Gandalf dit (p78 de l'edition de poche)
And sooner or later as he lurked and pried on the borders he would be caught, and taken - for examination.
Le terme examination me parait ici extremement sinistre, surtout qu'un peu auparavant, Gandalf narre l'attitude de Gollum au moment ou Aragorn le lui ramene:
'What he had been doing he would not say. He only wept and called us cruelm with many a gollum in his throat; and when we pressed him he whined and cringedm and rubbed his long handsm licking his fingers as if they pained him, as if he remembered some old torture. But I am afraid there is no possible doubt: he had made his slow, sneaking way, step by step, mile by mile, south, down at last to the Land of Mordor.'
Ce qui me pousse a penser que lorsque Gandalf dit avoir ete "dur" et "susciter la peur du feu en lui", il s'est contente de menace Gollum, mais que celui-ci avait ete conditionne par la torture effective subie en Mordor.
Surtout que juste apres, lorsque Frodo regrette que Bilbo ne l'ait pas tue, il lui fait le fameux sermon sur la Merci et la Pitie. Je n'imagine pas que le discours de Gandalf puisse etre a ce point contradictoire.