A Dark Lord of the Rings Theory Finally Solves a Rare Gollum Mystery 23 Years Later

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Gollum is likely the most recognizable character from Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movie trilogies. While he appeared briefly in the first film, he truly emerged in 2002’s The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Andy Serkis’s distinctive performance, combined with groundbreaking computer-generated imagery, made Gollum incredibly memorable. Even people who haven’t seen the Middle-earth films probably recognize his strange habits and, particularly, his unusual way of speaking.

Gollum had a peculiar habit of making words plural, even when they didn’t need it, and sometimes he did it wrong. In Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, for instance, he refers to Bilbo Baggins and his sword saying, “It’s got an Elfish blade, but it’s not an Elfs.” He’d even add extra plural endings to words that were already plural, changing “Orcs” to “Orcses” and “hobbits” to “hobbitses.” This unusual way of speaking was true to J.R.R. Tolkien’s original novels, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, but what led Tolkien to write Gollum’s dialogue this way?

The One Ring Forever Altered Gollum’s Mind

Many fans of The Lord of the Rings believe Gollum’s strange behavior is linked to his sad past. After possessing the One Ring for a long time, Gollum developed two distinct personalities that fought for dominance. As Samwise Gamgee called him, ‘Stinker’ (Gollum) was cruel and aggressive, while ‘Slinker’ (Sméagol) was more subtle and pitiable. Neither personality was truly good, but Sméagol was less corrupted, retaining some of the character he had before the Ring changed him.

Gollum and Sméagol were two sides of the same coin, locked in a constant internal struggle, and this conflict defined his miserable life. This is why he often spoke of himself using “we” and “us” – as if he were multiple beings. Some believe this split personality became so ingrained that Gollum started to see everything else as dual as well, perceiving pairs where there was only one. If this is correct, it highlights the profound damage the One Ring inflicted on his mind, leaving him unable to remember – or even imagine – a time before his life was broken.

Jackson’s films actually offer some clues that challenge this idea. The beginning of The Return of the King shows Gollum as a hobbit, and even before his full transformation, he already spoke in the way he does later in the story. This suggests that Gollum’s manner of speaking was simply a characteristic of that specific hobbit.

However, in Tolkien’s story, it wasn’t directly shown that this was true. The only glimpse of what Gollum was like before his corruption came from Gandalf telling Frodo what Gollum had said about his past, meaning it likely wasn’t a precise recollection of Sméagol’s original words.

Sméagol Was No Ordinary Hobbit Before The Lord of the Rings

Gollum’s strange way of speaking might have a few explanations. He could have been using an older version of Westron, the common language of Middle-earth. Since Gollum lived alone for nearly 478 years before the events in The Hobbit, it’s possible that all Stoors used to speak like him, and the language simply changed over time without him noticing.

As a lifelong movie fan, I always appreciate world-building, and it’s fascinating to think about languages in fantasy films. When you consider that 478 years ago was the mid-1500s, the way people spoke then would sound even more archaic to us than Shakespeare! Knowing Tolkien’s deep love for languages, this explanation feels very much in his style – like a bit of carefully constructed history. However, if he’d really wanted to emphasize the development of the hobbits’ language, I’d expect to see that explored in more detail. It just feels like a piece of the puzzle is missing.

Sméagol might have just naturally spoken in an odd way, as depicted in Peter Jackson’s movies. Tolkien also described Sméagol as having other strange behaviors, like biting the feet of other hobbits, making unusual speech patterns plausible. However, these explanations don’t carry the same weight as a popular fan theory: that the One Ring fundamentally warped Gollum’s mind, emphasizing just how dangerous its power truly is.

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2025-11-24 06:12