Kimberly Steele

The Gollum character from Lord of the Rings is more of a household name in our culture than almost any Pokemon and most of the people mentioned in the Bible other than Jesus.  Most American kids can imitate his throaty, croaky voice by the age of ten.  Why is Gollum so interesting?  Why is his tale so uncanny and poignant?  I think it’s because Gollum, as silly as he is, is arguably the most deeply symbolic and meaningful character in the Lord of the Rings.

 A brief synopsis of Gollum’s character: Gollum starts out as a normal Hobbit named Sméagol.  One day he goes out fishing with his cousin.  Sméagol’s cousin makes an unexpected catch in the form of a beautiful, golden ring and Sméagol murders him to possess it.  Wanting to be alone with the Ring, Sméagol sequesters himself in a subterranean maze of caves so he can sit around in the dark fawning over the Ring.  As a result, his life is extended hundreds of years beyond a normal Hobbit lifespan, however, there is a steep cost: Sméagol’s body becomes shriveled and deformed and his only obsession becomes his love/hate relationship with the Ring.  His new name, Gollum, comes as he forgets his old self and transforms into a croaking, hoarse caricature of a former Hobbit.

Gollum is the only character to manually mess around with the Ring for any significant length of time in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit novels.  Bilbo Baggins, who steals the Ring from Gollum, has the foresight to keep it out of sight and out of mind.  As a result of handling the Ring regularly and closely, it is Gollum who is shown to us as an example of what the Ring does to a normal being.  Like many fairy tales, Gollum’s story is worth a deep dive into what could possibly be learned via a seemingly innocuous  bit of dramatic entertainment.  Gollum represents gradual devolution via a bad (yet compelling) choice.  Gollum goes from an average Hobbit to a greedy frog because of his tormented relationship with a magical object.  He changes from a thinking, conscious mind to a demented, sleazy murderer as the result of a single fateful afternoon.  Any remnant of his former kindness or humanity (Hobbit-ity?) is trounced for his newfound vestigial state.  He becomes a living nightmare of cast off and useless mutations.

 The devolution Gollum undergoes is the result of addictive behavior, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Gollum character is triggering to anyone who battles addiction.  Though I’m sure it can be analyzed a thousand ways to Sunday, for me, Gollum’s tale represents addiction to fame, money, and power and the problems inherent in getting them.  In Gollum’s case, he’s like one of those regular dudes who ends up hitting the Lotto or who climbs in bed with a young woman only to realize she’s royalty the next morning: he doesn’t go looking for it.  Fame and fortune find him.  Sméagol is not a particularly contemplative Hobbit to begin with, so when the Ring comes at him, full throttle, he doesn’t stand a chance of resisting it.  Absolute power corrupts absolutely.  The Ring and the fame and fortune it represents are not evil per se, they are simply powerful.  Gollum is a 40 watt bulb screwed into a 120 watt socket: he can’t handle it.  In the mundane world, Elon Musk thinks it is necessary for humans to take rockets to Mars so humankind can begin Phase One of conquering the galaxy.  He is a 40 watt bulb who upon seeing the stars, decided that he too could become center of his own solar system because he’s very special and perhaps entitled.  Delusions of grandeur upon stumbling onto money and power (Musk has a wealthy engineer father) are not uncommon.  Musk has yet to transform into a murderous semi-amphibian, however, the question of his character remains.  

 There’s a type of woman business owner I have run into several times in my life.  She’s the kind of person I’ve had to steer myself away from becoming as her lifestyle looks glamorous from the outside.  She’s the kind of woman every woman’s magazine ever tells us we have to aspire to be: Entrepreneur, boss, multitasker extraordinaire, pretty but hardly knows it, socialite.  She simply must hobnob with other fabulous, cosmopolitan people.  Her fate is to rule the world, but she will settle for a mate who worships her every move and a small empire with frequent, decadent galas to underline her status and prosperity.  I’ve met this woman and more often than not, she is a monster.  One version of her amassed nearly 3 million dollars in debt by overextending the reach of her business and then went bankrupt overnight and ran from her former clients and vendors after taking their money.  Another has multiple DUIs; it’s just a matter of time before she gets behind the wheel and kills someone.  The worst of them is an exploiter hoarder of animals and a felon.  All three are narcissists with a touch of sociopath.  To them, other people are not fellow humans: they are either opportunities or obstacles.  Dollar signs flash in their eyes when they look at another person; they immediately size you up for how much you’re worth in dollars and cents upon meeting you.  All three of these women are at least a basic form of pretty on the outside and profoundly hideous on the inside.  Gollum isn’t so much a look as he is a state of mind.

Another interesting aspect of Gollum is his instinct to hide.  Long before the halcyon days of Versailles and Marie Antoinette’s Petit Trianon, elites have loved to sequester themselves far away from the hustle and grime of the proletarian masses.  Gollum stays hidden because he is well aware that everyone and their uncle wants what he has got.  The tragic side effects of shrinking and becoming nearly blind to adapt to his environment are, to Gollum, a price worth paying to be with his precious Ring.  Correspondingly, the elites cower in their McMansions and more metaphorical university ivory towers, sheltered and clueless to the goings-on among those who don’t possess their coveted wealth and status.  No matter that they have become depressed and obsessed with maintaining their stuff, if only so they can send the occasional message of “I’ve got mine” to the teeming hordes of deplorable fools, usually via Instagram.  

 Gollum’s endless lust for the Ring does not end well.  Greed, at least per Gollum's example, is not good.