GOLLUM

'Gollum' is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. He was first introduced in the author's fantasy novel ''The Hobbit'', and later became an important supporting character in its sequel, ''The Lord of the Rings''.
Originally known as 'Sméagol', he was later named ''Gollum'' after the guttural choking coughing noise he made in his throat. His life was extended far beyond its natural limits by the effects of possessing the One Ring. His one desire was to possess the Ring which had enslaved him. He pursued the ring for 76 years after having lost it to Bilbo Baggins.

Contents

Appearances

Literature

Adaptations

Film

Stage

Radio

Comics

In other media

Physical appearance

Characteristics

Name

Pronunciation

References

External links

Appearances

Literature

''The Fellowship of the Ring'', the first volume of ''The Lord of the Rings'', explains that Gollum was once named Sméagol, a member of the secluded branch of the early Stoorish Hobbits. Sméagol spent the early years of his life with his extended family under a matriarch, his grandmother.^[1] On Sméagol's birthday, he and his relative^[1] Déagol went fishing in the Gladden Fields north of Lothlórien. There, Déagol found the Ring after being pulled into the water by a large fish. Sméagol demanded it as a birthday present and strangled Déagol when he refused to hand it over. Sméagol accordingly used the Ring for thieving, spying and various nefarious deeds. He was soon banished by his people, and forced to find a home in a cave in the Misty Mountains.^[1] The Ring's malign influence twisted his body and mind, and prolonged his life well beyond its natural limits; the appendices of ''The Return of the King'' explain that he lived for nearly 600 years. He called the Ring his "precious" or his "birthday present," the latter as a justification for killing Déagol, a crime that haunted Gollum for the rest of his life.
He lurked in the Misty Mountains for over 400 years, living on raw fish, which he caught from his small boat, and juvenile goblins who strayed too far from the stronghold of the Great Goblin. He found Elven food repulsive. Over the years, his eyes adapted to the dark; Tolkien describes them as lamp-like, shining with a sickly pale light, yellow when calm, green when agitated or angry.
During his centuries under the Ring's influence, he developed a sort of split personality: "Sméagol" still vaguely remembered things like friendship and love, while "Gollum" was a slave to the Ring and would kill anyone who tried to take it. In ''The Two Towers'', Samwise Gamgee named the good personality "Slinker" (for his fawning, eager-to-please demeanour), and the bad personality "Stinker" (for obvious reasons). The two personalities often quarrelled when Gollum talked to himself (as Tolkien put it in ''The Hobbit'', "through never having anyone else to speak to") and had a love/hate relationship. As Sam observed, Gollum's eyes glowed yellow when the Sméagol persona was in control and green when the Gollum persona was dominant.
As elaborated in ''The Hobbit'', Bilbo Baggins stumbled upon the subterranean lake on which Gollum lived and found the Ring. Gollum had lost it in the network of caves leading to the lake, although (according to ''The Hobbit'') in fact it is more appropriate to say that the Ring abandoned ''him'', for it was known to have a will of its own; as Gandalf said in ''The Fellowship of the Ring'', it looked after itself, trying to get back to its master, Sauron. After the famous Riddle Game, during which Gollum was unaware of his loss, he pretended to want to show Bilbo the promised way out but plotted to murder him. When he went to get his "birthday present", however, he found that it was gone. He suddenly realised the answer to Bilbo's last riddle — ''"What have I got in my pocket?"'' — and flew into a rage. Bilbo inadvertently discovered the Ring's power of invisibility as he ran, allowing him to follow Gollum to a back entrance of the cave system. There, Bilbo at first thought to kill Gollum, but was overcome with pity, so he jumped over him to escape. As Bilbo ran, Gollum cried out, ''"Thief! Thief, Baggins! We hates it, we hates it, we hates it forever!"''
In the first edition of ''The Hobbit'', Gollum did not appear quite as wretched or as bound to the Ring. Tolkien revised this characterisation to fit the concept of the Ruling Ring developed during the writing of ''The Lord of the Rings''. Tolkien then explained that the version given in the first edition was a lie that Bilbo made up to tell the Dwarves and Gandalf.
As Gandalf explained in ''The Fellowship of the Ring'', Gollum left the Mountains and pursued Bilbo a few years later, but the trail was cold. He made his way into Mordor, where he met the monstrous spider Shelob and became her spy, worshipping her and bringing her food. He was eventually captured by Sauron's forces and tortured, but he revealed only the words 'Baggins' and 'Shire'. His testimony alerted the Dark Lord of Mordor to the existence and significance of Hobbits in general and the Baggins family in particular. He was freed, but was caught by Gandalf and Aragorn, who interrogated him about the Ring and placed him in the care of the Silvan Elves living in Thranduil's kingdom in Mirkwood. He then escaped into Moria.
