and prompting a desire for its relief; compassion; sympathy’. The first definition in the OED, ‘the quality of being pitiful; the disposition to mercy or compassion; clemency, mercy, mildness, tenderness’, is noted as obsolete, or merged into the second. The definitions of pitiful include an obsolete use, ‘characterized by piety, pious’, and among modern usages ‘full of pity, compassionate, merciful’. It is clear that one can feel compassion, without mercy being a necessary concomitant, though in some uses it is implied. The OED defines mercy as ‘forbearance and compassion shown by one person to another who is in his power and has no claim to receive kindness; kind and compassionate treatment in a case where severity is merited or expected’. ‘It was Pity that stayed [Bilbo’s] hand. Pity, and Mercy’.

      In fact, until the second edition of *The Hobbit (1951) Bilbo showed neither pity nor mercy to Gollum, nor was any needed. In the original version of The Hobbit, Chapter 5, Gollum offered Bilbo a present if he won the riddle contest, but when Gollum lost and went to get his ring, he could not find it, and therefore agreed to show Bilbo the way out instead. He led him through the tunnels as far as he dared, then ‘Bilbo slipped under the arch, and said good-bye to the nasty miserable creature’. The revised version of Chapter 5 was written probably in August or September 1947, and until summer 1950 Tolkien thought that Allen & Unwin (*Publishers) were unwilling to make the change. Yet during the writing of The Lord of the Rings Bilbo’s, and later Frodo’s, pity for Gollum have the same major significance in the story, even in the earliest account of Bingo’s (Frodo’s) conversation with Gandalf, written in autumn 1938, though with some contortion: ‘What a pity Bilbo did not stab the beastly creature when he said goodbye’ …. ‘What nonsense you do talk sometimes, Bingo …. Pity! It was pity that prevented him. And he could not do so, without doing wrong. It was against the rules. If he had done so he would not have had the ring, the ring would have had him at once’ (*The Return of the Shadow, p. 81). It is clear that Tolkien knew almost from the beginning that without pity and mercy being shown to Gollum, the quest would end in failure.

      In the published text Frodo responds to Gandalf’s comment on Bilbo’s pity: ‘I am frightened; and I do not feel any pity for Gollum …. He deserves death.’ Gandalf points out that Frodo has not seen Gollum, and it may be that Gollum does deserve death; but

      many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends. I have not much hope that Gollum can be cured before he dies, but there is a chance of it. And he is bound up with the fate of the Ring. My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end; and when that comes, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many – yours not least. In any case we [his captors] did not kill him: he is very old and very wretched. The Wood-elves have him in prison, but they treat him with such kindness as they can find in their wise hearts.

      Already not only Bilbo, but Gandalf and the Wood-elves, have felt pity for Gollum. Because the Wood-elves did not have ‘the heart to keep him ever in dungeons under the earth’ (bk. II, ch. 2) Gollum was able to escape, and to play a part such as Gandalf foresaw.

      When, in Book IV, Chapter 1, Frodo and Sam capture Gollum at the foot of the Emyn Muil and he begs for mercy, Frodo seems to hear the words spoken by Gandalf in their conversation at Bag End, and says: ‘I will not touch the creature. For now that I see him, I do pity him.’ Frodo’s pity for a while seems to bring about a change in Gollum. At the pool of Henneth Annûn Frodo is offered an easy way out as he approaches Gollum and hears his murmuring about the Precious, nasty hobbits, nasty Men: ‘We hates them …. Throttle them, precious.’

      So it went on …. Frodo shivered, listening with pity and disgust. He wished it would stop, and that he never need hear that voice again. Anborn was not far behind. He could creep back and ask him to get the huntsmen to shoot …. Only one true shot, and Frodo would be rid of the miserable voice for ever. But no, Gollum had a claim on him now. The servant has a claim on the master for service, even service in fear. They would have foundered in the Dead Marshes but for Gollum. Frodo knew, too, somehow, quite clearly that Gandalf would not have wished it. [bk. IV, ch. 6]

      Faramir, against the command that he slay any he find in Ithilien without leave, allows Frodo, for whom he feels ‘pity and honour’ (bk. IV, ch. 5), to continue on his journey. He also shows mercy (but perhaps not pity) in not killing Gollum, allowing him to leave with Frodo.

      On Mount Doom Gollum attacks first Frodo and then Sam, and despite Gollum’s treachery, even Sam at last comes to feel pity for him:

      It would be just to slay this treacherous, murderous creature, just and many times deserved; and also it seemed the only safe thing to do. But deep in his heart there was something that restrained him: he could not strike this thing lying in the dust, forlorn, ruinous, utterly wretched. He himself, though only for a little while, had borne the Ring, and now dimly he guessed the agony of Gollum’s shrivelled mind and body, enslaved to that Ring, unable to find peace

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