Failure
Eventually, possession of the One Ring passes from Gollum to Bilbo and then on to Frodo. Frodo is tasked with destroying the ring and sets out on a quest to reach Mount Doom.
However, when Frodo enters the Cracks of Doom (a passageway into the side of the mountain) intending to destroy the One Ring, the ring gains dominion over him.
Frodo claims the One Ring as his own; it then seems that he has failed in his mission and that all is lost:
| Then Frodo stirred and spoke with a clear voice, indeed with a voice clearer and more powerful than Sam had ever heard him use, and it rose above the throb and turmoil of Mount Doom, ringing in the roof and walls.
‘I have come,’ he said. ‘But I do not choose now to do what I came to do. I will not do this deed. The Ring is mine!’ |
At that crucial junction, Gollum, who has been tracking Frodo, regains the One Ring by biting off Frodo’s finger. Gollum then falls into the volcanic fissure, and is destroyed together with the ring.
| Suddenly Sam saw Gollum’s long hands draw upwards to his mouth; his white fangs gleamed, and then snapped as they bit. Frodo gave a cry, and there he was, fallen upon his knees at the chasm’s edge.
But Gollum, dancing like a mad thing, held aloft the ring, a finger still thrust within its circle. It shone now as if verily it was wrought of living fire. ‘Precious, precious, precious!’ Gollum cried. ‘My Precious! O my Precious!’ And with that, even as his eyes were lifted up to gloat on his prize, he stepped too far, toppled, wavered for a moment on the brink, and then with a shriek he fell. Out of the depths came his last wail “Precious”, and he was gone. |
Good triumphs, seemingly by mistake.
But was it a mistake?