Gollum, Trahald, Slinker, Smeagol, Stinker. Known by many names, Gollum is no doubt one
of the most infamous characters in J.R.R. Tolkien’s legendarium. In this video I will
explain his entire life, from birth to death, as if you’ve never heard of him before.
Smeagol was born in the late third age, around the year 2430. To put this to scale, this
is 477 years before Frodo left the Shire. Of the three kinds of Hobbits, Smeagol was
a Stoor. Stoors were lovers of water, fishing, and river banks. They were the heaviest and
most Dwarf-like of all breeds. Smeagol lived by the banks of the Great River, on the edge
of the Wilderland. He was of a large, reputable family, similar to the Baggins family before
Bilbo’s adventures. The matriarch of the family was Smeagol’s grandmother, considered
stern and wise by the Stoors. Smeagol was the most curious and adventurous of the family;
he loved roots, beginnings, diving into deep pools, and digging. Oft his eyes were set
on things below, and seldom did he admire that which was above.
One of his greatest friends, Deagol, was of similar build, but was lesser in strength
and had eyes more keen. Near the Gladden fields, around the year 2463, Deagol and Smeagol were
fishing on a boat. It was Smeagol’s birthday, very likely his thirty-third, which is significant
because it is the day Hobbits come of age. Smeagol got off of their boat and went to
the banks of the River, where he was nosing around. While Smeagol was fishing, great,
large fish took Deagol’s bait. It drug him near the bottom of the Anduin. Holding his
breath, he let go of his rod, for he saw the glitter of gold. He grabbed at it roughly,
along with a lot of mud. Then he rose to the bank, with weeds in his hair. When he rinsed
off the mud, there lay in his hand a beautiful Ring. As Deagol gazed, mesmerized, at the
ring, Smeagol was watching from behind a tree. He approached him softly, and whispered,
Give us that, Deagol, my love.
Why? Said deagol
Because it’s my birthday, my love, and I wants it.
I don’t care, said Deagol I have given you a present already, more than I could afford.
I found this, and I’m going to keep it.
Oh, you are indeed, my love, said Smeagol.
With that, Smeagol took Deagol by the throat and strangled him. As he was murdered far
away from home, and buried well by Smeagol, Deagol’s body was never found. Smeagol but
on the Ring and went home. He discovered that none of his family could see him while wearing
the Ring. Smeagol was overjoyed at this discovery, and bent his capabilities to wrong-doing,
theft, and malice. As it always does, the Ring gave him power according to his stature.
He became ever-slinking, hated, and shy. Eventually he took to muttering and he often made a strange
guttural sound, which was likened to the word Gollum. Thus they re-named him Gollum, out
of scorn and shame. Eventually, his grandmother expelled him from their family and he travelled
far away. He roamed up the river in solitude, eating the fish he caught raw. One day he
bent over a river and felt the Sun on his head, and reflected off the water. Far in
the distance he saw the Misty Mountains, and there he went, shaking his fist at the Sun.
He travelled deep into the roots of the Misty Mountains, to an island on an underground
lake. None knew whither he went, nor was even Sauron able to detect a trace of his lost
Ring.
Under the mountain he was turned even more to evil, and the Death of Deagol haunted him.
So often did he talk and whisper to himself that he convinced himself that the Ring was
indeed a present, and not a product of robbing and murder. The Ring also had a part to play
in his corruption, stretching out his life far beyond the general allotted time for a
Hobbit. He became a thing of slime, with huge eyes and black skin, wide feet and long fingers.
Under the dark mountain there lie a lake, and in that lake there lie an island, which
was where Gollum made his abode. Gollum ate any Goblins that came by, but also ate fish
aplenty. For doing so he made himself a boat, but out of what it is unknown. Just like the
sun and moon, the Ring itself became despicable in the eyes of Gollum. He hated it yet loved
it. Gollum wore the Ring till he could no longer, at which time he put in in a pouch
on his side till he could not bear even that. Then he kept it in a hole in his a rock, but
when he could be parted from it no longer, or sought to kill an Orc, he would put it
on
Gollum stayed under the mountains for hundreds of years, until, in the year 2941 of the Third
Age, when to Gollum’s cave fell a Fallohide, another type of Hobbit, named Bilbo. Before
Bilbo Baggins fell into Gollum’s cave, the Ring abandoned Gollum. The Ring was made by
the Dark Lord Sauron, and had a will of its own. Because its master was gaining power,
healing from his prior death, it chose to be free.
When Bilbo fell into the cave, his hands felt the ground, and he picked up Gollum’s Ring.
He put it in his pocket as he gathered himself. Soon afterwards, Gollum saw Bilbo and snuck
up behind him, and whispered in his ear.
