Gollum is a monster with a distinctive style of speech in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy world of Middle-earth. He was introduced in the 1937 fantasy novel The Hobbit, and became important in its sequel, The Lord of the Rings. … 展开

The Hobbit
Gollum was introduced in The Hobbit as "a small, slimy creature" who lived on a small island in an underground lake at the roots of the Misty Mountains. He survived on cave fish, which he caught from a small boat, and small 展开

Sméagol and Déagol
Cain, Abel, and Grendel
Commentators including the theologian Ralph C. Wood, and the critics Brent Nelson, Kathleen Gilligan, and Susan and Woody Wendling have remarked that Sméagol's murder of … 展开

The rock band Led Zeppelin mention Gollum and Mordor in their 1969 song "Ramble On", with the lyrics "Twas in the darkest depths of Mordor / I met a girl so fair / But Gollum, and the … 展开

The Tolkien scholar Douglas A. Anderson, editor of The Annotated Hobbit, suggests that Tolkien derived the name "Gollum" from Old Norse gull/goll, meaning 'gold'; this has the 展开

In the first edition of The Hobbit, Tolkien made no reference to Gollum's size, leading illustrators such as Tove Jansson to portray him as very … 展开

Animations
Gollum's first known screen adaptation is in Gene Deitch's 1967 short film The Hobbit, where his role is reduced from the action described in the novel to appearing in a single scene which depicts him sitting in his boat. 展开