48 Fun Facts About Gollum

A doctor was prosecuted in 2015 for sharing images comparing Gollum to which leader?

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: unsure whether a Gollum comparison even counted as an insult, the court ordered a panel of experts to judge.

To which branch of hobbits did Gollum originally belong?

Stoors: that breed migrated west, but a group later fled Angmar back to the Anduin, where Sméagol's people lived by the Gladden Fields.

Tolkien built the name Sméagol from which old language?

Old English: Tolkien had it stand in for a Mannish tongue, so Sméagol 'translates' his real name, Trahald, meaning 'burrowing'.

How did the name Gollum arise?

From a swallowing noise in his throat: his own relatives mocked the habit by turning it into his nickname.

Whom did Smeagol murder to get the Ring?

His cousin Deagol, who had found the Ring on the riverbed after a large fish dragged him into the water.

On what occasion did Smeagol demand the Ring as a 'present'?

His birthday: Sméagol insisted the gold ring his companion had found should be his present, and strangled him when refused.

Which relative disowned Smeagol after his thieving and spying with the Ring?

His grandmother, the family matriarch, cast him out to keep the peace, and he wandered off alone into the wilderness.

Where does Gollum live when Bilbo meets him?

An island in an underground lake, reached through the goblin tunnels where Bilbo had only just found the Ring.

What does Gollum eat under the Misty Mountains?

Cavefish and stray goblins: his eyes had grown lamp-like in the dark, and he dropped the Ring in a tunnel while out catching a goblin.

What contest do Bilbo and Gollum play in the dark?

A riddle game: Gollum promises to show Bilbo the way out if he loses, but secretly plans to use the Ring to kill him.

What is Bilbo's last, unanswerable question to Gollum?

What have I got in my pocket? Gollum can't guess, and only later, finding his Ring gone, realises the answer and flies into a rage.

The Lord of the Rings stage musical, with Michael Therriault as Gollum, premiered in 2006 in which city?

Toronto: the three-and-a-half-hour show was significantly rewritten and cut to three hours before it reopened in London's West End.

Why does Bilbo not kill Gollum as he escapes the cave?

He is overcome with pity, a mercy Frodo and Sam later repeat, and the spared Gollum ends up causing the Ring's destruction.

Which monstrous spider did Gollum serve as a spy, bringing her food?

Shelob: Gollum later leads Frodo and Sam into her lair, planning to get the Ring back once she has dealt with them.

Which two words did Gollum reveal to Sauron under torture?

Baggins and Shire: those two words told Sauron that a hobbit of the Shire, of the Baggins family, now held the Ring.

Who finally catches Gollum so that Gandalf can question him about the Ring?

Aragorn: Gandalf questions the prisoner at length, but Orcs later raid the Elves guarding Gollum and set him free.

Where does Gollum begin trailing the Fellowship?

Moria: Gollum had gone there after escaping the Elves, and he was already lurking inside when the Fellowship passed through.

How does Gollum follow the Fellowship's boats down the Anduin?

Paddling a log, Gollum trails the boats downriver, then follows Frodo and Sam when the pair strike out alone for Mordor.

In which hills do Frodo and Sam finally confront Gollum?

Emyn Muil: Gollum nearly strangles Sam there, until Frodo subdues him with his sword, Sting.

What do the hobbits tie around Gollum's ankle as a leash?

Elvish rope: its mere touch pains him, and Frodo frees him only after Gollum swears an oath to help them.

Where does Gollum lead Frodo and Sam, warning them against the eerie lights?

The Dead Marshes: warriors killed in a great battle long ago lie in their pools, and their pale faces glimmer beneath the water.

Which two nicknames does Sam give Gollum's two personalities?

Stinker and Slinker: the fawning Slinker held sway at first, but the plotting Stinker won out as they neared Mordor.

Who ruins Gollum's moment of near-repentance on the stairs up to the pass?

Sam, with harsh words: waking to find Gollum touching Frodo, he accuses him of sneaking, and the chance of redemption is lost.

Which pass does Gollum lead the hobbits toward as another way into Mordor?

Cirith Ungol: the Black Gate had proved too well guarded, and when Faramir learned the name, he warned Frodo of that evil place.

What is Gollum's final word as he falls into the Crack of Doom?

Precious! Dancing and gloating over the Ring he had just seized, Gollum stepped too far and toppled over the brink.

What does Gollum bite off Frodo at Mount Doom?

