Gollum

Sméagol

Gandalf tells Frodo the story as he pieced it together from Gollum's own mumbling. Long ago, near the Gladden Fields where the river runs into the Anduin, there lived a clever, quiet folk who loved the river and made boats of reeds. A grandmother, stern and wise in old lore, ruled the most respected family among them. Its most inquisitive and curious-minded member was called Sméagol.¹

I guess they were of hobbit-kind; akin to the fathers of the fathers of the Stoors.

Sméagol was interested in roots and beginnings. He dived into pools, burrowed under trees, and tunnelled into green mounds, and never looked up at the hill-tops or the flowers. His curiosity looked always downward.¹

The birthday present

One day about the year 2463, on Sméagol's birthday, he went fishing in a boat with his friend Déagol. Déagol was pulled into the river by a great fish, and in the mud of the riverbed he found a gold ring. Sméagol asked for it as a birthday present. Déagol said he had given Sméagol a present already, and would not give it up; Sméagol strangled him and took it.^1,2

Nobody found out what had happened to Déagol. But the Ring answered Sméagol's character exactly. It made him invisible, and he used it to find out secrets and turn them to crooked and malicious uses. His sight and hearing grew sharp for whatever was hurtful. He became a thief and a mutterer, and gurgled in his throat; his family called him Gollum, and his grandmother drove him out.¹

He wandered alone, weeping at the hardness of the world. The Sun became hateful to him. He thought he might find secrets at the roots of the mountains, and around 2470 he crept into a cave under the Misty Mountains and vanished from knowledge.^1,2

Under the mountains

He lived on a slimy island of rock in the middle of a cold underground lake, paddling a little boat with his large flat feet, catching blind fish with his long fingers, and strangling any goblin that strayed too near the water. His great pale eyes gave off their own light. He talked to himself, because he had no one else to talk to, and he called himself “my precious” as he called the Ring.^3,1

The Ring kept him alive far beyond his natural span, but gave him nothing else. Gandalf is explicit that it does not add life, only stretches it; Gollum's whole mind was given over to it.¹

He hated it and loved it, as he hated and loved himself.

Gandalf also saw what was left. Gollum's mind had a little corner of its own in which light came through a chink, light out of the past, and he could still remember a time when he had been happy.¹

Riddles in the dark

In 2941 the Ring abandoned him. It slipped from his finger in a tunnel and lay there until Bilbo Baggins, lost and alone after escaping from the goblins, put his hand on it. Shortly after, Bilbo reached the lake.^3,1,2

Gollum challenged him to a riddle-game: if Bilbo lost, Gollum would eat him; if he won, Gollum would show him the way out.³

The riddle-game was sacred and of immense antiquity, and even wicked creatures were afraid to cheat when they played at it.

They traded riddles until Bilbo, groping in his pocket, asked aloud “What have I got in my pocket?” It was not a fair riddle, and Gollum protested, but he accepted it, demanded three guesses, and failed all three. Gollum went to fetch his ring, meaning to kill Bilbo with it, found it gone, and guessed the truth.³

Bilbo, the Ring now on his finger, could have killed him as he blocked the passage to the goblin back door. He did not.³

A sudden understanding, a pity mixed with horror, welled up in Bilbo's heart.

He leapt over Gollum and escaped, pursued by a cry of rage.³

Thief, thief, thief! Baggins! We hates it, we hates it, we hates it for ever!

Two versions of the story

The scene above is the 1951 text. In the first edition of 1937, Gollum promised Bilbo a present if he won, went to fetch his magic ring to give him, found it missing, apologised, and showed Bilbo the way out. The Ring was not yet the One, and Gollum was not yet its slave.^6,7

Once Tolkien knew the Ring was Sauron's, that Gollum was impossible: no one who owned the One Ring would offer it as a prize. He drafted a new version of the chapter, and to his surprise found it adopted in the second edition. Inside the story he reconciled the two by making the first version Bilbo's lie, told to strengthen his claim to the Ring, which Gandalf later took as the first sign of its hold on him.^3,8,7

The hunt

For a few years he brooded, then in 2944 he left the mountains to hunt for the thief. Following a trail he could not quite pick up, he drifted south and east, and around 2980 he reached the borders of Mordor, where he came to know Shelob in her lair above the pass of Cirith Ungol and, it is said, bowed down to her and worshipped her.^2,9

Some time later he was taken in Mordor and questioned. Sauron learned from him that the Ring had been found, and the words “Shire” and “Baggins”. In 3017 he was released, perhaps to be followed to the Ring, and Aragorn caught him in the Dead Marshes and dragged him north to Mirkwood. There Gandalf questioned him.^1,10,2,11

