The Fellowship of the Ring

Your favorite of the trilogy

Now I bet that a lot of people didn't prefer this book just because it wasn't as 'flashy' or as thrilling as the later 2 but personally I found this book was my favorite. I loved the descriptions of the shire and their initial escape from the shire and journey was probably my favorite part of the ENTIRE trilogy.

Just curious what others think

Gollum appearences as early as the Brandywine Ferry.

There is an understanding, or assumption, that Gollum started tracking the Fellowship since Moria. The assumption being he escaped Mordor, and entered Moria from the eastern entrance and there got lost, finding the fellowship and the ring inside as they passed through and following them to the exit.

Here is an excert which makes me believe this assumption, which was made by either Gandalf or Aragorn, was wrong.

An excert from the points at which the hobbits have just crossed the Brandywine crossing via ferry, just on the borders of the shire:

The four Hobbits stepped off the ferry. Merry was tying it up, and Pippin was already leading the pony up the path, when Sam (who had been looking back, as if to take farewell of the Shire) said in a hoarse whisper:
"Look back, Mr. Frodo! Do you see anything?"
On the far stage, under the distant lamps, they could just make out a figure: it looked like a dark black bundle left behind. But as they looked it seemed to move and sway this way and that, as if searching the ground. It then crawled, or went crouching, back into the gloom beyond the lamps.
"What in the Shire is that?" exclaimed Merry.
"Something that is following us," Said Frodo.

Another excert 150 pages onwards after they have been granted entrance to Bree by the gatekeeper:

The man stared after the Hobbits for a moment, and then he went back to his house. As soon as his back was turned, a dark figure climbed quickly in over the gate and melted into the shadows of the village street.

Any discussion on these moments would be good, as I'm sure the keywords used describe Gollum completely. I beleive Tolkien is simply playing the reader at that stage to accept these figures as dark riders, yet on a 2nd read, they are clearly understood as Gollum. Yet if this is true, has Tolkien granted the wise Gandalf to be wrong about Gollums whearabouts, or the keen senses of Strider to be fooled? If anyone can remember exactly who claims Gollum has been following them since Moria due to getting lost in the mines after escaping Mordor, Please say, especially if it wasnt either Gandalf or Aragorn!