He would have killed him, had it not been for his curiosity and full stomach. Instead,
Gollum asked him to play a game of riddles. After the first riddle, Gollum suggested to
add stakes to the sacred game. If Gollum lost, he would show Bilbo the way out, but if Gollum
won, he would get to eat Bilbo. Bilbo’s glowing Elvish sword was a factor in their
discussion.
After many riddles, the tide of the riddle game swayed multiple times. Finally, Gollum
grew aggressive and hungry. It was at this time when Bilbo, taken aback, could not think
of another riddle. Gollum insisted that he ask a question, but still, Bilbo could not
think of one. He put his hand in his pocket, and said out loud, what have I got in my pocket?
Gollum, thinking this was a riddle, cried that it was unfair. Finally, after four tries,
Gollum had lost. Gollum returned to his island in the middle of the underground lake, saying
he needed to gather a few things. But instead, he was searching for his Ring, so that he
could kill Bilbo. He searched frantically for the Ring, before letting out a blood curdling
sceam as he realized what was in Bilbo’s pocket. He went back to the stony bank of
the lake, but Bilbo had blindly ran beforehand, knowing Gollum’s murderous rage. As Bilbo
ran, he put on the Ring and fell, and saw Gollum run by. For a moment Bilbo could have
killed Gollum, but pity stayed his hand. Bilbo escaped, and Gollum did not follow, leastways,
for two years. Gollum grew in bitterness and resent every day, and loathed the name Baggins.
Eventually, he mustered enough courage, or rather lust for the Ring, and set out to reclaim
the Ring in the year 2944 of the Third Age.
Peering and lurking all the way, he made it to the streets of Dale, but far too late to
have seen Bilbo. He soon learned that Bilbo lived and the Shire, so set out westward.
While near Mirkwood he was said to have eaten young animals, eggs, and the babies of the
Woodmen. At this time Gandalf and the Wood Elves were tracking him. But because there
were more pressing matters at the time, and Gandalf trusted Saruman, he gave up his pursuit.
When Gandalf again took up the pursuit of Gollum, he did so with the help of a great
ranger, Aragorn. At last, Gandalf gave up once more, but then Aragorn found the wretched
creature. He would not easily reveal what he had been doing, but Gandalf found out that
he had been called to Mordor, as all evil things had been, by Sauron. There he was found
and tortured to reveal the name of Bilbo Baggins, the one who had Sauron’s magic Ring. Gollum
was set free purposefully by him, to hunt Bilbo. But after being set free, he encountered
a great spider, Shelob. Shelob was the daughter of an extremely powerful spider, Ungoliant.
She intended to eat Gollum, but he offered to gain her food in the future if she would
spare him. Seeing he was little but skin and bones to eat, she consented.
Other than what Gandalf pieced together, Gollum said little, and murmured in hate all too
much.
Gollum did reveal that he had powerful friends to Gandalf, who possibly did not listen as
he should have. Then Gollum was given to the Elves of Mirkwood and held as a prisoner.
He was watched day and night, and held in cells. The Elves saw his wretchedness and
allowed his to go out side a tree, and offered him fine foods. One day, Gollum refused to
come down from the tree, and at that moment Orcs killed the Elf guards and released Gollum.
The Elves pursued, and because of this Gollum hid in the Dwarven mine, Moria. He stayed
there until the Fellowship of the Ring, which now carried the Ring, passed through it as
well. The objective of the fellowship was to destroy
the One Ring, because only with its’ destruction could the Dark Lord Sauron be defeated. The
Ring was Sauron’s and he had poured some of his malicious self into it. Without it
he could not be vanquished from Middle-Earth, and with it he would be too powerful to be
overthrown.
Starting on January 13, Gollum followed them. He even followed part of the way into Lorien,
and witnessed the sundering of the Fellowship. Yet it was not until Febuary 29 when Frodo
met Gollum. Gollum was sneaking around Emyn Muil when he at last fell off a crag and right
on Frodo and his companion, Sam. Gollum latched onto Sam, biting him and trying to strangle
him. Then Frodo leaped up and drew his sword Sting from its sheath, and freed Sam. Almost
instantly, Gollum went limp on the ground as an upset child: whimpering and begging
for his own skin. Sam suggested he be strung up and left to die, but Frodo gave pity. After
a long talk, Frodo decided to make Gollum their guide. But little did they trust him,
so they fashioned him a leash out of an Elven rope. The very feel of the rope was, as many
other things were, detestable to Gollum. It burned his skin. As soon as it was tied around
Gollum’s neck, he let out a vicious, pained scream. Frodo said that he would not take
it off, lest Gollum kill them in their sleep. He told Gollum that he must make a promise
he could trust. Gollum said that he would swear by the Precious, which was his name
for the Ring. Frodo drew himself up to his full, albeit short height, and warned Gollum
of the severity of this oath. Indeed, it seemed as though he was a stern lord; wise in ways
and craft, and Gollum was naught but a whimpering dog. Yet Tolkien said that the two were not
wholly unlike. They shared a single deep connection in their minds. That connection was the same
thing by which the oath was sworn; The Ring.
