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Gollum

Meaning: Trahald: 'burrowing, worming in'

Other Names: Sméagol, Slinker, Stinker, Trahald, Sneak, Old Villain, Gobbler, The Black Sneak

Location(s): Gladden Fields, Misty Mtns, Mordor, Moria

Race/Species: Hobbit

Type/Kind: N/A

Dates: c. 2400 - March 25, 3019 III

Parents: Unknown

Siblings: Unknown

Spouse: None

Children: None

Description:
"He was a Gollum - as dark as darkness, except for two big round pale eyes in his thin face."

" 'Teeth! teeth! my preciouss: but we has only six!' "

"Riddles in the Dark," The Hobbit

"Down the face of a precipice, sheer and almost smooth it seemd in the pale moonlight, a small black shape was moving with its thin limbs splayed out. Maybe its soft clinging hands and toes were finding crevices and holds that no hobbit could ever have seen or used, but it looked as if it were just creeping doen on sticky pads, like some large prowling thing of insect-kind. And it was coming down head first, as if it were smelling its way. Now and again it lifted its head slowly, turning it right back on its long skinny neck, and the hobbits caught a glimpse of two small plae gleaming lights; its eyes that blinked at the moon for a moment and then were quickly lidded again."

"The Taming of Sméagol," The Ring Goes East, TTT, LOTR

-- Gollum looked at them. A strange expression passed over his lean hungry face. The gleam faded from his eyes, and they went dim and grey, old and tired. A spasm of pain seemed to twist him, and he turned away, peering back up towards the pass, shaking his head, as if engaged in some interior debate. Then he came back, and slowly putting out a trembling hand, very cautiously he touched Frodo's knee - but almost the touch was a caress. For a fleeting moment, could one of the sleepers have seen him, they would have thought they beheld an old weary hobbit, shrunken by the years that had carried him far beyond his time, beyond friends and kin, and the fields and streams of youth, an old starved pitiable thing.

"The Stairs of Cirith Ungol," The Ring Goes East, TTT, LOTR

'But when he had at last told me his history, as far as the end of the Riddle-game and Bilbo's escape, he would not say any more, except in dark hints.

'His longing for the Ring proved stronger than his fear of the Orcs, or even of the light. After a year or two he left the mountains. ...

'Light ... he still feared ... but he was cunning. He found he could hide from daylight and moonshine, and make his way swiftly and softly by dead of night with his pale cold eyes, and catch small frightened or unwary things. He grew stronger and bolder with new food and new air. He found his way into Mirkwood....'

'Is that where you found him?' asked Frodo.

'I saw him there,' answered Gandalf, 'but before that he had wandered far, following Bilbo's trail. It was difficult to learn anything from him for certain, for his talk was constantly interrupted by curses and threats. ... But from hints dropped among the snarls I even gathered that his padding feet had taken him at last to Esgaroth, and even to the streets of Dale, listening secretly and peering. Well, the news of the great events went far and wide in Wilderland, and many had heard Bilbo's name and knew where he came from.' ...

'Then why didn't he track Bilbo further?' asked Frodo. 'Why didn't he come to the Shire?' ...

'I think Gollum tried to. He set out and came back westward, as far as the Great River. But then he turned aside. He was not daunted by the distance.... No, something else drew him away. ...

'The Wood-elves tracked him first, an easy task for them, for his trail was still fresh then. Through Mirkwood and back again it led them.... The wood was full of the rumour of him, dreadful tales even among beasts and birds. The Woodmen said that there was some new terror abroad, a ghost that drank blood. It climbed trees to find nests; it crept into holes to find the young; it slipped through windows to find cradles.

'But at the western edge of Mirkwood the trail turned away. It wandered off southwards ... and was lost. And then I made a great mistake. ... I let him go ...

'The trail was long cold when I took it up again, after Bilbo left here. And my search would have been in vain, but for ... Aragorn.... Together we sought for Gollum down the whole length of Wilderland ... without success. But at last ... Gollum was found. My friend returned ... bringing the miserable creature with him.

'What he had been doing he would not say. He only wept and called us cruel.... But I am afraid there is no possible doubt: he had made his slow, sneaking way ... down at last to the Land of Mordor.'

The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 2, The Shadow of the Past

Contributors:
Anglachel - 12.30.02
Added new names: Elena Tiriel 10May04
added Trahald meaning: ET 19Jun04
added quote: ET 8May05

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