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120J.R.R. Tolkienelsewhere of “Gollum’s failure (just) to repent when interrupted bySam: this seems to me really like the real world in which the instrumentsof just retribution are seldom themselves just and holy and thegood are often stumbling blocks.”Partly, the attachment of Gollum to Sam and Frodo as their guideand helper is a preparation for the final betrayal by Gollum: to tastethe depths of suffering, Frodo must be betrayed by one in whom heput his trust, as Christ was betrayed by Judas. Gollum also serves as awarning: if Frodo or Bilbo allowed themselves to yield to the power ofthe Ring, they would become like Gollum, enslaved by it rather thanbecoming its Master.Indeed, Tolkien may intend to suggest that in a sense the DarkLord himself is the slave rather than the master of his own evil power.For evil is in the end a rejection of every good, including freedom: thelustful man or woman becomes a slave of lust; the vengeful becomeslaves of their hatred; and so on. The romantic picture of evil thatsome have seen in Milton’s Paradise Lost is an illusion. Evil says,“Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven,” but in hell, no one butthe Prince of Evil ever seems to reign, and that reign is an illusion too.Every one of the servants of Sauron, the Dark Lord, is a slave, and inthe end Sauron himself is a slave to his own fear and hate.As Frodo comes closer to Mordor, he is led into a trap by Gollumand rendered unconscious by the bite of a giant spider, then capturedby the ones who guard Mordor. His physical sufferings parallel thoseof Christ: he is imprisoned, stripped of his garments, mocked, andwhipped. Even after Sam rescues him and they resume their journeyto the fires of the Crack of Doom to destroy the Ring, Frodo’s sufferingscontinue. He is terribly weary, and the Ring becomes a moreand more intolerable burden. Frodo’s journey now powerfully recallsChrist’s carrying of the cross.Whether this is intentional on Tolkien’s part is hard to say. Asa Catholic of a rather traditional kind, Tolkien would have beenfamiliar with the Rosary, a form of prayer in which beads and spokenprayers occupy the body and the surface of the mind while the personpraying meditates on various “mysteries”—incidents from the lifeof Christ and his mother, Mary. The five “sorrowful mysteries” areChrist’s agony of mind in the Garden of Gethsemane, his whippingby the Roman soldiers and their crowning of him with thorns, the