The Wood-elves of Thranduil kept him prisoner, but out of kindness let him climb a great tree under guard. On 20 June 3018 Orcs attacked, and he escaped. Legolas came to the Council of Elrond to confess it.^11,5

Following the Fellowship

He found the Fellowship in Moria, where Frodo heard the soft padding of feet behind them in the dark and saw two pale points of light. He followed them out, through Lothlórien's borders, and down the Anduin, paddling on a log behind their boats.^12,13

When Frodo and Sam struck out alone from Amon Hen, he trailed them into the hills of the Emyn Muil. There they caught him. Frodo, remembering Gandalf's words about pity, spared him, and Gollum swore by the Precious to serve its master. Sam's Elven rope burned him like fire.¹⁴

Sméagol and Gollum

As their guide through the Dead Marshes and to the Black Gate, he was at times almost companionable. Frodo called him Sméagol, his old name, and treated him with courtesy, and the old self seemed to answer. Sam overheard him arguing with himself, Sméagol in one voice and Gollum in another, over whether to keep his promise; Sam privately named them Slinker and Stinker.¹⁵

Interpretation Readers often call this a split personality. The text treats it as a struggle within one wretched creature, and Gollum's last surviving loyalty, to the master who holds the Precious, as something the Ring itself had bent.¹⁵

At the Black Gate he begged Frodo not to take the Ring to Sauron, and offered another way into Mordor, by the stairs above Minas Morgul. In Ithilien he caught rabbits for them, and was disgusted when Sam stewed them.^16,17

The Forbidden Pool

At Henneth Annûn on the night of 7 March, Faramir's men found Gollum fishing in the Forbidden Pool, where trespass meant death. To save his life Frodo called him down into an ambush, and Gollum took it as a betrayal by the master he had trusted. Faramir released him into Frodo's care, but warned Frodo that the pass Gollum was leading them to was a place of evil.^18,5

On the stairs

Near the top of the stairs of Cirith Ungol, Gollum crept away to Shelob's lair and came back to find the hobbits asleep. He looked at Frodo, and something changed: he stretched out a hand and touched Frodo's knee, almost a caress. For a moment, the narrator says, he looked like an old weary hobbit shrunken by years far beyond his time.¹⁹

Then Sam woke, saw him pawing at his master, and spoke roughly. The moment passed, the green glint came back into Gollum's eyes, and he led them into Shelob's tunnel.¹⁹

Tolkien thought this the most tragic moment in the whole story. In a long letter of 1963 he imagined what might have happened had it gone the other way: a Gollum whose repentance held, who at the end would have seized the Ring for Frodo's sake and gone into the fire with it, saving his master and himself.²⁰

Shelob's lair

He led them into the tunnels and abandoned them in the dark, hoping that Shelob would kill them and throw away the bones and the clothes, and that he would get the Precious back. When Shelob attacked, Gollum sprang on Sam from behind; Sam threw him off and he fled. Frodo was stung and taken by Orcs on 13 March.^9,5

The end

He followed Frodo and Sam across Mordor. On the slopes of Mount Doom he attacked, and Frodo, shaking him off, spoke with a power that seemed not his own.⁴

Begone, and trouble me no more! If you touch me ever again, you shall be cast yourself into the Fire of Doom.

Sam stood over him with his sword, and could not strike. He saw the thing lying in the dust, forlorn, ruinous and utterly wretched, and understood, having carried the Ring himself for a little while, something of what had made it. He let it go.⁴

A few minutes later, in the Sammath Naur, Frodo claimed the Ring and put it on. Gollum fell on the invisible hobbit, bit off his finger, and danced on the brink of the chasm holding his treasure aloft, until he stepped too far and fell.⁴

Precious, precious, precious! My Precious! O my Precious!

Afterwards Frodo asked Sam to forgive him.⁴

But for him, Sam, I could not have destroyed the Ring. The Quest would have been in vain, even at the bitter end. So let us forgive him!

It is the fulfilment of what Gandalf had said in Bag End less than a year before.¹

My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end; and when that comes, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many – yours not least.

What Tolkien meant by him

In his letters Tolkien insisted that the end of the Quest was a matter of grace, not of Gollum's merit or Frodo's failure: the mercy shown to Gollum, against all prudence, was what made the destruction of the Ring possible. Gollum is the clearest picture in the book of what the Ring would have made of Frodo, and the evidence that pity, more than strength, decided the war.^20,1

Pity? It was Pity that stayed his hand. Pity, and Mercy: not to strike without need.

