Gollum
Gollum is a character from Middle-earth in the universe of stories by J. R. R. Tolkien. His original name was Sméagol and he was later named Gollum in reference to the regurgitating noise he made with his throat.
His birth is estimated to have occurred in the year 2430 of the Third Age. His death (given in the Lord of the Rings chronology) was on March 25, 3019 T.E., falling, along with the One Ring, into the crevices of Mount Doom. His lifespan was extended beyond his natural limits by the effect of possessing the One Ring, an unearthly age for a creature that was once a hobbit, though warped and corrupted in mind and body by the Ring's power.. One of his deepest desires was to possess the Ring (which he had enslaved), and he searched for it for many years after losing it.
History
(Argent-Sky drawing).
(Daniel Govar drawing)
Originally he was a hobbit of the Strong branch known as Sméagol. He spent the first few years of his life living with his extended family under his grandmother's matriarchal regime. In the year 2463 T.E., Sméagol became the fourth owner of the One Ring, after Sauron, Isildur, and Déagol. Déagol was his cousin, and on Sméagol's birthday (note that as a hobbit, it was his 33rd birthday, his coming of age, the same age as Frodo when he became the sixth holder of the One Ring) they went fishing in the Gladio fields north of Lothlórien. It was there that Déagol found a gold ring, after being pushed into the water by a large fish. Sméagol claimed it as a birthday present and this surprised Deágol, who refused to give it to him. So, Sméagol killed his cousin Deágol, strangling him on the banks of the river to obtain the ring. Sméagol was quickly corrupted by the ring, and was expelled from the village. He hid in a cave in the Misty Mountains which he made his abode. The evil influence of the ring warped the hobbit's body and mind, aggravating his schizoid personality disorder and prolonging his life beyond natural limits. He began to call the One Ring "my treasure", "my precious" or "my birthday present", as justification for the murder of Deágol. He lived in the Misty Mountains for over 400 years, feeding on raw fish (which he collected from a small raft), and young goblins, for which years later he would find the food of hobbits and elves repulsive.
During the centuries under the influence of the Ring, he developed a dissociative identity disorder: Sméagol, his "kind" persona, still vaguely remembered things like friendship and love, while Gollum, his "evil" persona, was a slave of the Ring and would kill anyone who tried to take it. Samwise Gamgee called the good personality “Smarter” (Slinker) and the bad personality “Rogue” (Stinker). The two personalities often fought when conversing with himself (as Tolkien himself stated "having no one else to talk to") and had a love-hate relationship, reflecting Gollum's love and hate for the Ring and for himself. same.
In July 2941 of the Third Age, during the search for Erebor, the hobbit Bilbo Baggins stumbled and fell into the underground lake where Gollum lived. At that time, Gollum had lost the ring in a network of caverns that connected to the lake, although it can be said that in fact the ring left Gollum, because it is known that he had his own will. As Gandalf would later say, the ring takes care of itself, it tries to get back to Sauron again. After a famous game of riddles, in which Gollum was unaware of his loss, Gollum refused his promise to show Bilbo a way out and planned to kill him. Fleeing from an enraged Gollum, Bilbo (who had already found the ring) discovered the power of invisibility, allowing him to escape Gollum and the Goblins. Gollum then yelled "Thief! bag! We hate him forever!" (In the first edition of The Hobbit, Gollum did not appear as unhappy or as tied to the Ring). Tolkien revised this characterization to fit the concept of the Ring that he developed during the writing of The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien then explained the version given in the first edition as a lie that Bilbo devised to tell the dwarves and Gandalf.
Gollum left the mountains and pursued Bilbo a few years later, but the trail was cold. He made his way to Mordor, where he was forced to reveal what he knew about the ring. Gollum was then freed, but captured by Strider who turned him over to the wood elves who lived in Thranduil's realm in Mirkwood. He subsequently escaped to Moria.
In The Lord of the Rings, Gollum found and followed the Fellowship of the Ring into Moria, and was discovered and heard by Frodo on several occasions. On January 15, 3019 of the Third Age, the Fellowship was divided when Gandalf, one of its members, disappeared while fighting a balrog. Gollum continued to track down the remaining members. It is unknown how he crossed the bridge of Khazad-dûm, but he reached Lórien without the Fellowship noticing. However, he did not penetrate to the lands of the lady. Gollum followed their barques down the Anduin floating on a log to Rauros, and pursued Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee through the Emyn Muil when they stopped on their way to Mordor. Gollum followed them, but after a confrontation, in which he bit Sam and nearly choked him, he was stopped by Frodo using Dart and ordered to release Sam. Frodo tied it with an elven rope around Gollum's ankle, but the mere touch of this rope caused him intense pain. Frodo sympathized with the creature and made it swear to help them. Agreeing to this deal, Gollum swore an oath "by the Treasure" and swore not to harm the "lord of the Ring" (at the time, Frodo), and for this he was released. This new community, led by Gollum, reached the Black Gate, the entrance to Mordor.