In the end he insisted that Gollum swear by the Ring to be good, not on the RIng. The
difference may seem subtle, but it is not. Swearing ON the Ring means that
The three’s adventures are told in depth in the Two Towers, and for the sake of repeating
more well known history, I will hit the highlights. From the beginning to end of their being together,
Sam mistrusted Gollum, and from him originated Gollum’s two names- Slinker and Stinker.
Slinker was the more meek side of Gollum, whereas Stinker was the angry, lustful side.
Frodo, most unlike Sam, was very kind to Gollum, and made him much more like his prior self-
Smeagol. A manifestation of this goodwill was returning to Gollum his prior name, Smeagol.
After that, Smeagol led them to where they wished to go- the Black Gate of Mordor. But
Smeagol said it was too closely watched by the servants of Sauron. Then Frodo and Sam
asked if there was another way to go into Mordor and destroy the Ring. Smeagol was going
to take them southwards a while, to another entrance. But it was then when Frodo and Sam
were captured by Faramir. Faramir was a Ranger of Gondor, second son of the Sterward. He
was a noble and upright man, and did no harm to Frodo and Sam. He provided good advice,
and warned them when he learned Smeagol was leading them to Cirith Ungol. Gollum had slunk
away, but was found in a pool near the Ranger’s hiding place. The rangers would’ve killed
him, had Frodo not begged him not to. In the end, they all went on their way, refilled
with supplies, but at the cost of the Gollum, or Stinker side of Smeagol becoming more prominent.
Undoubtedly the closest and only time Smeagol came close to redemption was in March of the
year 3019. He had just visited Shelob and was plotting his master’s betrayal, and
was coming back to their camp. He saw Frodo, asleep, and in him there was a change. His
eyes lost their malicious, cat-like glint which they had for so long bore, and he looked
old and tired. If one of the Hobbits was to look at him then, they would have been moved
to a great pity, seeing in him a tired, friendless Hobbit who lived far beyond his time. Gollum
touched softly Frodo’s knee, and it is said that touch was almost a caress. To this Frodo
gave a soft cry, and Sam was alerted and became angry at Gollum. Gollum was nearly moved to
repentance, and indeed might’ve repented, had Sam been kind.
They began climbing the Straight Stairs and Winding Stairs that led up to Shelob’s lair.
When they finally arrived, Frodo was stung by Shelob, and taken by Orcs, while Gollum
escaped. He followed them into Mordor, and only when they were on the steps of Mount
Doom did he once again meet them, his oath broken.
Suddenly, Gollum attacked the wearying Frodo, but Frodo’s last bit of strength was roused
by the fact that Gollum was trying to take away his one, precious treasure. Frodo threw
Gollum off himself and once more he was the bore the likeness of a great Elven Lord. He
said to Gollum, “Down, down! Down you creeping thing, and out of my path! Your time is at
an end. You cannot betray me or slay me now.”
From Sam’s perspective, Gollum appeared to be a wholly ruined, destroyed creature,
whereas Frodo was a bright, shining, fearsome lord. He said if Gollum dare ever touch him
again he would cast himself into the Fire of Mount Doom. Frodo walked slowly up to the
fire where he would cast the Ring into the fire, as Sam held off Gollum, whose insatiable
desire for the Ring had been awoken. Gollum cowered before Sam, begging as he had before.
He said, correctly, that if the Ring was destroyed he would turn into dust. This was true. The
Ring had stretched his life out for hundreds of years, and it was the only thing keeping
him alive. Sam could not bring himself to slay Gollum, seeing him in his miserable condition
roused him to pity. Gollum turned away, and Sam went on. If he had looked back, he would’ve
seen Gollum continue as well, but he did not.
With an even more powerful voice than ever, Frodo proclaimed he would keep the Ring, but
at that moment Gollum struck Sam from behind the head. He proceeded to run to Frodo, whose
finger he bit off. He claimed the Ring, screaming, “Precious!” Yet in his joy he was drunken
with gloating. Dancing, he fell off the precipice of Mount Doom, with the Ring. Thus ended the
Ring, The Quest of the Ring, and Smeagol’s tragic life.
Hey guys, Gala-Fain here, thank you for watching. In retrospect, I have come to realize how
badly Gollum’s life was damaged by oaths. Not only did he die because of an oath that
he broke, but it is possible that Gollum was held to the rules of the Riddle Game, which
is why Bilbo escaped. Please, hit the subscribe button and comment your opinions on Gollum
and this video.
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