Writing Prompt

I was asked and now the world will know (even more) my obsession with LOTR

Good Day All,

Dead Reckoning Collective contacted me a few days ago. They are putting together a series of writing prompts and asked if I had one to contribute. Point and fact, I did—I do. It’s one that I have been contemplating as the days get shorter.

Here it is: what I submitted to DRC, but I will also include in here where the writing would likely take me. To wit:

What if Gollum had survived? Imagine that The War of the Ring ended differently and the oldest hobbit in Middle-earth went with Frodo and Sam back to the Shire? What would his life be like now? What is his next story?

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My thoughts: We saw how the ring affected Frodo and Bilbo for the rest of their lives. No one was twisted by the ring quite like Gollum, though. If he were to be Sméagol once more, living in the Shire, I can see a flurry of curious hobbit children, wary parents, perhaps knocking hobbit historians; bent on learning from an ancestor as we would if us talking to a Civil War vet was somehow feasible. I see an awful struggle, and I see loneliness, horrid loneliness, and I wonder if Sméagol would be crushed by a level of remorse on par with the afflictions of the ring. Imagine the old, old Stoor; drooping low, sweeping the leaves from the doorstep of his provided hole. I see his eyes as sad, and it makes me think of whether some addicts become so ruined that there is no coming back. Or maybe he proves me wrong. Maybe his final years are a sort of Hobbit version of Ebenezer Scrooge. I’d like to see that, though I’m afraid I can’t summon the optimism to write it. Maybe a task for another fan.