The Lord of the Rings movies revealed that Gollum was “something like a Hobbit,” but the books explain the creature’s full origin story and race.
Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies revealed that Gollum was a creature similar to a Hobbit, but it’s never fully explained what this meant or where he came from. Of course, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King opened with a scene depicting the moment Gollum obtained the One Ring and briefly outlined how this affected his long life going forward. However, the details about the wretched creature’s life up to and after that point were left out of the movies, but author J.R.R. Tolkien was often reliable on this front.
Gollum was first introduced in Tolkien’s The Hobbit, where he was little more than a mysterious, carnivorous being who dwelled beneath the mountains with his pretty golden trinket. There was never any indication at this point that Gollum was anything like a Hobbit, but the author retconned his original intentions for this character when he made his precious the One Ring to rule them all. From there, Tolkien constructed a more detailed back story for Gollum, which was full of despicable crimes and tragedy. This included explaining precisely what Lord of the Rings race Gollum belonged to.
Gollum (Sméagol) Was A Stoor Hobbit
Sméagol was one of the earlier evolutions of Hobbits in The Lord of The Rings.
Gollum, whose name had been Sméagol before the One Ring corrupted him, was a Stoor, an early race of Hobbits (though they weren’t called this at the time). When Gollum was born, around Third Age (TA) 2430, there were three separate races of halflings that would eventually merge together to become the Hobbits of The Lord of the Rings: Stoors, Fallohides, and Harfoots. Each of these differed somewhat in appearance and living preferences, but they all lived around the Northern Kingdom of Arnor in the Third age of Middle Earth
| Early Hobbit Race | Description |
|---|---|
| Stoors | Stoors were broadly built with larger hands and feet. They lived near rivers and wetlands and were adept at fishing and swimming. |
| Fallohides | Fallohides were tall and slim, commonly with light skin and hair. They had the best relations with Men. |
| Harfoots | Known for dark curly hair and hairy feet, the Harfoots began the tradition of living underground. Their genes dominated the later-evolved Hobbits. |
The Stoor culture revolved entirely around water, so Sméagol was a skillful fisherman and swimmer. This group of proto-Hobbits followed a Matriarch, who, during Sméagol’s time, was his grandmother. As such, he lived in a home with her and other extended members of their family in what were likely cave-like dwellings. However, Sméagol’s life fell apart on his birthday when his cousin, Déagol, found a golden ring in the Anduin River while fishing.
Sméagol Murdered His Cousin Déagol To Steal The One Ring
Sauron’s One Ring had washed down the Anduin after Isildur was killed by orcs thousands of years before Sméagol and the Stoors came to live near the river. Unluckily for Sméagol (and certainly for Déagol), the small weapon resurfaced while the pair were fishing. As was seen in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Déagol found the One Ring first, and Sméagol demanded that he give it to him as a birthday present. When he refused, Sméagol murdered his cousin and took it from him.
What Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies don’t show is that Sméagol went back to living with his family after Déagol’s death, but this didn’t last long. The murderer enjoyed using his new precious to steal or pull various pranks on his fellow Stoors, and the community began to turn on him. Finally, Sméagol’s grandmother forced him out of their home, leaving him to survive alone in the wilderness. Thanks to the One Ring, which he quickly grew to despise as much as he loved, Sméagol—now Gollum—survived far longer than he should.
Gollum Is Over 500 Years Old In The Lord Of The Rings
By the time Gollum met Bilbo in The Hobbit, he was already about 500 years old. He had been living alone in the caves beneath the Misty Mountain, eating raw fish and Orcs to stave off hunger. During this time, Gollum developed two personalities, which Sam would later call Slinker and Stinker. One (Slinker) maintained some qualities of his past self and remembered enough about his Stoor upbringing to tell Gandalf when he was later interrogated. Stinker, on the other hand, was full of loathing for both himself and others.
Gollum lived like this for centuries, with the One Ring keeping him alive in body but doing little to keep the fragmented pieces of his mind stitched together. After Bilbo won the One Ring in The Hobbit, Gollum left the Misty Mountain in search of it. Sauron’s evil drew him to Mordor, where he was captured and tortured by the Dark Lord. After revealing everything he knew, Gollum was released, only to be captured by Aragorn and taken to Gandalf, who interrogated him and sent him to be held in Mirkwood. The creature managed to escape, however, leading to the events of The Lord of the Rings.
Why Gollum Being A Type Of Hobbit Is So Important In Lord Of The Rings
When looking at Gollum’s full story, it’s easy to both pity and despise him. This is precisely how Frodo felt about the creature, and he battled with himself about how to handle Gollum in The Lord of the Rings. Frodo had initially told Gandalf that he wished Bilbo had killed Gollum when he had the chance, but the wise wizard stated that the fact that the tortured ring-bearer was still alive meant he had a role yet to fulfill. Ultimately, Gandalf was proven right, since without Gollum’s interference (and unwilling sacrifice) the One Ring never would have been destroyed.
As horrible as Gollum was, as a Stoor, he was one of the few in The Lord of the Rings who could have kept the Ring out of Sauron’s hands for so long.
Ultimately, this makes the fact that Gollum is a type of Hobbit a full-circle moment. These small beings of Middle-earth were entirely overlooked by Sauron and the other races, with only Gandalf noticing their value. Men, Elves, and Dwarves were reliably ambitious and, therefore, would have used the One Ring to rule, thus making themselves a target. Hobbits, on the other hand, were simple in their desires, leaving little for the One Ring to feed on. As horrible as Gollum was, as a Stoor, he was one of the few in The Lord of the Rings who could have kept the Ring out of Sauron’s hands for so long.