Frodo's kindness appealed to Sméagol's personality, and made him at least strive to keep his promise. These two characters (Frodo and Sméagol) had a special bond, having both been bearers of the Ring; Frodo saw his possible future in Gollum, and wanted to save him so that he could save himself.
When they reached the threshold of the Black Gate, they found it heavily guarded, and Sméagol persuaded them not to follow that path, arguing that they would be captured and Sauron would once again possess the Ring. Sméagol offered to lead them south, where he knew of another way to Mordor.
On this path, Frodo and Sam were captured by Faramir, and Sméagol secretly followed them. When Frodo allowed Faramir to capture Sméagol, Faramir felt betrayed, allowing Gollum's personality to take control. Faramir discovered that the place where Gollum was leading them was Cirith Ungol, and warned Frodo and Sam of the danger of that place.
Frodo, Sam, and Gollum left Faramir and began to cross the pass to Cirith Ungol on the fringes of the Ephel Dúath. Gollum then visited Ella-Laraña, a scion of the Ungoliant, as he planned to betray the hobbits and take them away in order to obtain the Ring. When he returned to the hobbits they were asleep, and the sight of Frodo asleep made him almost regretful. However, Sam woke up and harshly claimed Gollum. Thus, Gollum followed his plan to take Frodo and Sam to the cave of Ella-Laraña.
As Frodo warned him, Gollum's oath would lead him to undo any treason, as Frodo and Sam managed to escape from the caverns of Ella-Laraña and against all odds reached the volcanic caldera of Sammath Naur in the Orodruin (Mount Doom). Gollum followed them all this way, waiting for an opportunity to surprise them and steal the Ring. When Frodo and Sam almost reached their destination, he attacked them, but failed to take the Ring. Moments later, Frodo was standing on the edge of the mountain cleft, but he was reluctant to destroy the Ring, and claimed it as his own, placing it on his finger. Then Gollum attacked him again. The two fought, though Frodo was invisible, and finally Gollum bit Frodo's finger off.
At this point, Frodo's kindness to Gollum was rewarded, for Gollum then faltered on the edge of the great pit, lost his balance, and fell while holding Frodo's finger together with the Ring, and falling he gave a last cry of "Tessssssoroooo!" Thus, the Ring, Gollum and Frodo's finger were destroyed in the lava of Mount Doom.
Literary archetype
Gollum has become one of Tolkien's most distinctive characters. He can be related to the good-evil multiple personality archetype created by Robert Louis Stevenson in his novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde : Gollum would be analogous to Mr. Hyde and Sméagol to Dr..jekyll.
Accommodations
In the animated version of The Hobbit, Gollum was voiced by comedian Brother Theodore.
Peter Woodthorpe was the voice of Gollum in Ralph Bakshi's animated film The Lord of the Rings (1978) and in the 1981 BBC radio series.
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
In Peter Jackson's film trilogy, Gollum was a CGI creature, voiced by Andy Serkis, who also provided the voices of some of the Nazgûl and Orcs. He appeared briefly in The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), and became a central character in The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003). At first the actor Andy Serkis was not interested in the role of Gollum, since he found it boring to give life to a digital character. However, as soon as he read the script, he sailed to New Zealand to do the casting .
In The Return of the King, Serkis himself appears in a flashback scene as Sméagol before he became Gollum. This scene was originally recorded to appear in The Two Towers, but was saved for the next film because it was thought that the audience would receive the original Sméagol once they were more familiar with Gollum. The decision to include this scene meant that they would have to redraw Gollum's face in the second and third films to make it more similar to Serkis's face (hence Gollum's brief appearances in The Fellowship of the Ring look slightly different).
During the filming of the The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Gollum was always considered a key character. Without his correct creation, the blockbuster would have collapsed. From the beginning of the character design of the trilogy, to the last moments before its commercialization in theaters, the evolution of Gollum's appearance has been constant.
Sketches
In this first phase, the whole team had a preconceived idea of Gollum (a miserable and scrawny being, with long fingers, huge eyes...). The drawings were brought to life thanks to the Weta Workshop team, including designers Daniel Falconer and Warren Mahy. Also, renowned cartoonists dedicated to illustrating Middle-earth, turned to the project, as was the case with Alan Lee and John Howe.
The real work of creating Gollum occurred during the filming of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, since in the first part of the trilogy, the figure of the character was barely glimpsed. Also, this first Gollum was created before actor Andy Serkis brought his acting (moves and voice) to the work.
For this reason, in this first phase, it was decided to work much more with the textures and details, generating a much deeper change of Gollum's design that would allow incorporating the details and expressions of Andy Serkis.
Serkis himself drew on some of John Howe's previous artwork for some of the cues for his performance, such as the fact that Gollum always walks on all fours.
Conceptual designs
In this phase of the work, aspects as diverse as the shape of the Gollum's mouth, teeth or nose were considered. In terms of these physical aspects, Gollum was defined as a creature with large, bulging eyes, long, slender fingers, and large feet. They designed him to look very skinny, almost undernourished.
