'Yes, long and weary,' said
Gandalf, 'but not without profit. For one thing, the tale he told of his loss agreed with
that which Bilbo has now told openly for the first time; but that mattered little, since I
had already guessed it. But I learned then first that Gollum's ring came out of the Great
River nigh to the Gladden Fields. And I learned also that he had possessed it long. Many
lives of his small kind. The power of the ring had lengthened his years far beyond their
span; but that power only the Great Rings wield.'
Back