Timeline

1. T.A. c. 2463Déagol finds the Ring; Sméagol murders him on his birthday.^2,1
2. T.A. c. 2470Driven out, Sméagol hides under the Misty Mountains.²
3. T.A. 2941The Ring leaves him. Bilbo wins the riddle-game and escapes with it.^2,3
4. T.A. 2944Gollum leaves the mountains to hunt for the thief.²
5. T.A. c. 2980He reaches Mordor and comes to know Shelob.²
6. T.A. 3017Released from Mordor; captured by Aragorn in the Dead Marshes and taken to Thranduil.²
7. T.A. 3018, 20 JuneEscapes from the Wood-elves during an Orc attack.⁵
8. T.A. 3019, Jan.–Feb.Follows the Fellowship through Moria and down the Anduin.^12,13
9. T.A. 3019, late Feb.Caught by Frodo and Sam in the Emyn Muil; swears by the Precious.¹⁴
10. T.A. 3019, 7–8 Mar.Taken by Faramir's men at the Forbidden Pool.^5,18
11. T.A. 3019, 12–13 Mar.Leads Frodo and Sam into Shelob's lair.⁵
12. T.A. 3019, 25 Mar.Takes the Ring from Frodo and falls into the Crack of Doom.^5,4

Names

Questions readers ask

Was Gollum a hobbit?

Of hobbit kind, Gandalf guesses: his people were akin to the ancestors of the Stoors, one of the three strains of hobbits, who lived by rivers and used boats. Frodo resists the idea at first; Gandalf points to the riddle-game, which both of them understood, and to Gollum's memories.^1,22

Could he have been saved?

Tolkien thought he came very close, on the stairs of Cirith Ungol, and that Sam's harsh words at that moment helped push him back. He imagined a repentant Gollum who would still have taken the Ring at the end, but for Frodo's sake.^20,19

Did Gollum mean to fall?

The text gives no sign of it. He was looking at the Ring, dancing with joy, and stepped too far. Frodo's curse on the slope had foretold it, but nothing suggests Gollum chose it.⁴

On screen

Where the best-known adaptation departs from the books. Nothing in this section is evidence for the books themselves.

Andy Serkis's performance-captured Gollum in Jackson's films made the character one of the most recognisable in cinema. The films open The Return of the King with Sméagol's murder of Déagol, which the book tells in retrospect.^23,1

In the film Gollum turns Frodo against Sam over the lembas and Frodo sends Sam home. There is no such scene in the book: Sam is never parted from Frodo until Shelob.^24,19,9

Sources

Citations name the chapter rather than the page, so they work in any edition. The colour of each note shows what kind of source it is.

• Published story The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as Tolkien published them.
• Appendices Tolkien's own appendices to The Lord of the Rings.
• Edited posthumously The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and Tolkien's late writings on the Elder Days, assembled by Christopher Tolkien from his father's papers.
• Tolkien's letters Tolkien explaining his own work. Authoritative on intent, but private and sometimes provisional.
• Drafts Earlier versions Tolkien changed or abandoned. Evidence of how the story grew, not of what is true in it.
• Scholarship Biographers and editors writing about Tolkien.
• Adaptation Films and other adaptations. Never evidence for the books.

1. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, ch. 2, “The Shadow of the Past”
2. Appendices The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, “The Third Age”
3. Published story The Hobbit, ch. 5, “Riddles in the Dark”
4. Published story The Return of the King, Book VI, ch. 3, “Mount Doom”
5. Appendices The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, “The Great Years”
6. Drafts The Hobbit, first edition (1937), ch. 5, “Riddles in the Dark”
7. Scholarship The Annotated Hobbit, ed. Douglas A. Anderson, notes to ch. 5
8. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Prologue, 4, “Of the Finding of the Ring”
9. Published story The Two Towers, Book IV, ch. 9, “Shelob's Lair”
10. Edited posthumously Unfinished Tales, Part Three, IV, “The Hunt for the Ring”
11. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, ch. 2, “The Council of Elrond”
12. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, ch. 4, “A Journey in the Dark”
13. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, ch. 9, “The Great River”
14. Published story The Two Towers, Book IV, ch. 1, “The Taming of Sméagol”
15. Published story The Two Towers, Book IV, ch. 2, “The Passage of the Marshes”
16. Published story The Two Towers, Book IV, ch. 3, “The Black Gate is Closed”
17. Published story The Two Towers, Book IV, ch. 4, “Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit”
18. Published story The Two Towers, Book IV, ch. 6, “The Forbidden Pool”
19. Published story The Two Towers, Book IV, ch. 8, “The Stairs of Cirith Ungol”
20. Tolkien's letters Letter 246, to Eileen Elgar (1963)
21. Appendices The Lord of the Rings, Appendix F, II, “On Translation”
22. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Prologue, 1, “Concerning Hobbits”
23. Adaptation Peter Jackson's film trilogy (2001–2003), The Two Towers (2002); The Return of the King (2003)
24. Adaptation Peter Jackson's film trilogy (2001–2003), The Return of the King (2003)