In ''The Lord of the Rings'', Gollum came across and secretly started following the Fellowship of the Ring in Moria, and was spotted or heard by Frodo Baggins (nephew and heir of the hated Bilbo, as well as the Bearer of the Ring) and Gandalf on several occasions. At the end of the book, the Fellowship was divided when Gandalf seemingly perished while battling a Balrog on the Bridge of Khazad-dûm, and Gollum continued trailing the remaining members. He pursued them to Lórien without their knowing - although many times Frodo heard what the other members of the Fellowship insisted were merely echoes of their own footsteps that Frodo took to be more than what they were because it was pitch black in the woods and they were all shaken by the horrors of Moria. Frodo glanced over his shoulder to make ''sure'' that no one was following them, and saw two eyes- which he at first mistook for lanterns- bobbing in time with footsteps. When Gollum realised that Frodo had spotted him, he turned off the road and continued tailing them. Later, when the group had left Lórien, Gollum followed their boats down the river Anduin, floating on a log, and was again spotted by Frodo and actually tried to attack him while they were camped on the shores of the river. Frodo was keeping watch while the others slept, and was frozen with fear when he saw Gollum climbing onto the shore, and was saved in the nick of time by Aragorn, who was not asleep, and chased Gollum off. Gollum followed them all to Rauros, then pursued Frodo and Sam across the Emyn Muil when they struck out on their own towards Mordor.
In ''The Two Towers'', Gollum confronted them in Emyn Muil and nearly strangled Sam. Frodo subdued him, however, by threatening to cut his throat with his sword, Sting. Frodo tied an Elvish rope around Gollum's ankle as a leash, but the mere touch of the rope- enchanted with the Elves' magic- pained him. Taking pity on the wretched creature, just like Bilbo once did, Frodo made Gollum swear to help them. Agreeing to the oath, Gollum swore by the "precious" itself, and Frodo released him. The unlikely company, guided by Gollum, made their way to the Black Gate, the entrance to Mordor.
Frodo's kindness brought out the "Sméagol" personality, and he made at least some effort to keep his promise. The two formed a strange sort of bond from both having been Ringbearers; it is implied that, in Gollum, Frodo saw his possible future, and wanted to save him so he could save himself. Sam, however, despised Gollum upon sight, and often warned Frodo of the creature's deception and slipperiness.
When they reached the Black Gate and found it to be well-guarded, Gollum told them not to go that way; he knew of another entrance into Mordor. Along the way, Frodo and Sam were accosted by Faramir - Gollum slipped away uncaught but not unseen and followed them. When Frodo allowed Faramir to briefly take Gollum prisoner, however, Gollum felt betrayed and his "bad" personality took control. Faramir found out that Gollum was taking them to Cirith Ungol (the ''Spider's Pass''), and warned Frodo and Sam of the evil of that place, as well as the treachery he sensed in Gollum.
Frodo, Sam, and Gollum left Faramir and began crossing the pass of Cirith Ungol in the border-mountains of the Ephel Dúath. Gollum visited the giant spider Shelob, planning to betray the Hobbits to her and then get the Ring for himself. When he returned, the Hobbits were asleep, and the sight of Frodo sleeping nearly moved Gollum to repent. However, Sam woke up and spoke harshly to him, and the opportunity for redemption was lost. Gollum followed through with his plan and led Frodo and Sam into Shelob's Lair. There Frodo was bitten by the spider and taken prisoner by Orcs. He was taken into the Tower of Cirith Ungol.
In ''The Return of the King'', Sam rescued Frodo from the Tower. The two finally arrived, against all odds, at the volcano Orodruin, or Mount Doom. Gollum secretly followed them all the way, seeking a chance to surprise them and take the Ring. When Frodo and Sam had almost reached their destination, Gollum attacked them, but Frodo threw him down and warned his former guide never to touch him again. Sam faced Gollum on his own, letting Frodo continue up the mountain to finish their mission. Sam tried to bring himself to kill him, but relented out of pity and sheer disgust. He then turned his back on the beaten (but still wily) creature and followed Frodo.
Moments later, Frodo stood on the edge of the Crack of Doom, but was unwilling to destroy the Ring, claiming it for himself and putting it on. Then Gollum attacked again, and the two fought while Frodo was invisible. Finally, Gollum bit off Frodo's finger and seized the Ring. He gloated over his prize, dancing madly over the edge. He stepped too far, however, and fell into the fires of Mount Doom, taking the Ring with him with a last cry of "''Precious!''" Thus, the Ring was destroyed and Sauron utterly defeated.

