Gollum The Hungry Ghost

Gollum in ‘Lord of the Rings’ in pursuit of the One Ring
is almost the perfect personification of a hungry ghost.

Consumed by greed, his essence of being is nothing but craving,
at the expense of everything else, including his life eventually,
as he plummets into the lava of Mount Doom while reaching for it.

The mountain didn’t cause his doom.
His craving did.

5 thoughts on “Gollum The Hungry Ghost

  1. From another angle, I would see the One Ring as ‘Mara’, which (who) draws on the greed of the Gollum – or any other Ringbearer – such that he/she/it eventually becomes evil.

  2. Then again, we only need to conquer our inner Mara like Frodo and any outer Mara like the ring would pose no threat!

    :666:

  3. Haha true! I remember in the book it is mentioned that the hobbits are chosen as Ringbearers, because they are generally kind and honest in nature. However, one will indeed require strong determination to not succumb to the inner Mara, or else the outer Mara will have the opportunity to seize on the person’s inner greed – like how Bilbo had difficulty letting go and passing the ring to Frodo nearing the end of his life.

  4. Need to remember too…
    that Gollum was…
    a Hobbit!

    Gollum was a ‘failed’ Hobbit,
    who lost to his inner demons
    and became ‘demonic’ in person.
    Frodo is his opposite.
    who conquered his inner demons
    and became heroic in the end.

  5. Oh ya! Forgot that 😛
    Ok, Frodo shall be an example of how we CAN conquer our inner Mara and the outer Mara (:

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