A la demande (toute implicite) de Cédric ;-), j’ai farfouillé dans les ‘Letters’ et voici ce qui aurait pu arriver à Gollum, si Sam avait fait preuve de plus de psychologie en percevant un sentiment réel d’amour et de repentir de Gollum envers Frodo endormi juste avant l’épisode ‘Shelob’ :
« If he [Sam] had, what could then have happened ? The course of the entry into Mordor and the struggle to reach Mount Doom would have been different, and so would the ending. The interest would have shifted to Gollum, I think, and the battle that would have gone on between his repentance and his new love on one side and the Ring. Though the love would have been strengthened daily it could not have wrested the mastery from the Ring. I think that in some queer twisted and pitiable way Gollum would have tried (not maybe with conscious design) to satisfy both. Certainly at some point not long before the end he would have stolen the Ring or taken it by violence (as he does in the actual Tale). But ‘possession’ satisfied, I think he would then have sacrificed himself for Frodo’s sake and have VOLUNTARILY cast himself into the fiery abyss » (L246, p.330).
Ce n’est pas vraiment un suicide (lié au désespoir), mais plutôt un choix lucide, un acte de volonté réfléchi qui vient du fait, qu’en prenant possession de l’Anneau, il perçoit sa folie et son incapacité à se mesurer à Sauron : « …the only way to keep it and hurt Sauron was to destroy it and himself together – and in a flash he may have seen that this would also be the greatest service to Frodo » (idem).
Gollum était donc destiné à périr dans les flammes d’Orodruin…
Cathy (qui avait tout faux sur la mort de Gollum);-)