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.

Now, I was behind the hedge this evening on the Road west of Bree, when four hobbits came out of the Downlands. I need not repeat all that they said to old Bombadil or to one another, but one thing interested me. Please remember, said one of them, that the name Baggins must not be mentioned. I am Mr. Underhill, if any name must be given. That interested me so much that I followed them here. I slipped over the gate just behind them.

Most readers assume the various lurking shadows in Book I are the Nazgul, or in one case Strider. That one of them might have been Gollum is an intriguing and original idea. The biggest conundrum that sets up is how he got to Moria - inside the magically closed doors - before the Fellowship did. It's possible, as I think about it, that the key is the day they arrive in Hollin, when the sun shines on them and warms them for the first time since they left Rivendell. Knowing that Gollum loathes and fears the sun, we might assume he was driven away from the Ring out of desperation, and sought the 'roots' of the mountains (just as he did when he first got the Ring) while the Company was attempting the pass of Caradhras.

How did he pass the doors of the West Gate? Another puzzler. My only guess is that he was desperate for fresh fruit by then, and much as stranded prospectors in the Old West are said to have gasped "Water! water!" as they crawled across the salt pans, so Gollum may have crawled up to the giant holly trees croaking "Melon! melon!" and - much to his surprise, no doubt - opened the doors by accident.

It's all theory, of course, but that's what the Reading Room is for!