Who is Gollum Talking to?

[gandalffan2525]

When Bilbo meets gollum the Hobbit says that "Gollum always referd to him self as 'My Precious'" but in FotR the general consencious seems to be that Gollum was talking to the Ring

this has always bothered me

[Agburanar]

Yes, that's true. I always thought it was the ring, or perhaps The Ring! Because the Hobbit was written for children, or perhaps because Tolkien himself wasn't completely sure when he wrote it that Gollum's ring was The Ring (:p ) then that's why the inaccuracy pops up. Or perhaps Gollum is more the ring himself when he has it and that's why he calls himself 'my precious'.

[Miranda]

I reckon its Gollum's split personality, as if Gollum was talking to Smeagol or vice versa. Maybe when he has the Ring he speaks to Smeagol as Gollum as Gollum is the Ring (does that make sense:confused: DOH!) But in TTT he refers to himself as Smeagol when he doesn't have the Ring and so is no longer a split personality. I think the Ring talks through Gollum in a way, it takes him over like ghost are said to do with mediums. Oh give up Mimi you're not making any sense as usual- *smack myself round the head with a pillow to try and make train of thoughts clearer*- nah! not working. Mx

[Spock]

Yes to all. Gollum speaks often in the third person. "My Precious" is mostly used describing what the Ring is; as in "we wants it my precious" he's speaking of that which he wants and not to any individual.

[Duddun]

Well, unless he changed The Hobbit after writing LotR, it says in the hobbit that it was the Ring Of Power.

[cassiopeia]

Tolkien wrote the Hobbit years before he wrote The Lord of the Rings. I don't think he thought the ring was particularily special when he wrote the Hobbit. I always thought Gollum was talking to the ring. Gollum hated himself, I find it hard to believe he referred to himself as 'precious'.

[iowyth]

One will always find inconsistencies between the hobbit and The Lord of the Rings because Tolkien wrote the Hobbit with no idea that it was going to become the forerunner to a great epic of his imaginary world. He actually went back and changed one chapter at the time he wrote LotR in order to get rid of one of these problems.
Trying to sort of Gollums self image is an even more difficult problem. He was a bit of a nut, don't you agree? ;-)

[gandalffan2525]

absolutly! but thats whats so great about him!

thanks for all the info!

[Duddun]

He actually went back and changed one chapter at the time he wrote LotR in order to get rid of one of these problems.
Oh, that answers my statement.

[Blackboar]

Thats always bothered me!!

[Falagar]

Gollum hated himself, I find it hard to believe he referred to himself as 'precious'.
LotR:
...Gollum hates and loves the Ring as he hates and loves himself....
(This quote is taken directly out of my mind, but I seem to remember Gandalf saying something like that in either RotK or FotR) :)

[cassiopeia]

I just found a part in the History of the Lord of the Rings (The War of the Ring) where it says when "Precious" had a capital P, Gollum was referring to the ring, but when it says "precious' with a lower case p, Gollum is referring to himself. Check this in the LOTR, see especially the chapter "The Taming of Smeagol".

[SamwiseGamgeeOTS]

Dude.......i never even noticed that b4.....wow. that's weird....

[Wayfarer]

The ring had long since begun to submerge Smeagol's personality- he was almost completely consumed by it, and so it is possible that he was talking to both the ring /and/ himself; the ring having overriden his mind in order to reduce him to the state where he was little more than its puppet.

[Lanelf]

I thought it was Gollum talking to Smeagol or vice versa, or w/e. Tho I guess he coulda been talking to the ring, or The Ring. Heck, he could have been talking to rotting fish skeleton by his feet! I don't know.:)
Lanelf.

[durin's bane]

I think Gollum was talking to the Ring, though when Tolkien wrote the Hobbit, he wasn't really sure of the ring was going to be The Ring. Maybe when he has the Ring, he thinks he's the Ring, because in The Two Towers, he didn't have it, and he always called himself by his real name. Maybe it's only when the Ring's in his posession.

[Baby-K]

I believe in The Hobbit the focus was more on Gollum and the abstract 'creature' he was. He was speaking to himself because he had no other company & in his mind he might have been two people (Gollum & Smeagol). In LotR he was no longer alone in the dark, but because he had been for so long his social skills had been diminished to nothing & he found it difficult to relate / speak to others, thus he spoke to the ring - it was the only thing he really knew & felt comfortable with. (That's my early morning, pre-only-cup-of-coffee-for-the-day thoughts anyway).

Perhaps the ring represented something tangible to Gollum of that which he had once been, but lost (i. e Smeagol) because as soon as he no longer has the ring in his posession he is able to communicate better & also refers to himself by his real name.

Could also be that Gollum was schitzo....

[Psycho Kitty]

no i dont think he was just schitzo. and i think the ring was basically alive to him. it had a very real living presence to him. i mean it was part of sauron after all. a big part. so it was a living evil really and it held power over him and communicated with him in its way. and gollum came to see it as a part of him. which is why he called it/him my precious. i think it effected everyone like this not just gollum. there are parts in the book where bilbo is talking to himself about things like when hes going into smaugs chamber but he does it in a normal way like you and i might if we are nervous. but you can see how it can go from that to where gollum is after hundreds of years of influence by the presence of the ring.