was Gollum a Hobbit ?

[JI7]

before he turned into what he was and was Smeagol ?

or a people that were related or close to the Hobbits but not the same as Bilbo, Frodo etc ?

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

1. He was of a branch of hobbits...as I believe there were a few varieties in the eldar days.

[Common Sense Party]

2. ...

Gollum, originally known as Sméagol (or Trahald), was at first a Stoor, one of the three early hobbit-types.

http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Gollum

http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Stoor

[ancianita]

3. No, he was once a hobbit, and a friend of Bilbo's. His addiction to Precious reconfigured his spirit

and thus his body.

[tblue37]

7. He was. a type of hobbit, but not someone Bilbo knew. The ring had made

him live a very long time, and over that time he degenerated to the condition Bilbo found him in as a result of the ring's evil influence.

[ancianita]

8. Right. Forgot. I thought they were the two who'd gone fishing in the old days.

[TeeYiYi]

16. Yeah, I saw your post 8 after I'd posted.

I couldn't be absolutely positive. It's been 40 years since I read The Hobbit.

TYY

[TexasProgresive]

23. Smeagol killed that friend over the ring. n/t

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

32. His friend's name was Deagol.

I have often wondered if they were brothers.

[opiate69]

35. IIRC, Deagol was Smeagol's cousin...

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

37. My bad. I've read TLotR six-seven times, but it has been a while.

Perhaps I should read it again. I love J.R.R. Tolkein's works.

[TeeYiYi]

9. No, I don't think he was ever friends with Bilbo...

He struggled with his obsession with the 'Precious' for almost 500 years before Bilbo found the ring. Gollum hated Bilbo.

If they were once friends, I've forgotten it. I don't think Bilbo was as old as Smeagol; not by a long shot.

TYY

[ancianita]

15. Yup, you're right. I'd gotten some scenes confused, sorry.

[Mike Daniels]

50. Bilbo was 50 years old (give or take) at the beginning of The Hobbit

per "The Annotated Hobbit". So he definitely would not have been a contemporary of Smeagol/Gollum.

[Berlum]

45. ...in other words, he got infested with Republicon "Family Values"

[OnyxCollie]

4. I always thought it was the latter.

Gollum/Smeagol didn't have the hairy feet or short stature.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

5. He was most likely a Stoor.

[OnyxCollie]

12. After looking at the picture of Gollum

from the 1978 Tolkien calendar my uncle gave me when I was a kid, Gollum did indeed have hairy feet.
[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[Feral Child]

24. Love your nick, R. Daneel! n/t

[cthulu2016]

6. He began as something much like a Hobbit

Folks of similar stature wuth a river culture, IIRC

[Vashta Nerada]

10. Gollum was a Stoor Hobbit.

One of the River-folk. He lived near the Gladden Fields.

[Katashi_itto]

26. A Stool Hobbit, they were a sullen folk, liking nothing more complicated than a blackjack or luger.

Occasionally they would get together several hundred, to dry-gulch some lone human farmer. The big folk, they called biggers.

[riqster]

27. Bored, are we?

Of the rings, at least.

[Katashi_itto]

29. Lol!

[Iggo]

44. Heheheh.

[riqster]

48. My hands are as deft as crowbars.

[Iggo]

52. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and he has many names!

[Gravitycollapse]

11. Yes. He was a normal hobbit before he found the ring in a lake bed, IIRC.

It's been a couple years since I last read The Trilogy or The Hobbit. I cannot remember distinctly exactly how he came upon the ring. But I do remember that he was normal before he found the ring. As with Bilbo, possessing the ring gave Smeagol a uniquely long life that, combined with his seclusion in the caves, sort of helped turn him into the sickly looking monstrosity he is in the books.

[Aerows]

13. Yes

The Ring turned him over time and he lived an extraordinary amount of time because of it. That's how the Ring worked.

It's also why Bilbo celebrated his 111st birthday and didn't really look a day older than when he found the Ring. Hobbits have extreme will in the books, and that is why Bilbo and Frodo were able to resist the desire of the Ring. Smeagol had it in his possession for over 900 years, per the books (I'm going off of the appendices in mine).

It's also why all of the ring bearers went to the West for the Gray Havens. They get "stretched". Gandalf went, as did both Elrond and Galadriel. Even Samwise ends up going because he bore it for a time at the very end.

