---A LOTR Case Study---
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Who Is Gollum?
3 Traits That Make Gollum One of the Best Villains
—We Understand Gollum
—Gollum is Terrifying
—Gollum Raises the Stakes
How You Can Apply This
Ask Yourself
Throughout all of our reading ventures, we have all come across those villains. The ones who are so stupid that they’re annoying. The ones that lose EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. The ones that are such a part of class Villain Wannabees that they’re laughable.
If you’re reading this article, chances are you don’t want to write a villain like that. That, or you just want to read it and laugh at all my mistakes. ;P
Whatever your reasons, I’m here to discuss what I consider to be one of the most well-written villains in recent literature: Gollum/Smeagol, from Lord of the Rings. (SPOILER ALERT!! There will be spoilers throughout the rest of this article, so if you haven’t read or watched LOTR, you might want to skip it for now.)
Who Is Gollum?
According to Gandalf, Gollum was once a Hobbit-like creature named Smeagol that existed centuries before LOTR takes place. Smeagol went fishing with his cousin, Deagol, for his birthday. When Deagol fell out of the boat and consequently found the Ring of Power at the bottom of the river, Smeagol instantly fell prey to its seductive powers. He asked Deagol to give the ring to him as a birthday present, but Deagol refused, provoking Smeagol to violence. He strangled Deagol to death and took the Ring for his own.
From then on, the Ring was Smeagol’s greatest “precious”. He used its invisibility powers for not-so-above-board things, resulting in his grandmother turning him away from his home. He wandered in the wilderness for a long time, coming to hate the sun and love the dark. Once he found an underground lake in the Misty Mountains, he stayed there for about 400 years, living off of blind fish and goblins and the occasional bat. His life, unnaturally prolonged by the Ring’s power, seemed miserable.
That was when Bilbo Baggins, a Hobbit of the Shire, showed up. He and Gollum played a high-stakes riddle game – if Bilbo won, Gollum would show him the way out. If Gollum won, Bilbo would submit to being eaten by the treacherous creature. Bilbo eventually won by asking “What have I got in my pocket?”, having found the Ring earlier when Gollum had lost it and deciding to keep the supposed trinket. When Gollum found out, he flew into a rage and inadvertently showed invisible Bilbo the way out while trying to catch him and kill him. Bilbo spared Gollum’s life in a show of pity, an act that may have saved Middle-earth.
Time passed and Gollum decided to brave the “Yellow face” (the sun) to track down Baggins. He is drawn to Mordor, where he not only met Shelob (a giant spider), but also is captured by Sauron and tortured until he reveals that the last place he saw the Ring was with a “Baggins” of the “Shire”. Sauron then turned Gollum loose, perceiving that the slimy creature might accidentally aid him in regaining the Ring.
Gollum is afterwards captured by Aragorn, a Ranger of the North, and interrogated by Gandalf. He is then taken to Mirkwood and placed under the custody of the Elves and their king, Thranduil. He later escapes with the help of some Orcs, traveling to the Mines of Moria and staying there until the Fellowship of the Ring happens to pass by. From there, Gollum tracks them until he is captured by Frodo and Sam and leads them to Mordor, all the while hoping to regain the Ring that Frodo now bears. Once in Mordor, Gollum snaps and attacks Frodo at the edge of the Crack of Doom (the only place the Ring can be destroyed), biting off Frodo’s finger and the Ring along with it. Elated with his victory, Gollum teeters on the edge of the Crack and falls in with one final cry of, “Precious!” He is destroyed in the lava along with the Ring, inadvertently saving the world through his death.
Gollum is a slimy creature, one of the most 3-dimensional characters I’ve ever read, not to mention a fantastic villain. How? Let me show you. 🙂
3 Traits That Make Gollum One of the Best Villains
—We Understand Gollum
This might be the most terrifying. If we can understand someone this villainous, what does that make us?
1. Gollum is relatable
We’ve all felt that temptation for something we know is bad. We’ve all wrestled with the worst parts of ourselves and lost. We all know the feeling of being disliked or even hated on sight. And it hurts, doesn’t it?
2. Gollum is pitiable
Helplessly enslaved to the Ring, which resulted in all sorts of stuff like living off of raw fish and Orcs (and they don’t taste very nice, do they, Precious?), being alone for years on end, and being tortured for his knowledge. Not a nice life.
Not only that, but we pity Smeagol as he fails time and time again, throughout both books and films, to conquer his Gollum (or “Stinker”) side. Especially that “I hate you” moment in the movies. *sniffles* Poor guy.
—Gollum is Terrifying
How would you like to be followed around by a murderous cannibal who would like nothing more than to kill you and take what’s yours? ‘Cause if that ain’t scary, I don’t know what is.
1. Gollum is unpredictable
In the books, Sam refers to the Smeagol/Gollum sides of this character as Slinker/Stinker, respectively. The scary thing is that you can never tell when Slinker is going to slip into Stinker mode and plot his murderous schemes – or worse, try to carry them out. This is excellently showcased in The Hobbit, during Gollum’s high-stakes riddles game with Bilbo. One moment he’s eager to play, the next looking for the opportunity to bash Bilbo’s skull in. In The Lord of the Rings, we see Gollum portraying this behavior again during his midnight conversations with himself. He varies between almost sweet to menacing with a snap of the fingers (or cut of the camera). The worst part is, only Sam notices. Frodo is almost always asleep during those conversations (more on that later).
