Lotr The Return Of The King Serial Code
tolkien had various ideas about how the great ring would be split in two at the beginning of his story, and of course we actually get to see this at the end. in the fellowship of the ring , gandalf explains to frodo that aragorn was sent to the undying lands (near the north pole) by the ainur. in the first age, the ainur came upon each other and fell in love. when they did this, the valar and maiar were destroyed and split in two, so only the ainur still exist. this happened before man came, but the valar decided that the ainur should create another race - mortal men - to take their place. the ainur also decided that this race should be allowed to choose between good and evil, which they called "filling their hearts with love of good or with fear of evil", but we get to see what happens when they corrupt mortals."
lotr the return of the king serial code
but as for the gollum situation, the book version of fellowship gives some hints as to what gollum will be up to in the show, and basically he has been captured by the elves and is being cared for by them. the point is that they need him for a certain purpose and bilbo, of course, is the big question for them. since he is the only possible hobbit who can open the secret door (the "stopper" in the title is being used here, referring to the part at the back of the hobbit house where bilbo found his burglar tools in chapter one. there is also a room inside called the "stopper room" which is apparently where bilbo hid things when the police came to raid his house). the important thing, however, is that the elves want to keep bilbo alive - and bilbo can't go on with his plan, because if the dwarves get back control of the city they will try and kill him. the elves don't want the dwarves to have the ring, as they would then have control over that, and are willing to protect bilbo for the moment and take him back to his home. in return, bilbo, as a kind of gift, sends a copy of his adventures from the hobbit into the book with instructions that the elves should pass it on to hobbits and that hobbits should go looking for him if they see a ring with a red stone (anyone that has actually read the hobbit knows what i'm talking about, but i think it would be relevant to the series to see the book version of that). so its like the elves have a copy of bilbobs account of his adventures, which they will pass on to future generations of hobbits to put into a book and wait for when the day comes that they need it.