Now that I think about it, by lopping off the head of the Great Goblin, did Gandalf end up delaying the goblins' attack by causing confusion in the chain of command, or did he just provoke them? For some reason, I got the impression that the goblins would've attacked eventually, though.

Tolkien's original conception of the ring was that it was just some benign little trinket that Gollum somehow managed to get his slimy hands on, so, yeah, it was vastly different from what it ended up being in the sequel, where it's unambiguously portrayed as a malignant force. In the second edition of "The Hobbit", Bilbo just happens to put his hand on the ring in the dark (the idea being that the ring has its own volition and I guess a magical ability to move as well) and tricks Gollum with a non-legit riddle, which I supposedly ends up balancing out since Gollum had no intention of honoring his half of the bet anyway.

When the Hobbit was published, Tolkien had no idea he was going to write LotR. He actually had to completely rewrite the riddle game between Bilbo and Gollum to make the influence of the ring consistent.

It is interesting how incredibly racist modern fantasy is. Elves, dwarves, trolls, orcs are always hating on each other for no good reason. It's all Tolkien's fault! The whole "Magic Ring makes you evil" thing fits pretty well with LOTR, but unfortunately, it's a total retcon.

"That is most of it, being a wizard--seeing and listening. The rest is technique." -- Schmendrick the Magician "The Last Unicorn" ;)