The Hunt for Gollum (The Hunt For Gollum)

At the end of the third age Middle-Earth was a land oppressed by shadow.

The people of the north Kingdom were scattered, the descendants of Kings forgotten

reduced to Rangers wandering in the wild.

But the darkness of Mordor was soon to spread over all lands

and set great and terrible events in motion.

For the lost Ring of Power had re-awoken,

its evil master Sauron was seeking it.

The One Ring to rule them all.

For five hundred years it had remained out of his sight and beyond his reach...

but there was another who also sought the Ring.

A creature who had long treasured it deep under the mountains

and been consumed by its evil.

His heart was tortured with longing for what he had lost

and with hatred for the thief who took it...

Bilbo Baggins

The Rangers have doubled their watch as you instructed.

Is it still safe?

Yes,

for the time being.

The enemy does not yet know that the Ring has been found.

That is well.

The matter is more complicated.

I have made a grave error,

I overlooked something important,

something dangerous.

It concerns the former owner of the Ring.

Gollum.

How he came by it, I do not know

but he's murderously protective of it;

and now, he has left his cave, his mind bent on recovering it.

Gollum knows, doesn't he Gandalf?

He knows the location of the Ring?

Yes.

Unfortunately our secret is no longer safe,

the foolish Hobbit revealed his name.

It should have been destroyed.

But it was not.

I will go.

I will find him.

Thank you Aragorn.

The road will not be easy,

but you have the foresight of your people.

If you can't find him...

no one can.

Elendil.

Forefather.

The future is hidden from me.

Give me strength when the time comes.

You are the heir of Elendil.

My friend, battle is coming.

Middle-Earth cannot long withstand the power that now rises in the East.

We are on the eve of a new age

for which there may be no dawn.

Who knows whither he has crawled these long years past?

And how so small a creature has come to risk the hopes of so many?

Your name and your purpose.

I am a Ranger of Arnor. I swear allegiance to the Seven Stars and Seven Stones...

And the one White Tree.

You're a long way from Arnor, Ranger

and you speak the password of the Dunedain, yet I know you not.

I am Arithir, son of Argonathen

sent to gather news of the East.

Then we are kinsmen from afar.

I am Strider.

I have heard your name...

friend.

These lands will not be safe much longer,

raiding Orcs prowl the shores of Anduin, plundering the villages by night

soon they will even be this side of the mountains.

The servants of the enemy multiply as his strength increases

alas, there are now so few of our kin.

What of your journey?

I track a creature

a spy of sorts,

small in size,

yet cunning.

I have seen new breeds of Orc but

they grow larger and stronger, not smaller.

This is no Orc.

Its tracks are like those of a Hobbit.

It must not fall into the wrong hands.

This may be of no use but...

I have heard rumours,

whisperings of a nameless fear.

In the outlying villages they speak of a ghost that drinks blood,

a horror that lurks in the trees snatching a sleeping child from a cot,

a fresh fish from an open window.

The villagers lock their doors tight against the dark.

Where did you hear this?

In ithilien

but I have also heard rumours as far as the borders of Mirkwood.

Oi.

If you ask me it's a false alarm,

there ain't no tracks and there ain't no man-warrior at all.

Goblok says there's trouble

so look out or you will get what's coming to you.

Goblok.

Goblok's just meat from the mines,

big and stupid.

We should be preparing for the war.

Forget this stinking raid.

Look out for Goblok, he ain't just meat.

Meat. I want fresh meat.

My guts are howling I am so hungry.

There's something tasty about,

I can smell it.

We will get ourselves a nice juicy villager,

now stop your moaning or I will ring your neck, you scrawny rat.