Gollum

Also known as Sméagol

Major
First seen · Book 1 · Ch. 2

Gender: male
Age: ancient (ages old)
First appears: Book 1 · Ch. 2
Books: 3

Gollum begins as a shadowy, predatory creature haunting the Misty Mountains, driven solely by the Ring’s hunger and hatred for the hobbit who took it. Across the trilogy his physical form grows ever more emaciated and feral, while his fractured psyche oscillates between the servile Sméagol and the vicious Gollum. In the end, the creature who once stalked the Ring-bearer becomes the unwitting instrument of its destruction, biting the Ring from Frodo’s hand and plunging with it into the fires of Mount Doom.

Description

A loathsome little creature with large flat feet that he paddled with, peering with pale luminous eyes and catching blind fish with his long fingers. He has a dark shape, long whitish hands, two pale lamplike eyes that shine coldly, thin and tough build, and moves by padding after others or lying on a log and paddling with hands and feet. His head and eyes tend to be downward, he is sharp-eyed, and remains thin and tough still after centuries. A small emaciated creature with deathly pale skin stretched tight over his skeletal frame and shrunken belly, long bone-thin arms and legs that end in large flat hands and feet. His disproportionately large head rests on a scrawny neck that twists with eerie flexibility, crowned by sparse lank hair hanging like rank weed over prominent bony brows. Protruding pale eyes with heavy lids gleam with pale green or yellow light, set above a snivelling nose and a wide mouth lined with sharp yellow teeth and colourless lips. He crouches and crawls on all fours like a frog or insect with startling agility, his movements tense and predatory whether creeping down cliffs head-first or bounding away in sudden leaps. A small, severely emaciated hobbit-like creature, crouched low with a skeletal frame and tight-drawn sallow skin. His long, fleshless fingers splay against the ground, and his wide, blinking eyes burn with a wild, covetous light above a mouth of sharp white fangs. He appears ragged and unkempt, with no clearly described clothing, and moves like a slinking shadow.

Connections

Family & partnersFriends & mentorsRivals

Frodo Bagginsconflicting source relationships
Starts as pursuer and enemy, becomes reluctant servant under Frodo’s pity, then reverts to murderous rival; ultimately redeems Frodo by destroying the Ring.
S
Shagratcaptain
Brief professional contact when Shagrat’s Orcs capture and interrogate Gollum at Cirith Ungol.
Samwise Gamgeeadversary
Sam’s suspicion and hostility remain constant, yet he spares Gollum on Mount Doom after glimpsing the Ring’s corruption.
Sauronconflicting source relationships
Gollum is both victim and unwitting agent: tortured by Sauron’s forces, enslaved by the Ring Sauron created, and finally the means of Sauron’s downfall.
BB
Bilbo BagginsBilbo took Gollum's Ring
Gollum’s enmity begins when Bilbo takes the Ring; the hatred persists as a driving force even after Bilbo leaves the story.

Story so far

BOOK 1The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of the Lord of the Rings
- Bilbo wins the Ring from Gollum in the Riddle-game beneath the Misty Mountains.
- Gollum learns of hobbits and the Shire while imprisoned by Sauron.
- Gollum tracks the Fellowship through Moria and the Emyn Muil, intent on reclaiming his “precious.”
BOOK 2The Two Towers: Being the Second Part of the Lord of the Rings
- Captured by Frodo and Sam, Gollum swears an oath on the Ring and becomes their guide.
- He leads the hobbits to the Black Gate, then to the hidden stair of Cirith Ungol.
- The struggle between Sméagol and Gollum intensifies, culminating in the betrayal at Shelob’s lair.
BOOK 3The Return of the King: Being the Third Part of the Lord of the Rings
- Gollum follows the hobbits across the Dead Marshes and into Mordor.
- He is captured and interrogated at Cirith Ungol by Shagrat’s Orcs.
- On the slopes of Mount Doom, Gollum attacks Frodo, bites off his finger, and falls into the Cracks of Doom with the Ring, destroying both himself and Sauron’s power.