Re Gollum - For Those More Learned than I

[The Grey Elf]

Does anyone happen to know what or whom may have influenced Tolkien's invention of Gollum? Was he at all, meaning even his appearance, inspired by an actual person? Also I'd love to hear any background or speculation as to why he gave the character his signature hissss?

Many thanks!

 

[Otaku-sempai]

Douglas A. Anderson writes in The Annotated Hobbit of Glip, a character similar to Gollum, who shows up in a poem of the same name that Tolkien probably composed around 1928. The poem was part of a series of poems called "Tales and Songs of Bimble Bay."

 

[Hamfast Gamgee]

In the Hobbit he is really just a creepy guy in a cave with no other desire than to eat Bilbo. It's not even like he doesn't have another supply of food that's what he wants to do, no subilties. It's only the movie that shows up the other side of him. And come on, in the Hobbit, how is anyone supposed to guess that Gollum is a Hobbit! In Lotr, Tolkien seems to have decided to flesh out this character making him more sympathetic dare one say it.

 

[dijomaja]

I almost didn't reply, not seeing myself as learned in all this.

I haven't read any commentary from Tolkien on the original question but I think the evolution of the character of Gollum actually shapes the story. In TH, Gollum is almost a plot device, a weird creature who threatens Bilbo in a cave. The One Ring was written in after the fact to connect the story to that of LOTR.

But that connection ended up driving much of the story in LOTR. Gollum's finding of The Ring connects the story we read with the events of three thousand years before. The fact that Gollum was a Hobbit or "Of Hobbit-kind" is a graphic depiction of the effects of The Ring. Frodo's decision to spare Gollum sets up the ending of the story and it's ultimately Gollum who, "by chance if chance you call it", brings about the conclusion.