Sméagol was born in 2430 TA and is a creature who obtained the One Ring. By obtaining the One Ring, his lifespan would be preserved until the moment of the Ring’s destruction. He was most known for his desire of the One Ring in two instances: (1) when Bilbo found it in The Hobbit, and (2) when Frodo took it to Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings.
Sméagol’s beginnings
Gollum was the most inquisitive and curious-minded of his family. He is believed to be a Stoor, one of the three types of Hobbits. He dwelled near Gladden Fields with his friend and relative, Déagol.
Déagol disappeared, and no one knew what happened except he was murdered far away from home.
Sméagol loved that no one could see him when he wore the ring, and used it to find out secrets, along with using his knowledge for crooked and malicious uses.
(On screen:) Gollum would wear it until it tired him, and so he would keep it in a pouch and later hide it in a hole in the rock of an island. He would put it on when he couldn’t bear to be parted from it, or hungry, or tired of fish, which he loved. He would also creep along dark passages to look for stray goblins.
“He took to thieving, and going about muttering to himself, and gurgling in his throat. So they called him Gollum, and cursed him, and told him to go far away; and his grandmother, desiring peace, expelled him from the family and turned him out of her hole.
He wandered in loneliness, weeping a little for the hardness of the world, and he journeyed up the River, till he came to a stream that flowed down from the mountains, and he went that way. He caught fish in deep pools with invisible fingers and ate them raw. …
‘…The Ring went into the shadows with him, and even the maker, when his power had begun to grow again…” (FOTR, “The Shadow of the Past”)
Soon after, it would be the ring that decided things rather than Gollum. He was tracked and imprisoned by the Wood-elves in Mirkwood, though he mainly wept and called the hobbits cruel, probably after hearing of hobbits and the shire. The Wood-elves treated him with kindness.
Bilbo’s Riddle
Bilbo would approach Gollum, on accident, one day during his Quest of Erebor. At the time, Gollum lived on a slimy island of rock in the middle of the lake. While he was watching Bilbo, Bilbo had no idea that Gollum was there until he met him.
“He was Gollum – as dark as darkness, except for two big round pale eyes in his thin face. He had a little boat, and he rowed about quite quietly on the lake; for lake it was, wide and deep and deadly cold. He paddled it with large feet dangling over the side, but never a ripple did he make.” (The Hobbit, “Riddles in the Dark”)
After a few riddles, Bilbo would talk to himself, asking, “What have I got in my pocket?” – which Gollum thought was a riddle. Gollum was upset at first, but later agreed to three guesses – which he got wrong, so he had to show Bilbo the way out.
His “birthday present”
“‘My birthday-present! It came to me on my birthday, my precious.’ So he had always said to himself. But who knows how Gollum came by that present, ages ago in the old days when such rings were still at large in the world?” (The Hobbit, “Riddles in the Dark”)
He wanted it because it was a ring of power, and slipping it on his finger would make him invisible unless he would be in full sunlight where he would only be seen shaky and faint.
Déagol would give his normal customary present of Hobbits to Sméagol during an expedition they had. As a result, Sméagol would start grudging it, and use this phrase, his “birthday-present” as an excuse for his own power.
“Being a mean little soul he grudged it. Sméagol, being meaner and greedier, tried to use the ‘birthday’ as an excuse for an act of tyranny. Because I wants it’ was his frank statement of his chief claim. But he also implied that D’s gift was a poor and insufficient token: hence D’s retort that on the contrary it was more than he could afford.” (Letter # 214)
For Hobbits, giving gifts was a personal matter and not limited to kinship but more for a form of thanksgiving and a recognition of service, benefits, and friendship shown in the past year. They would start giving presents to their parents by their third birthday, when they become “faunts” – a term used for hobbits that are able to walk and talk – though such gifts are made by the giver such as flowers from a branch.
The expectation to receive gifts in the Shire was limited to second cousins or nearer kin within 12 miles of a hobbit – though all are allowed to receive in general. This also includes close friends. This distance limit was a result of the gradual parting of kinship communities and families, as well as a dispersal of relatives after conditions have been long settled. Such gifts are to be delivered in person around the events of the Birthday.
“For the received birthday presents (no doubt as a relic of the customs of small ancient families) must be delivered in person, properly on the eve of the Day, and at least before luncheon on the Day. They were received privately by the ‘byrding’; and it was very improper to exhibit them separately or as a collection [to avoid embarrassment]…custom did not demand costly presents, and a Hobbit was more readily flattered and delighted by an unexpectedly ‘good’ or desirable present than offended by a customary token of family good-will.” (Letter # 214)
Frodo’s Quest
After the breaking of the fellowship, Frodo and Sam would find themselves with Gollum. Frodo would show the pity that Gandalf had advised him to show before they left, and also after he sees Gollum.
“For now that I see him, I do pity him.” (The Two Towers, “The Taming of Sméagol”)
Gollum was needed to show Frodo and Sam on the way to Mount Doom. Meanwhile, Sam wanted to get rid of Gollum. Gollum didn’t want to be got rid of yet.
“He knelt at Frodo’s feet, wringing his hands and squeaking. ‘Not this way, master!’ He pleaded. ‘There is another way. O yes indeed there is. Another way, darker, more difficult to find, more secret. But Sméagol knows it. Let Sméagol show you!’” (The Two Towers, “The Black Gate is Closed”)
Sam’s guess was that Sméagol and Gollum had a temporary alliance, not wanting the ring to be destroyed though he doubted if there was another way to get into Mordor.
“…If [Gollum] knew that Mr. Frodo is trying to put an end to his Precious for good and for all, there’d be trouble pretty quick, I bet. Anyhow old Stinker is so frightened of the Enemy – and he’s under orders of some kind from him, or was – that he’d give us away rather than be caught helping us; and rather than let his Precious be melted, maybe. And I hope the master will think it out carefully. …” (The Two Towers, “The Black Gate is Closed”)
However, Tolkien even suggests that if Sam “understood better what was going on between Frodo and Gollum, things might have turned out differently in the end…Sam could hardly have acted differently.” (Letter # 246)
Frodo still intended to trust Sméagol and let him guide them to Mordor, where Gollum would grab hold of the Precious.
“‘Sméagol,’ [Frodo] said, ‘I will trust you once more. Indeed it seems that I must do so, and that it is my fate to receive help from you, where I least looked for it, and your fate to help me whom you along pursued with evil purpose. So far you have deserved well of me and have kept your promise truly. Truly, I say and mean.’”
Meanwhile, Gollum was able to get on his own good side until the Forbidden Pool scene when he thought that Frodo had betrayed him.
Frodo would ask Faramir not to harm Gollum. Faramir agreed, as long as Gollum would be Frodo’s servant – though Faramir’s warning was that Gollum had evil that was growing.
And lastly, after they reach Mount Doom, Gollum would have his last moments with his Precious before falling into the fire.
“The Other Power then took over: the Writer of the Story (by which I do not mean myself), ‘that one ever-present Person who is never absent and never named’ (as one critic had said)” (JRR Tolkien, Letter # 192)