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Dates
c. III 2440 - 25 March III 30191
Race
Hobbits
Division
Perhaps Stoors2
Meaning
Said to derive from the guttural swallowing noises this creature habitually made
Other Names
Sméagol
Titles
Slinker, Stinker

Indexes:

About this entry:

  • Updated 5 December 1998
  • Updates planned: 36

Gollum

Wretched slave to the One Ring

Encyclopedia of Arda Timeline
Years of the TreesFirst AgeSecond AgeThird AgeFourth Age and Beyond

Originally a creature of Hobbit-kind, who came by the One Ring in the River Anduin, where Isildur had lost it more than two millennia before. Coming under its power, he hid away in the Misty Mountains, and was drawn into the events at the end of the Third Age when he encountered Bilbo Baggins, who took the Ring from him.


Notes

1

Gollum first appears in the Tale of Years in 'about' 2463, when he murders his friend Déagol and steals the Ring. The birthdate of 2440 given here is an estimate based on the assumption that Sméagol/Gollum would have been about twenty-five years old at this date. His long lifespan of almost 600 years is of course far longer than a Hobbit would normally live, and is due to the effects of the Ring.

2

Gollum's identification as a Stoor is based on Gandalf's words in The Lord of the Rings I 2 The Shadow of the Past, 'I guess they were of hobbit-kind, akin to the fathers of the fathers of the Stoors'. Gollum's people split from the other Stoors in the fifteenth century of the Third Age, when troubled times in Eriador led them to migrate back eastwards across the Misty Mountains, and settle on the banks of the Gladden River.

See also...

Anborn, Aragorn Elessar, Black Hand, Déagol, Fish, Gladden River, Goblin-town, Great Rings, Legolas Greenleaf, Lord of the Nazgûl, Master, Ogres, Precious, Ring-bearers, Sarn Gebir, [See the full list...]

For acknowledgements and references, see the Disclaimer & Bibliography page.

Original content © copyright Mark Fisher 1998, 2000. All rights reserved. For conditions of reuse, see the Site FAQ.