After staying two more years there in bitterness and angst, he finally overcame his terror of the light and the Orcs, and descended from his hiding place to search for the Ring. When Bilbo escaped from the Misty Mountains with the Ring in The Hobbit, Gollum did not immediately go after him out of fear of being taken by the goblins outside his cave. The two personalities of Sméagol and Gollum seemed to co-exist, interacting with each other, although the latter would often succeed in taking control of the other.īy the time he had met Bilbo, he had descended into complete madness, still bewitched by his “birthday present”. His voice also became raspy, and his constant mutterings and gurgling noises eventually earned him the name ‘Gollum’. The Ring had greatly changed his appearance by then, reducing him to a disfigured and repulsive creature. He wandered around for a few years until he settled in a deep cavern in the Misty Mountains. After seven years of inflicting torture on others, he was ultimately banished from the hobbit-hole. He sneaked around his village to steal, eavesdrop and aggravate everyone.

Sméagol kept the Ring a secret and gradually became corrupted by it, using it frequently to turn invisible and engage in malicious behavior. However, Déagol refused, and the two fought over it until Sméagol choked him to death and hid his body. Immediately captivated by it, Sméagol demanded the Ring as a birthday present. After being pulled into the river by a large fish, Déagol discovered the Ring and became its third bearer - but only for a few moments. On his 33rd birthday, he went fishing with his cousin Déagol in the Gladden Fields. His early years were spent with his grandmother, the matriarch, and his extended family on the banks of the Anduin.

His name was Sméagol at that time, and he belonged to the breed of Stoor hobbits, also known as the river-folk.

By the time Gollum was born, the Ring had been lost for thousands of years and seemed nothing more than a myth.

How old is gollum in lord of the rings