Tyler's Tolkien Companion

Sméagol-Gollum

Undoubtedly the most tragic of all the personal tales associated with the history of the Great Ring was that of the creature known as Sméagol, or Gollum.

Originally a lowly member of a family of Stoors (Hobbits), he became an early victim of the malevolent power of the Ring, which he bore for nearly five hundred years of his long and miserable life, unwilling - and unable - to relinquish it. Yet in the end the Ruling Ring itself discarded him - and the loss of his greatest, indeed his only treasure proved the stimulus which finally caused him to leave his long-secret refuge under the Misty Mountains; and in recovering his Precious at the last, he brought about its destruction as well as his own, and so was reunited with it forever.

The tale of Gollum's long and terrible odyssey has been recounted at length in the Red Book - in both of the major sections of the narrative, for both Bilbo and Frodo Baggins encountered him during their adventures. This entry will accordingly confine itself to recording those details of Gollum's ancestry which lie outside the main tale. He was born in the twenty-fourth century of the Third Age and was in origin closely akin to Hobbit-kind, for his family were of Stoorish blood but had returned to the vales of Anduin after dwelling in Eriador, unlike most of their race. They dwelt at that time not far from the banks of the river Anduin, near the Gladden Fields.

This young Stoor was named Sméagol (orig. Trahald), which means 'burrowing-in'; and, like most of the clan, he made his living by fishing in the Great River. And it was while on a fishing expedition that Sméagol chanced to discover the Great Ring - or rather, his cousin Déagol found the Ring on the river-bed where it had lain undisturbed for over two thousand years. The Ring-spell had an instant effect on Sméagol, who promptly murdered his cousin to gain possession of the golden thing.

Taking it back to his little community, Sméagol soon discovered the Ring's more obvious properties, which he used in small, mean ways. He rapidly became unpopular among his kinfolk, not least for the habit he developed of making unpleasant glottal noises in his throat (from which he gained the name Gollum), and in the end his furtive ways and sneaking tricks brought about his expulsion from the family hole.

Wandering north, alone and miserable, he chanced to follow a stream to its source deep under the Misty Mountains; for Gollum had always hated and feared the light of Sun and Moon, and it seemed to him that under the bowels of the Mountains he would be safe forever from such things. In his underground caverns beneath the Orc-mines of the High Pass he made his home. And there he remained for many lives. For from the first the terrible power of the Ruling Ring was on him, though to Gollum it gave power according to his measure: long life it granted, but little else (save the power of invisibility) and for many centuries he eked out a miserable existence, growing thin and unnaturally strong as his years lengthened beyond their natural measure - but never 'fading' or becoming a wraith, for in the endless darkness he found little need to wear 'the Precious' (as he termed the Ring). And so, although almost wholly ruined, Gollum was slow to fall completely under the power of the Ring.

Such was the misshapen evil-minded creature encountered by Bilbo Baggins in the year 2941 Third Age, almost five hundred years after the finding of the Ring and the murder of Déagol; and with that meeting the Great Ring chose for itself a new bearer, for it was plain that as long as it stayed with Gollum it would never again leave the cave under the Misty Mountains. Bilbo acquired the Ring and Gollum was left desolate in the dark. But three years afterwards, his desire finally overcame his fear and he ventured forth into the world to begin his long search for the 'thief' of the Precious.

During the next seventy years Gollum hunted the length and breadth of Wilderland, being captured at last by Sauron while prying on the very borders of Mordor. There he was put to the Question - and in this way the Lord of the Rings at last learned the truth concerning the whereabouts of his long-lost treasure. And so began the War of the Ring.

Released from Mordor with instructions to hunt for the Ring, Gollum finally located the Fellowship while they were passing through Moria, and from that time onwards he was almost continually within sight of the Ring-bearer and his burden, from Lothlorien down the length of the Great River, across the Emyn Muil and into Mordor itself. Yet it wasn't till later acknowledged by the Ring-bearer that, but for Gollum's self-serving treachery (oddly mixed with a genuine devotion to Frodo), the Quest could not have been achieved at all: for at the very last stroke, the power of the Ring overcame Frodo, and without the (ill-intentioned) intercession of Gollum at the brink of the Cracks of Doom, there can be little doubt that Sauron would have prevailed.

In this way Gollum atoned for all the evils committed during his long life, and at last found the peace his long trials had earned him.