In the designs, an attempt was made to capture the mischief and cunning of the character, as well as his darker and more dangerous side, all covered up by his aspect of a defenseless and childish creature.
In the same way, all the possible clothes that would cover Gollum's body were considered: threadbare T-shirts, loincloths, some garment with pockets, the total absence of clothes... Finally opting for the second option.
Another major challenge for the designers was capturing the character's split personality, the conflict between Sméagol and Gollum, and the torturous and confusing nature of his conversations with himself.
In the final phase of the character's concept design, artist Christian Rivers provided some of the most important aspects of Gollum. Keeping with Gollum's design, Rivers altered some details of the face to remind them of the actor who was going to represent him on screen. Thus, the conceptual design was completed.
Between the pencil and ink sketches and concept art, the team ended up with around two hundred drawings of Gollum.
Mockups
Thirdly, the three-dimensional design was carried out, also commissioned from the Weta Workshop group. This is where most of the work was done, eventually creating over a hundred models of Gollum.
The material used in this process was, for the most part, clay. Once the figures were finished, they were painted and shown to the director, Peter Jackson, thus showing him the possible final result on the computer.
Peter Jackson wanted these models to represent certain gestures of the character. To do this, the director himself photographed himself making the expressions he wanted to see and sent them to Weta's designer and sculptor, Jamie Beswarick. From those photos, six plasticine figures were sculpted.
Digital creation
This phase was the most controversial and complicated of all. The difficulty lay in the fact that a digital character had to be created that would give the audience a dramatic performance.
The clay and plasticine models were sent to the team at Weta Digital, who created the final images of Gollum in the film and worked closely with actor Andy Serkis to capture the character's movement and gestures., since Peter Jackson wanted to avoid at all costs that Gollum's appearance was that of a character created by computer. Therefore, it was extremely important that Gollum be based on the movements and gestures of a real person.
The moment in which it was necessary to choose which actor would play Gollum vocally was decisive. If the actor had been poorly cast, the character would never have worked. Thus, they began to search for the voice that would give life to Gollum. The actor Andy Serkis appeared at the casting and dazzled the entire team with his great performance, not only vocal, but also physical, which was the decisive factor for Serkis to be in the project.
Peter Jackson realized how valuable Serkis' mannerisms were in playing Gollum, so he decided that expression and voice couldn't be separated. In this way, Andy Serkis began to act in the filming, which meant an improvement in the performances of the rest of the actors with whom the Gollum creature interacted. During the filming he dedicated himself exclusively to making animation references clad in tights that emulated the appearance of Gollum.
From the beginning, the animation team set out to define Gollum's gestures by using a small number of animators with the intention of avoiding the character being different depending on the animator who had treated it. For this very reason, all the artists, including Bay Raitt, John Feather, Brad DeCaussin and Sven Jensen restricted the animation of Gollum's face, determining the gestures that he could or could not do, as if from a real actor. were treated.
Once these movements were achieved and Serkis's features were captured, they were transferred back to the clay sculptures, to give them a more human, less rigid expression. Once the desired result was obtained, he returned to scan the figure to the computer, where the final touches were made, which are those that can be seen in the film.
As for Gollum's body movement, Peter Jackson wanted Andy Serkis to handle Gollum's puppet, so he proceeded to motion capture the actor. To do this, Serkis was dressed in a suit full of contact points, which are references to the joints of the actor's body. In the place where it was filmed, there were no recording cameras, but cameras capturing the data of those points of articulation. This capture made it possible to capture the movements in real time, making it possible to view Serkis's movement from a basic Gollum on the screen. Thus, it was possible to capture the essence of Andy Serkis. However, many of the movements that Gollum would perform in reality were impossible for the actor, so it was decided to mix traditional animation with puppet and key frame, with the capture of the movement of Serkis.
As for the movements of Gollum's face, they were not done with motion capture, but with animation. This meant certain difficulties in the most dramatic moments of the character in the film and in the close-ups, where Gollum had to transmit the same as a real actor.
During filming, the Weta Digital team and Peter Jackson discovered a third way when it came to digitizing Gollum: using the shots in which Andy Serkis appeared, as they were stronger than those in which the actor did not participated, to later digitally erase it and introduce the character of Gollum. To do this, they used the Rotoanimation technique, consisting of superimposing the figure of Gollum on that of Andy Serkis and following his movement frame by frame. Basically it was about capturing movement through animation.
Finally, to obtain a more realistic aspect of Gollum, they decided to color him using the same technique with which they had colored the models: the airbrush technique, with which they managed to give that appearance of translucency and dirt to Gollum's skin.
The Hobbit Trilogy
It appeared in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and as in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Bilbo Baggins is shown finding the One Ring in Gollum's cave, although it is different from how it was shown at the beginning of the first film.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum
| Predecessor: Déagol |  Lord of the Ring 2463 T. E. – July 2941 T. E. | Successor: Bilbo Bolsón |