A finger: Frodo had just claimed the Ring and put it on, so Gollum bit it off to get the Ring back.

Roughly how old was Gollum by the time the Ring was destroyed?

About 600: the Ring's malignant influence had stretched his life far beyond a hobbit's natural limit.

Which Old Norse word, meaning 'gold' or 'treasure', may be the source of the name Gollum?

Its dative form is gollum; another theory points to the golem of Jewish folklore.

What did an Ithilien ranger, glimpsing Gollum in the trees, think he might be?

A tailless black squirrel: he did not shoot, since he was forbidden to kill wild beasts needlessly.

Which food that the hobbits carry can Gollum not bring himself to eat?

Lembas: when he tried a bite, it choked him, so he spat it out and complained that he would starve.

What suffix does Gollum habitually add to plurals, as in 'hobbitses'?

He also says 'we hates it', stretching the third-person -s to every subject.

What does Frodo read into Gollum saying 'I', not 'we'?

Smeagol's better self has the upper hand: Frodo's kindness had drawn out that better nature, and Gollum made some effort to keep his promise.

Which famous murder tale do scholars see echoed when Sméagol kills for the Ring?

Cain and Abel: like Cain, a restless wanderer after killing Abel, Sméagol is cast out by his family and wanders in loneliness.

Which Beowulf monster do scholars liken Gollum to?

Grendel: Tolkien said Beowulf was among the works he valued most, yet it was not consciously in his mind while he was writing The Hobbit.

Gollum has been compared to Gagool, the ancient hag in which 1885 novel?

King Solomon's Mines: Gagool leads the heroes to the treasure chamber, then sneaks out and brings its stone door down to trap them.

Besides playing Gollum again, what job did Andy Serkis take on for The Hobbit films?

Second-unit director: Jackson wanted people around him who understood the material, and Serkis, he said, already knew Middle-earth well.

A 2004 British Medical Journal paper argued Gollum meets criteria for which diagnosis?

Schizoid personality disorder: most students guessed schizophrenia, but the authors ruled it out, since in Middle-earth the Ring's power is real and all Ring-bearers share the symptoms.

After Tolkien rewrote Bilbo's meeting with Gollum, how was the gentler first version explained?

Bilbo had lied about it: in the first edition the losing Gollum apologetically shows him the way out, a tale later recast as one Bilbo made up for the Dwarves and Gandalf.

Who voiced Gollum in the Rankin/Bass cartoons of 1977 and 1980?

Brother Theodore: after his nightclub and TV career faded, the dark monologist resurfaced in the 1980s as a regular on Late Night with David Letterman.

Who voiced Gollum in both Ralph Bakshi's film and the 1981 BBC radio serial?

Peter Woodthorpe: Peter Hall spotted him acting as a Cambridge student and cast him as Estragon in the British premiere of Waiting for Godot.

Which effects company built the digital puppet behind Gollum in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films?

Weta Digital: for added realism Gollum's face was modelled on Serkis's own features, and it was later redesigned to resemble him more closely.

What did Andy Serkis draw on for Gollum's voice?

His cat coughing up hairballs: Serkis also played Gollum as full of guilt over the murder he had committed.

In which film does Serkis appear in the flesh as Smeagol before his degeneration?

The Return of the King: the flashback was saved for the final film so audiences would get to know Gollum before meeting the Sméagol he once was.

The celebrated 'Gollum and Smeagol' argument scene appears in which film?

The Two Towers: in the three-minute debate the camera cuts between his malevolent and gentle faces as if filming two people arguing.

What prize did Gollum's in-character 2003 MTV Movie Awards speech go on to win?

A Hugo: though Serkis delivered it in character, the award credited the speech's writing and direction to Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Peter Jackson.

Which city's television station made the 1991 Soviet Lord of the Rings teleplay, with its own Gollum?

Leningrad: the teleplay aired briefly and then vanished, until the station's successor, 5TV, posted it on YouTube in 2021.

Which rock band mentions Gollum and Mordor in their 1969 song 'Ramble On'?

Led Zeppelin: singer Robert Plant, who wrote the lyrics under Tolkien's spell, later seemed a touch embarrassed by that youthful inspiration.

Which studio developed the 2023 video game The Lord of the Rings: Gollum?

Daedalic Entertainment: after the game's disastrous launch, the Hamburg company closed its development department and dropped a second Lord of the Rings game.