gollum

Veronica Franco
Classics 30A
Dr. Reckford
5/1/2000

Gollum in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings

In J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Gollum changes drastically from the frightful character seen in the Hobbit, though he never makes a full transition back to his pre-ring self. Throughout his association with Frodo, he wavers between being a helpful aide and a greedy animal. Tolkien shows Gollum’s two sides in his description of one of Gollum’s lapses. He uses the literary devices of color, alliteration and word order to evoke feelings of disgust and pity in the reader.
On the path to Mordor, Frodo and Sam realize Gollum is still possessed by the thought of the ring and he is following them. They eventually trap Gollum and Frodo wins his trust (or as much trust as one can win with Gollum). Gollum seems to have turned over a new leaf, but he continues to revert to his ring-hungry self. This occurs when Frodo asks Gollum if he is hungry. In The Two Towers Tolkien writes:

At the word hungry a greenish light was kindled in Gollum’s pale eyes, and they seemed to protrude further than ever from his thin sickly face. For a moment he relapsed into his old Gollum-manner. ‘We are famisshed, yes famisshed we are, precious,’ he said. ‘What is it they eats? Have they nice fisshes?’ His tongue lolled out between his sharp yellow teeth, licking his colourless lips. (289)

Tolkien uses color, alliteration and word order to utterly repulse the reader in this passage while still creating a feeling of pity. Green, the first color mentioned in this passage, can have many connotations. The most directly applicable to this situation, as proposed by Bradley Morris, is jealousy. One often hears a person is “green with envy”. Indeed, Gollum desires food, which he knows Frodo and Sam have.   Gollum also wants the ring, and perhaps this mention that the hobbits have something Gollum does not (food) has reminded him of this. Green is also a color of hope, however, as evidenced in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.   Hope and jealousy are very closely linked. Jealousy is a desire for something one cannot have, while hope is general desire (with a better connotation). Gollum hopes he will obtain both food and the ring. Another way hope manifests itself in Gollum is through his eventual role in the story. While the greenish light here might be detrimental to Frodo and Sam, in the end this jealousy allows the destruction of the ring and the return of hope to the world. The use of the color green makes the reader dislike Gollum for his jealousy, yet appreciate him for his eventual role in the story.
     The other color in the passage, yellow, both symbolizes cowardice and demonstrates Gollum’s repulsiveness. Gollum appears menacing, but the reader knows Frodo has easily tamed him. Yellow here reminds the reader that Gollum is not a huge threat-- in fact he is almost cowardly. The color yellow also disgusts the reader, for having yellow teeth is a sign that Gollum does not take care his teeth or body and is generally dirty.   Tolkien uses yellow here to again show Gollum’s repulsiveness and reinforce that he is not a major threat to Frodo and Sam.
     There are two non-colors in this passage, as well. Tolkien describes Gollum as having “pale eyes” and “colorless lips” (286). Again, Tolkien has two agendas for using these non-colors. First, he desires to show the reader Gollum does not have much true substance-- his character is weakened by the consistent personality changes, and he does not pose a serious problem to Frodo and Sam. These non-colors also serve, as did yellow and green, to disgust the reader. With the use of these descriptors, Gollum seems sick, weak, and almost slimy. This reminds one of cave creatures-- transparent, sightless, slimy creatures. The non-colors serve a dual purpose to both tell the reader Gollum is not a major threat and to disgust the reader.
Tolkien’s use of colors in this passage is always twofold, with one side repulsing the reader and the other crying out for the reader’s pity. Green symbolizes jealousy and hope, yellow cowardice and uncleanness, and the non-colors transparency of character and sliminess. Indeed, Gollum is a two-sided character. He struggles, as will be discussed later, between two opposing personalities.
     Tolkien also uses alliteration to bring Gollum to life. By doubling the “s” in the middle of words, he adds a hissing sound to Gollum’s speech. Tolkien also chose “s” words to lead up to Gollum’s speech. By reading the first two lines of the passage out loud, the reader almost starts to sound like Gollum, and he can better imagine Gollum hissing and spitting his words. When the reader reaches “famisshed” and “fisshes," the repetition of the “s” sound in the lines prior forces him to emphasize the hissing even more. The addition of these few letters drastically alters the reader’s involvement with this passage, and serves to compare Gollum to a snake. This image of a slithery Gollum succeeds in disgusting the reader.
     Another use of alliteration is evident in the last sentence of the passage. Tolkien writes “his tongue lolled out between his sharp yellow teeth, licking his colourless lips” (289). There are so many “l” sounds in this passage that the reader’s tongue almost becomes twisted! This alliteration really is lolling. The last four words have an anapestic rhythm, the beats of which remind one of a drooping head. Adam Mack even said he envisioned Gollum’s whole body swaying to and fro while reading this passage. Today, when one sees someone lolling their head or body, they are usually either sad or sick. Gollum is both, as reinforced by Tolkien’s description of his “thin sickly face” (289). One usually tries to avoid the sad or sick because they incur discomfort. One finds them disgusting, but also feels sorry for them. This description of Gollum brings him to life while still keeping the reader repulsed and pitying.
     Tolkien uses word order in Gollum’s speech to repel the reader while the actual words cry out for sympathy. The perfect example is when Gollum says “We are famisshed, yes famisshed we are, precious” (289). The repetition of the first phrase in inverted form serves to show how old Gollum is. This is an older style of speech, and so reminds the reader that Gollum has been alive and wearing the ring for many years. It also places extra emphasis on the word “famisshed." Gollum is indeed famished-- both in body (hunger) and in spirit (he does not have the ring). Again, the duality of his speech shows both sides of Gollum. He is dually a pitiful, hungry wretch who desires to please and a ring-hungry thief. His use of “precious” at the end of this phrase shows he is not talking to himself, but to the ring. Word order in Gollum’s speech further repels the reader, as Tolkien intended, but the actual words in the sentence again cry out for pity.
     As shown previously, Gollum has two opposing sides. He is at once a faithful servant who desires affection and the possessive character seen in the Hobbit. Before obtaining the ring, Gollum was probably some sort of hobbit. In the Hobbit, Gollum remembers riddles and that “asking them. . . had been the only game he had ever played with other funny creatures sitting in their holes in the long, long ago” (80). Since hobbits are the only intelligent creatures that live in holes, it makes sense that Gollum was a hobbit or hobbit-like creature. So Gollum does (or did) have a good side at one time. After killing his brother for the ring, however, his family rejects him and Gollum retreats to the pool under the goblin’s mountain. During his encounter with Bilbo, Gollum talks in the same manner analyzed above. He hisses often, addresses comments at “precious” and almost always repeats phrases with inverted word order. Before Frodo befriends him in The Two Towers, Gollum acts the same way. Frodo and Sam overhear him muttering to himself “Ach, sss! Cautious, my precious! More haste less speed. We musstn’t rissk our neck, musst we, precious?” (279). He still speaks with the “s” alliteration and with the inversion of phrases, and he still evokes a feeling of disgust in the reader.
     A remarkable change comes over Gollum when he feels, for the first time, that he can trust someone. Tolkien writes “From that moment a change, which lasted for some time, came over him. He spoke with less hissing and whining, and he spoke to his companions direct, not to his precious self” (286). This is Gollum’s first step back to his pre-ring self. This new Gollum, while still wary and a bit hissy, is eager to help and please. He seems to crave affection and fear anger. Gollum still switches back and forth from old to new, or perhaps old to a new older. The paragraph analyzed above is a perfect example. Prior to the mention of food, Gollum was happy and helpful. Then, as Tolkien says, “he relapsed into his old Gollum-manner” (289). Indeed, he even has two names. “Gollum” is associated with the hissing ring-hungry side, and “Sméagol” desires to help Frodo.
     Tolkien gives the reader a glimpse of what Gollum could have been had he not encountered the ring. After foraging for food one day, Gollum returns to find Frodo and Sam asleep. Tolkien describes him as follows:

