In J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins meets Gollum during a riddle contest beneath the Misty Mountains. Their exchange is one of the book’s most memorable episodes.
Bilbo becomes separated from the dwarf company and finds a mysterious ring in the tunnels. He then encounters Gollum, a solitary creature living beside an underground lake. They agree to ask each other riddles, with Bilbo’s eventual question about what he has in his pocket helping him escape.
Gollum originally possessed the ring before losing it to Bilbo. In The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien develops Gollum’s history further: his earlier name was Sméagol, and the ring’s long influence had corrupted both his body and character.
Gollum is sometimes confused with an orc or goblin, but Tolkien presents him as a hobbit-like individual transformed by isolation and the Ring. Smaug, by contrast, is the dragon in The Hobbit.