Adaptations

Film

In the Rankin/Bass animated versions of ''The Hobbit'' (1977) and ''The Return of the King'' (1980), Gollum is voiced by comedian "Brother" Theodore Gottlieb.
In Ralph Bakshi's animated film of ''The Lord of the Rings'' (1978) the voice of Gollum was supplied by Peter Woodthorpe. Here Gollum was animated through rotoscoping.
In the Peter Jackson film trilogy, Gollum is a CGI creature voiced by actor Andy Serkis, who also provided the voices of some of the Nazgûl and orcs. Barely glimpsed in '' (2001), he becomes a central character in '' (2002) and '' (2003). The CGI character was built around Serkis' facial features, voice and acting choices. Using a digital puppet created by Jason Schleifer and Bay Raitt at Weta Digital, animators created Gollum's performance using a mixture of motion capture data recorded from Serkis and a process called keyframing. The laborious process of digitally "painting out" Serkis' image and replacing it with the digital Gollum's required a large number of digital artists. Including all the lighting, composition and rendering, each frame of Gollum's performance took four hours to compute.
In ''The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King'', Serkis himself appears in a flashback scene as Sméagol before his degeneration into Gollum. This scene was originally earmarked for ''The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers'', but was held back because it was felt that audiences would relate better to the original Sméagol once they were more familiar with who he became. The decision to include this scene meant that Raitt and Jamie Beswarick had to redesign Gollum's face for the second and third movies so that it would more closely resemble Serkis'. (The brief glimpses in ''The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring'' are of an earlier model of Gollum.)
Gollum's split personality is emphasized in Jackson's films; screenwriters Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens included scenes in ''The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers'' and ''The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King'' in which "Gollum" and "Sméagol" argue, with Serkis slightly altering his voice and body language to play the two as separate entities. While Tolkien wrote similar scenes, the conflict between the two personalities is more intense in the films; "Sméagol" even "banishes" "Gollum" for a while after Frodo shows him kindness. The animators also made the eyes change for each personality: small, narrow, cunning pupils for Gollum, and large, round, innocent-looking pupils for Sméagol.
''Wizard Magazine'' rated Jackson's Gollum as the 62nd greatest villain of all time, from among a hundred villains from film, television, comics and video games.^[4] A minor controversy arose when Serkis was judged ineligible to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Serkis and Gollum appeared on the 2003 MTV Movie Awards, when Gollum won "Best Virtual Performance" and went on to deliver an obscenity-laden acceptance speech.^[5] This clip can be found as an easter egg in the ''The Two Towers'' DVD.
These film adaptations have varied in how they depicted Gollum visually. In Bakshi's film, Gollum is dark, bald and gangly. The Jackson films depicted Gollum quite similarly, though pale. In contrast, in the Rankin/Bass adaptations, he is a pale green, frog-like creature with huge, pupil-less eyes.

Stage

Main articles: The Lord of the Rings (musical)

In Canada, Gollum was portrayed by Michael Therriault in the three-hour production of ''The Lord of the Rings'', which opened in 2006 in Toronto.
In the United States, Gollum was portrayed by Aretta Baumgartner in the Cincinnati productions of ''The Fellowship of the Ring'' (2001), ''The Two Towers'' (2002), and ''The Return of the King'' (2003) for Clear Stage Cincinnati. Baumgartner received a 2002 Cincinnati Entertainment Award for her portrayal of Gollum in ''The Two Towers''. At Chicago's Lifeline Theatre, Gollum was played by Phil Timberlake in ''The Two Towers'' (1999) and Robert Kauzlaric in ''The Return of the King'' (2001).

Radio

In BBC's 1981 radio serial, Peter Woodthorpe reprised his role as Gollum. The name was pronounced ''ga-loom''.

Comics

Gollum appears in a three-part comic book adaptation pf ''The Hobbit'', scripted by Chuck Dixon and Sean Deming and illustrated by David Wenzel. It was first published by Eclipse Comics in 1989. A reprint collected in one volume was released by Del Rey Books in 2001.