The gleam faded from his eyes, and they went dim and gray, old and tired. A spasm of pain seemed to twist him, and he turned away. . . as if engaged in some interior debate. Then he came back, and slowly putting out a trembling had, very cautiously he touched Frodo’s knee-- but almost the touch was a caress. For a fleeting moment, could one of the sleepers have seen him, they would have thought that they beheld an old weary hobbit, shrunken by the years that had carried him far beyond his time (411).

Now Gollum’s eyes are gray, not green. He has lost his jealousy, for the moment, and returns to his former self-- a hobbit or hobbit-like creature. He is no longer brash and daring, as Tolkien shows by linking “slowly," “trembling," and “very cautiously” while describing his timid attempt to touch Frodo. Here it is unadulterated pity that Tolkien evokes. There is no trace of the possessive creature that devotes his life to the ring. There is only an “old weary hobbit” (411). A second later, however, Gollum is back in all his glory. Sam awakens and accuses Gollum of sneaking. Suddenly, “a green glint flickered under his heavy lids” (411) and all the old desires are back.
After this scene, Gollum never quite returns to the friendly state seen after Frodo earns his trust. After leading Frodo and Sam to Shelob’s lair, the reader sees Gollum only one more time-- at Mount Doom. Here Gollum’s ring-lust takes over his desire to live in peace and he bites Frodo’s finger off with the ring. He takes a misstep and while falling over the edge, his last word is “precious” (Return of the King 277). The reader knows Gollum is referring to his ring, but Tolkien might have been referring to Gollum himself. Although he was originally a hobbit-like creature, the ring corrupted him so much that even though he tries to return to his former self, he eventually dies because of the ring. And in so doing, he gives the world hope.
Gollum, in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, has been changed by the ring. Tolkien uses the literary devices of color, alliteration and word order to show the reader that Gollum is both a disgusting and pitiable character. Although he tries to return to his pre-ring personality, he is ultimately unsuccessful. The story of Gollum’s association reminds this reader of Frodo. He, too, was changed by the ring. At Mount Doom, he cannot force himself to destroy it. At first glance, Frodo seems not to have changed, much as Gollum seems to have reverted to his pre-ring self. However, like Gollum, Frodo is unable to return completely. While Gollum dies, Frodo is unable to enjoy his life. He remarks to Sam, “I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: someone has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them” (Return of the King 382). He could easily be talking of himself or Gollum.

Home