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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crust" data-source="post: 3362082" data-attributes="member: 22330">The Hobbit (Del Rey paperback edition), pg. 81: "'My birthday present! It came to me on my birthday, my precious.' So he had always said to himself. But who knows how Gollum came by that present, ages ago in the old days when such rings were still at large in the world? Perhaps even the Master who ruled them could not have said. Gollum used to wear it at first, till it tired him; and then he kept it in a pouch next his skin, till it galled him; and now usually he hid it in a hole in the rock on his island, and was always going back to look at it."The above passage is strong evidence that Tolkien, roughly 20 years before Fellowship was published, knew that Gollum's ring was more than a golden ring of invisibility.  In fact, the above passage even suggests that the ring was fed up with Gollum (it wanted a new wearer, someone who would take it closer to Sauron), and made it so that Gollum was sickened by its touch (as the ring was probably sickened by Gollum).Certainly throughout The Hobbit, readers who have already read LotR would ask, "Is the ring affecting Bilbo at all, or is it his 'Tookish' side that allows him to become the confident leader of Thorin's band of dwarves?"  Perhaps it was simply the confidence of being invisible that gave him greater courage, but that's also a form of temptation.  Who can resist being invisible in this world of strangers?  I think the continuity between The Hobbit and Fellowship is pretty strong concerning the ring, because let's remember that Bilbo only had it for less than a year by the time The Hobbit ends.  Sixty years later, on Bilbo's 111th birthday, it's clear that his "well-preserved" appearance and his snippy attitude toward Gandalf are evidence that the ring is affecting him.I also wonder if the ring's proximity to Mt. Doom has anything to do with its power of dominance over its bearer.</blockquote>

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