A Hobbit of the Stoor family, and a long-time keeper of the One Ring. Originally named Sméagol, Gollum was once a member of a Hobbit group that lived along banks of the River Anduin. Gollum first came into contact with the Ring as a boy, after his friend Déagol discovered it by chance in the riverbed. Immediately enamored by the Ring's beauty (and unknowingly influenced by its malignant power) Gollum killed his friend in order to possess it, and then fled his homeland, taking the Ring with him. He retreated to the caves under the mountains, where he lurked for many centuries. Gollum used the Ring as a simple talisman of invisibility, unaware of its true power and malevolence, or that fact that it was devouring his mind. By the time The Lord of the Rings opens, Gollum is a very old, and completely broken in mind and spirit after many long centuries with the Ring. Gollum, who was so consumed by the Ring that it physically transformed him into a distorted creature of considerable wretchedness, later lost it in the tunnels near the Orc lairs under the Misty Mountains, and it was here that Bilbo Baggins found it during his initial quest to the Lonely Mountain in The Hobbit. Bilbo also encountered Gollum himself during this episode, and it was at this time the two of them engaged in the famous riddle contest that Bilbo eventually won by challenging Gollum to answer the question, "what have I got in my pocket?" Gollum, unable to answer, lost the match, but later deduced that it must have been his beloved ring that the Hobbit had in its pocket. Pained by the loss of his precious talisman, and tortured by the enslaving hold it had on his body and mind, Gollum was eventually driven to leave his dark sanctuary and seek Bilbo out. This latter act proved to be one of the key events in the later history of the One Ring.
