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CMackintosh
Ossiriand
Feb 13 2025, 9:36am
Post #1 of 3
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Gollum's feline ancestry
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There's a friendly neighbourhood cat hanging round my door most days, sometimes needing nothing more than a head-rub, other times demanding to be let onto my lap, and the like. I found myself observing her mannerisms, and it seems to me that Tolkien modeled Gollum's behaviour in Frodo and Sam's company on observations of his cat's behaviour.
Or in other words, Gollum seems to me to have evolved from cats, rather like that character in Red Dwarf, but rather grimmer. Thoughts?
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Silvered-glass
Nargothrond
Feb 13 2025, 10:07am
Post #2 of 3
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Gollum's name may be related to the word for cat in Sumerian, but Gollum's behavior shows the signs of the psychological defense mechanism known as reaction formation. Gollum is acting excessively affectionate because he can't bear to admit even to himself that hate is what he really feels.
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Felagund
Mithlond
Feb 24 2025, 9:30pm
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Come to think of it, Gollum as drawn in the Ralph Bakshi adaptation of LotR reminds me a bit of a cat! Well, slightly! It was the image of Gollum I grew up with, as was Peter Woodthorpe's voiceover.
And I see that Andy Serkis said in an interview that his own performance was in part inspired by his cat Dizz :)
Welcome to the Mordorfone network, where we put the 'hai' back into Uruk
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