in some uses it is implied. The OED defines mercy as ‘forbearance and compassion shown by one person to another who is in his power and has no claim to receive kindness; kind and compassionate treatment in a case where severity is merited or expected’. ‘It was Pity that stayed [Bilbo’s] hand. Pity, and Mercy’.
In fact, until the second edition of *The Hobbit (1951) Bilbo showed neither pity nor mercy to Gollum, nor was any needed. In the original version of The Hobbit, Chapter 5, Gollum offered Bilbo a present if he won the riddle contest, but when Gollum lost and went to get his ring, he could not find it, and therefore agreed to show Bilbo the way out instead. He led him through the tunnels as far as he dared, then ‘Bilbo slipped under the arch, and said good-bye to the nasty miserable creature’. The revised version of Chapter 5 was written probably in August or September 1947, and until summer 1950 Tolkien thought that Allen & Unwin (*Publishers) were unwilling to make the change. Yet during the writing of The Lord of the Rings Bilbo’s, and later Frodo’s, pity for Gollum have the same major significance in the story, even in the earliest account of Bingo’s (Frodo’s) conversation with Gandalf, written in autumn 1938, though with some contortion: ‘What a pity Bilbo did not stab the beastly creature when he said goodbye’ …. ‘What nonsense you do talk sometimes, Bingo …. Pity! It was pity that prevented him. And he could not do so, without doing wrong. It was against the rules. If he had done so he would not have had the ring, the ring would have had him at once’ (*The Return of the Shadow, p. 81). It is clear that Tolkien knew almost from the beginning that without pity and mercy being shown to Gollum, the quest would end in failure.
In the published text Frodo responds to Gandalf’s comment on Bilbo’s pity: ‘I am frightened; and I do not feel any pity for Gollum …. He deserves death.’ Gandalf points out that Frodo has not seen Gollum, and it may be that Gollum does deserve death; but
many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends. I have not much hope that Gollum can be cured before he dies, but there is a chance of it. And he is bound up with the fate of the Ring. My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end; and when that comes, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many – yours not least. In any case we [his captors] did not kill him: he is very old and very wretched. The Wood-elves have him in prison, but they treat him with such kindness as they can find in their wise hearts.
Already not only Bilbo, but Gandalf and the Wood-elves, have felt pity for Gollum. Because the Wood-elves did not have ‘the heart to keep him ever in dungeons under the earth’ (bk. II, ch. 2) Gollum was able to escape, and to play a part such as Gandalf foresaw.
When, in Book IV, Chapter 1, Frodo and Sam capture Gollum at the foot of the Emyn Muil and he begs for mercy, Frodo seems to hear the words spoken by Gandalf in their conversation at Bag End, and says: ‘I will not touch the creature. For now that I see him, I do pity him.’ Frodo’s pity for a while seems to bring about a change in Gollum. At the pool of Henneth Annûn Frodo is offered an easy way out as he approaches Gollum and hears his murmuring about the Precious, nasty hobbits, nasty Men: ‘We hates them …. Throttle them, precious.’
So it went on …. Frodo shivered, listening with pity and disgust. He wished it would stop, and that he never need hear that voice again. Anborn was not far behind. He could creep back and ask him to get the huntsmen to shoot …. Only one true shot, and Frodo would be rid of the miserable voice for ever. But no, Gollum had a claim on him now. The servant has a claim on the master for service, even service in fear. They would have foundered in the Dead Marshes but for Gollum. Frodo knew, too, somehow, quite clearly that Gandalf would not have wished it. [bk. IV, ch. 6]
Faramir, against the command that he slay any he find in Ithilien without leave, allows Frodo, for whom he feels ‘pity and honour’ (bk. IV, ch. 5), to continue on his journey. He also shows mercy (but perhaps not pity) in not killing Gollum, allowing him to leave with Frodo.
On Mount Doom Gollum attacks first Frodo and then Sam, and despite Gollum’s treachery, even Sam at last comes to feel pity for him:
It would be just to slay this treacherous, murderous creature, just and many times deserved; and also it seemed the only safe thing to do. But deep in his heart there was something that restrained him: he could not strike this thing lying in the dust, forlorn, ruinous, utterly wretched. He himself, though only for a little while, had borne the Ring, and now dimly he guessed the agony of Gollum’s shrivelled mind and body, enslaved to that Ring, unable to find peace or relief ever in life again. [bk. VI, ch. 3]
At the last, Frodo admits that but for Gollum, ‘I could not have destroyed the Ring. The Quest would have been in vain, even at the bitter end. So let us forgive him! For the Quest is achieved …’ (bk. VI, ch. 3).
After the publication of The Lord of the Rings some readers wrote to Tolkien commenting on the honour given to Frodo despite his ‘failure’. In a letter to Michael Straight, written probably at the end of 1955, Tolkien said that
the ‘salvation’ of the world and Frodo’s own ‘salvation’ is achieved by his previous pity and forgiveness of injury. At any point any prudent person would have told Frodo that Gollum would certainly betray him, and could rob him in the end. To ‘pity’ him, to forbear to kill him, was a piece of folly, or a mystical belief in the ultimate value-in-itself of pity and generosity even if disastrous in the world of time. He did rob him and injure him in the end – but by a ‘grace’, that last betrayal was at a precise juncture when the final evil deed was the most beneficial thing any one c[oul]d have done for Frodo! By a situation created by his ‘forgiveness’, he was saved himself, and relieved of his burden. [Letters, p. 234]
On 27 July 1956 he wrote to Amy Ronald:
It is possible for the good, even the saintly, to be subjected to a power of evil which is too great for them to overcome – in themselves. In this case the cause (not the ‘hero’) was triumphant because by the exercise of pity, mercy, and forgiveness of injury, a situation was produced in which all was redressed and disaster averted. Gandalf certainly foresaw this [in Book I, Chapter 2]. Of course, he did not mean to say that one must be merciful, for it may prove useful later – it would not then be mercy or pity, which are only truly present when contrary to prudence. Not ours to plan! But we are assured that we must be ourselves extravagantly generous, if we are to hope for the extravagant generosity which the slightest easing of, or escape from, the consequences of our own follies and errors represents. And that mercy does sometimes occur in this life. [Letters, pp. 252–3]
In a draft letter to Mrs Eileen Elgar in September 1963, Tolkien explained his thoughts on
that strange element in the World that we call Pity or Mercy, which is also an absolute requirement in moral judgement (since it is present in the Divine nature). In its highest exercise it belongs to God. For finite judges of imperfect knowledge it must lead us to the use of two different scales of ‘morality’. To ourselves we must present the absolute ideal without compromise, for we do not know our own limits of natural strength (+ grace), and if we do not aim at the highest we shall certainly fall short of the utmost that we could achieve. To others, in any case of which we know enough to make a judgement, we must apply a scale tempered by ‘mercy’: that is, since we can with good will without the bias inevitable in judgements of ourselves, we must estimate the limits of another’s strength and weigh this against the force of particular circumstances. [Letters, p. 326]
There are other examples of mercy and pity in The Lord of the Rings; indeed, the opponents of Sauron generally seem eager to offer mercy to all except Orcs. Wormtongue, who has betrayed his king, is allowed to depart unhindered by both Théoden and Gandalf. After the Battle of Helm’s Deep, the hillmen beg for mercy; the Rohirrim disarm them, set them to