2. Gollum is smart
Not only that, but Gollum isn’t part of the Apple Dumpling Gang. He’s smart and capable of pitting his wits against those of both Frodo and Sam. He knows the path. He knows the tricks. And he’s willing to destroy anyone and anything that stands in his way. We see this as he manipulates Frodo’s pity when they first meet, going from ready to murder to a piteous, wailing thing with big blue eyes trying to save his own skin. Readers (and Sam) don’t trust Gollum, but Frodo does. Gollum notices this, which causes him to identify his enemies – namely, the suspicious Samwise Gamgee. By careful observation and planning, Gollum is able to plant seeds of doubt in Frodo’s mind as to Sam’s loyalty by manipulating the hold of one of the things Gollum knows best: the Precious.
Gollum also uses his knowledge of the area to his advantage and the Hobbits’ disadvantage through Shelob’s lair. The Hobbits don’t know they’re walking into a trap – they think they’re walking into a secret passage into Mordor that even the great Eye doesn’t know about. Their ignorance almost cost them their lives.
3. Gollum has no moral compass
Murder? No problem. Cannibalism? Easy as pie. Lying? No sweat. Betrayal? A bit more difficult towards Frodo, but can-do.
The thing is, you know Gollum isn’t going to question whether or not murdering Sam is a good idea, thus giving Sam the prime few seconds most heroes need to escape. No, Gollum wants the job done, and he wants it done now. He won’t waste a moment trying to execute his devious plans, not thinking twice about the morality of the situation. There is one thing on his mind, and one thing only: the Ring. And he’ll do anything to get it back.
—Gollum Raises the Stakes
Without Gollum, LOTR would have been much less intriguing. Without the sly murderer stalking the hero at every turn, without the vengeful slave right next to the sleeping master, without the reluctant guide leading the Ring-bearer closer and closer to literal Doom, much of the suspense of LOTR would have been lost.
Thank God for Gollum. XD
1. Gollum and the Ring.
Despite Gollum’s persuasive speeches, we know that if he manages to snag the Ring from Frodo, there will be no stopping Sauron from tracking him down and taking what once belonged to him. The world would end. The Shire would end. All of our heroes’ long, hard labor would have been for nothing. We’re not just worried about Frodo losing the Ring to Gollum, we’re worried about Gollum’s abilities to keep it from Sauron’s prying Eye. We know he’d fail. We know the Ring would fall into the wrong hands. And that only makes it more imperative that Frodo, and only Frodo, bears the Ring.
I already touched on this, but it’s also worth re-mentioning that Gollum is willing to do anything to get his Precious back. Be that murdering, betraying, stealing, or manipulating, he’ll do it without blinking an eye.
2. Gollum shows us what Frodo could become.
Throughout the entire epic of the story of the Ring, we know of five Bearers: Sauron, Deagol, Smeagol, Bilbo, and finally, Frodo. The final three show what happens the longer you bear the Ring. Frodo was still sane at the end (kinda). Bilbo was beginning to prize it above all else. And Smeagol did prize it above literally all else, even life itself. We know that if Frodo kept the Ring, even managed to save it from Sauron, we’d eventually lose the kind, quiet Hobbit we once knew and get a wicked, sniveling creature like Gollum, just like we lost a bit of honest, sweet Bilbo when he held on to the Ring after the Goblin-tunnels. This pattern of transformation only serves to make us root all the more for the Ring to finally end its destructive reign in the fires of Mount Doom.
3. Gollum is up to no good, but Frodo still trusts him.
Sam knows Gollum is trying to trick Frodo out of the Ring. We know Gollum is trying to trick Frodo out of the Ring. But Frodo still keeps him around. Why? In Frodo’s mind, Gollum is their only ticket to Mordor. And you know what? He was right. Without Gollum close by, Sam and Frodo wouldn’t have made it far into that bleak realm. But that doesn’t make Gollum’s proximity any better. Rather, it only drains Sam as he tries to keep watch and provides more opportunities for Gollum to snatch at the Ring.
How You Can Apply This
Writing villains can be hard. Most of us aren’t like Gollum – we don’t eat Orcs, have 500 years under our belts, or talk about ourselves in the plural (well… maybe some of us do) – so how can we write villains like him?
Follow the masters.
Tolkien took the three key elements of a villain (relatablitly, fear, and raising of the stakes) and wove them into his character, adding multiple different aspects to each element. There wasn’t just one reason why Gollum was understood, or terrifying, or raising the stakes. There were many. Not only that, but Tolkien tied most, if not all, of that into Gollum’s backstory, making us understand more of who he is and why he has become the way he is.
So. Want to create a masterful villain like this one? Make them multi-layered. Give them a human, relatable side. Give them a dark, terrifying one. Make sure that they raise the stakes. And that there is a good villain.
Ask Yourself
Do people feel for my villain? In what way(s)? Can I make him/her more relatable or pitiable? Does my villain scare my readers? Why or why not? What traits can I add to make him/her more terrifying? Does my villain raise the stakes? How? Should he/she raise them more? If so, how? Is my villain multi-layered? How can I add more layers?
Thanks for sticking with me through this over-long article! XD Y’all are the greatest. 🙂
Until next time,
Take courage, pursue God, and smile while you still have teeth!! 😉
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