In J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, Gollum possesses the One Ring before Bilbo takes it. Gollum lives beneath the Misty Mountains, where Bilbo encounters him after becoming separated from the dwarf company.
Gollum originally had another name, Sméagol, and belonged to a river-dwelling people related to the Hobbits. The Ring came to him after he and Déagol found it while fishing. Its influence gradually corrupted him, and he hid beneath the mountains for centuries.
During Bilbo’s escape, Gollum challenges him to a riddle game. Bilbo finds the Ring, initially not fully understanding its significance, and uses its power to become invisible. The revised edition of The Hobbit adjusted the earlier portrayal of this encounter to align it with the darker history developed in The Lord of the Rings.
Gollum is sometimes mistakenly treated as the Ring’s creator or as an ordinary monster. Tolkien presents him instead as a tragic, corrupted person whose identity has been shaped by long possession of the Ring.