[TeeYiYi]

18. I think he only had it for 500 years...

...but I could be wrong.

TYY

[Xolodno]

34. One of the Ring Bearers didn't go West....

Tom Bombadil. Granted he had it for less than a minute and laughed when he put it on. But as Ghandalf put it...and going from memory..."he doesn't have power over the ring, rather the ring has no power over him".

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

40. It has been surmised that Tom Bombadil was the embodiment of the secret fire.

Gandalf had stated that Bombadil would be the last to fall in middle earth against Sauron. He wasn't Maiar or Valar. He was something else unaccounted for.

Tolkein himself mentioned that Bombadil was a kind of enigma, but wouldn't go any father to explain him. The idea for Bombadil actually came from one of Tolkein's children's toy dolls.

[riqster]

58. Tim Benzedrino was much easier to figure out.

[pinboy3niner]

14. He was a Stoor Hobbit...

See wiki's footnote:

Gollum was a Stoor Hobbit (1) of the River-folk, who lived near the Gladden Fields.[2] Originally known as Sméagol, he was corrupted by the One Ring and later named Gollum after his habit of making "a horrible swallowing noise in his throat".[3]

1. ^ Tolkien, J. R. R. (1980), Christopher Tolkien, ed., Unfinished Tales, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Part Three, IV. "The Hunt for the Ring", p 353, note 9, ISBN 0-395-29917-9. In a letter quoted by Christopher Tolkien, Tolkien refers to Déagol and Sméagol as Stoors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gollum#cite_note-1

[Demonaut]

17. no but the orcs decended from elves...elves twisted by Morgoth

[riqster]

28. Nope. Per Fangorn, they were an imitation of elves,

Created originally by Sauron.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

33. You have to go back to the Silmarillion. Morgoth was the author of the Orcs.

Sauron was just Morgoth's lieutenant and one of the most mighty of the Maiar. Morgoth was one of the powers of Arda: one of the Valar. He didn't have the power to create since that alone comes from Illuvartar so the best that Morgoth could do was to mock Illuvarar's works by twisting captured elves into orcs.

[riqster]

41. Interesting!

I obviously need to read the Silmarillion, Friend Daneel.

[dionysus]

53. it's a slog to read, but it does explain the backstory of the world very well. i'd call it the bible

of the tolkeinverse...

[Ichingcarpenter]

19. He was once a FDR Democrat but

after acquiring the ring of trickle down became a Reagan Democrat and finally the hideous form you see him now
a Republican.

[G_j]

21. --

[eridani]

30. You won the internet! n/t

[pinboy3niner]

31. Yes--but to be fair, he was a Hard Hobbit to Break

[riqster]

42. Did you say that just for the el've it?

[Pretzel_Warrior]

20. Ask Steven Colbert

he'll know

[johnnypneumatic]

22. something like a hobbit

but degenerated into gollum as a result of turning evil and psychotic after 500 years of being a republican

[Recursion]

25. He was related to "the fathers of the fathers of the stoors"

Or so Gandalf thought, at any rate.

And he lived centuries before the Hobbits moved over the mountains into Eriador.

[SomethingFishy]

36. That was a question on some game show my wife was watching...

They claimed he was...

But I think they were wrong..

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

38. was Gollum white?

Like Santa and Jesus?

[Iggo]

46. I don't know if he's white...

....but in one very obvious way, he's just like Santa and Jesus.

[MineralMan]

39. Gollum is a fictional character. nt

[riqster]

43. As are elves, dwarves, and hobbits in general.

Wizards actually exist: no one who has seen Buddy Guy in concert will dispute that.

[MineralMan]

49. Indeed. So why is this a real question?

[riqster]

51. AFAICT, it's a harmless discussion about a literary classic. nt

[hobbit709]

55. Hey, I resemble that remark.

[riqster]

56. I have hairy feet, myself.

[Arkana]

47. He was one of the River-folk.

They were like hobbits, yes.

[TBF]

54. I like the hobbits - they work together

as you typically see in a socialist society

[reflection]

57. Until Megyn Kelly tells me what he was

I don't have an opinion.

Harumph.

[riqster]

59. It's OK. The only important thing is that he was a Honky Hobbit.

So Megyn can stand down.