A To Z Blogging Challenge 2024 - Villains! - G Is For Gollum

 Gollum first appears in Tolkien’s children’s book The Hobbit, which came out in the 1930s. He doesn’t really have a back story until Lord Of The Rings, when we find out by what a nasty way he acquired the Ring. 

In The Hobbit, the Ring was just a magic ring that let you turn invisible. In Lord Of The Rings, it was Dark Lord Sauron’s lost ring of power, and has been trying to find its way back to him for thousands of years.

Originally Gollum was not going to be too much of a baddie. That changed when Tolkien rewrote the novel for consistency with its sequel. 

Bilbo Baggins gets lost in the dark, picks up the Ring and puts it into his pocket, without really knowing what it is. He meets Gollum, who challenges him to a contest of riddles. If Bilbo wins, Gollum says he will show him the way out, if Gollum wins, he gets to eat Bilbo. In the original version, Gollum intends to keep his word about showing Bilbo out. He even offers to give Bilbo the Ring! But once Lord Of The Rings was published, he had absolutely no intention of keeping his word. By this time, he is addicted to the Ring like a drug. That’s the interpretation of Andy Serkis, who played the role in both trilogies.

Bilbo manages to escape, taking the Ring with him. However, he feels sorry for Gollum, thinking about how awful his life must be, so instead of killing him while invisible, Bilbo jumps over  him to get out of the tunnels. 

Gollum follows, in hopes of getting the Ring back. Sixty years go by. Bilbo leaves the Shire, and the Ring with his kinsman Frodo. 

We do learn Gollum’s back story in Lord Of The Rings  Remember how Bilbo started his ownership of the Ring by pitying Gollum? This is why it had so little effect on him. Gollum, a hobbit himself, started his ownership of it by killing the friend who found it, first demanding it as a birthday gift. This is why the Ring wrecked him. He was already not too popular in his community anyway, and not a nice person. 

In this novel , he accompanies Frodo and his servant Sam on their journey, hoping to get the Ring back from them. He is unable to eat their offered Elvish lembas bread, which is symbolic of the Christian sacrament. Not somebody who is likely to have a redemption arc, alas! 

He betrays them, leaving Frodo to be stung by the giant spider Shelob. Fortunately Sam takes the Ring for a short time, and isn’t corrupted by it, so Gollum doesn’t have it and neither do Sauron’s orcs. 

In the end, Gollum saves Frodo, though it’s not what he had in mind; Frodo is on the point of keeping the Ring, instead of throwing it into the flames of the Cracks of Doom in Mordor, the only way to destroy it. Gollum leaps forward, bites off Frodo’s finger and falls into the flames himself, holding the Ring. Sauron is defeated, Frodo survives the effect of the Ring. But let’s face it, that wasn’t what Gollum had in mind! He just wanted the Ring. 

Terry Pratchett has fun with this character in his Discworld novel Witches Abroad. The witches Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick are rowing down an underground river. They hear a splashing behind them; someone is following them. Suddenly, a strange creature pops up, hissing, “It’sss my birthday!” 

They hit him. He sinks again.

Maybe someone should have done that to Gollum? It might have saved a lot of trouble.