In other media

In Sierra Entertainment's '', a real-time strategy game based solely on the book, Gollum is a playable hero unit for the Minions of Sauron. Legolas and a guard of archers track him through Mirkwood, fighting giant spiders along the way.
In '' video game by Surreal Software, also based only on the book, Gollum appears in a cutscene when the Fellowship of the Ring is within Moria, and is shown half hidden behind debris muttering to himself. He also appears during the final level at Amon Hen; when the user is playing as Aragorn, Gollum appears on a cliff edge muttering to himself and walks away, and then does the same on another cliff edge. Then the player heads to a small island and a cutscene can be shown with a conversation between Aragorn and Gollum, in which Gollum throws a fish at him; it becomes his weapon for the final mission, as well as the most powerful weapon in the game.
He also appears in Electronic Arts' games based on the Jackson films. In the real-time strategy game '', Gollum is a playable hero unit for Mordor. In its sequel, '', which is also based on the book, he is not playable. Instead, he walks around the map cloaked, carrying the Ring. When killed, he drops the Ring for a player to claim. When the Ring is returned to the player's fortress, they may summon a special "Ring Hero" — Galadriel for good factions and Sauron for evil. He also appears in the action game based on ''The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King'', accompanying Frodo and the player as the game progresses, but becomes a boss at Mount Doom, whom the player must throw into the lava below.

Physical appearance

Tolkien describes Gollum as either dark, bone-white or sallow (pale yellow). In a later manuscript Tolkien explained this by saying that Gollum had pale skin, but wore dark clothes and was often seen in poor light.^[1] He was also very thin, mostly bald, and only had six teeth,^[7] which in ''The Hobbit'' he kept sharp with a small wet rock. Comparing him to Shelob, Tolkien also writes that he is "rather like a spider himself, or perhaps like a starved frog." He was of average hobbit size; in "The Choices of Master Samwise", there is a reference to Sam being "little less in height" than him. His eyes glowed in the darkness, having adapted to his surroundings after hundreds of years underground; yellow when his "Sméagol" personality was dominant - usually when he was calm - and green when "Gollum" was dominant - usually when he was agitated. In Jackson's films, "Sméagol"'s pupils were dilated and "Gollum"'s contracted.
By the time of ''The Hobbit'', Gollum had "only six" white teeth (in Jackson's films, eight). ''The Hobbit'' states he has pockets, in which he keeps the above rock, goblin teeth, wet shells, and a scrap of bat wing. In illustrations and adaptations, he is invariably depicted in a loincloth, except for the Rankin/Bass cartoons which have him naked.

Characteristics

Bearing the One Ring increases Gollum's senses, especially hearing and smell. Gollum's toughness is said to stem from his hobbit roots. Gollum hates sunlight, and avoids it if possible. He is emaciated and gaunt, but possesses a vicious, wiry strength; Aragorn states "his malice gives him a strength hardly to be imagined." In ''The Two Towers'', Gollum's grip is described as "soft, but horribly strong" as Gollum wrestles with Sam Gamgee. He is an expert swimmer after centuries of diving to catch fish. Gollum prefers to eat meat raw. He refuses to eat anything Elvish because it apparently burns him when he touches it. He is also not above cannibalism, threatening to kill and eat Bilbo in ''The Hobbit''.

Name

Sméagol's "real" name in Westron (one of Tolkien's invented languages) is ''Trahald'', of the meaning "burrowing, worming in" or "apt to creep into a hole". In both Westron and Old English, Sméagol's name is related to Smaug's: Smaug's name in "true Dalish" was ''Trâgu'', and the Trah- stem in Trahald and Trâgu is thus a cognate of the Germanic stem present in both Sméagol and Smaug (with a meaning of squeezing through a hole.) Tolkien gave the Old English word '''smygel''', "burrow" as a basis for the name; the word is also related to the Hobbit-language word ''smial'', which also means "burrow".

Pronunciation

In the 1981 BBC radio adaptation, Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated film and in the Peter Jackson movies, ''Sméagol'' is pronounced as , although the placement of the acute accent suggests that the correct pronunciation is . On the other hand, in Tolkien's recordings of ''The Lord of the Rings'' he also pronounced it or , suggesting that ''éa'' should either be pronounced as or as a diphthong , and not as two distinct vowels and . Tolkien had a habit in his writing to put diacritics in varying places, as can also be seen in the name ''Eärendil'', which also occurs spelled ''Ëarendil''. "Sméagol" bears strong resemblance to Old English ''smēaġan'', a verb meaning "to ponder". If this was Tolkien's intention, then the acute may have been meant to substitute for the macron. In any case, when trying to pronounce ''Sméagol'', it should be kept in mind that the pronunciation rules given in the Appendices for ''The Lord of the Rings'' are for the Elvish languages, and not for (old) English representing Westron and related languages.

References

1.
2.
3.
4. ''Wizard'' #177
5. Quotes from the 2003 MTV Movie Awards - Internet Movie Database
6.
7. "Teeth! teeth! my preciousss; but we has only six!"

External links

★ Gollum at the Thain's Book

★ Gollum at the Encyclopedia of Arda