Gollum is a corrupted hobbit in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth legendarium.
Before becoming known as Gollum, he was Sméagol, a river-hobbit related to the Stoors. On his birthday, Sméagol’s relative Déagol finds the One Ring in the Anduin, but Sméagol murders him to take it. The Ring’s influence and centuries of isolation transform Sméagol into the creature called Gollum.
Gollum hides beneath the Misty Mountains for roughly five hundred years. Bilbo encounters him there in The Hobbit and wins the Ring through the famous riddle contest. Gollum later becomes central to The Lord of the Rings because he knows the route into Mordor and remains obsessed with reclaiming the Ring.
A frequent mistake is to classify Gollum as an orc or monster species. Tolkien presents him as a former hobbit whose body, mind, and identity have been profoundly damaged by the Ring.