That would move him far closer to the shadow realm than Bilbo had come: essentially immortal, but not yet permanently enslaved to Sauron’s will. He obsessed about it constantly and was prepared to go to any length to get it back.
It was key to his survival in the Misty Mountains, where he would hunt goblins for food and otherwise need to avoid attention. Gollum, conversely, used the Ring copiously and often for centuries. He pulled it out only when he wished to avoid someone - notably his sour relations, the Sackville-Baggins - or to play a prank as he did during his birthday party at the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring.That left him comparatively untouched by the Ring’s influence, though it exacted a price has his true age caught up to him at last. He’s thus less prone to fall under its influence, and while he gains the benefits of longevity and youth, that’s to the Ring’s benefit since it provides more time to work on him.įinally, and perhaps most importantly, Bilbo didn’t use the Ring very often. Furthermore, Bilbo is far more principled than Smeagol, who committed murder to get the Ring. In comparison to Gollum, Bilbo has the Ring for only a short amount of time - decades instead of centuries - which gives it far less time to work its will on him. RELATED: Lord of the Rings' Most Powerful Character Is Not the One You Rememberīilbo, too, would prove resistant to the Ring’s influence, which has a bearing on why he’s affected so much differently. Under the Ring’s influence, a human might fade quickly, but a Hobbit - or a near-Hobbit like Smeagol - would take considerably longer. That makes them inherently difficult for the Ring to tempt, which is a big part of why Frodo was chosen to destroy it. Hobbits are inherently humble creatures, interested in simple comforts and unconcerned with power or rulership. Gollum’s status as a creature “not so very different from a hobbit” underlines another key reason for his extended life. The Ring simply acts more slowly, taking years or decades to do what the blade did within hours.
The process turned the nine human ring-bearers into Ringwraiths, and it almost claimed Frodo after a Morgul-blade stabbed him. In The Silmarillion, Tolkien outlined the process as shifting from the land of the living to Sauron's "realm of shadows," which happens to everyone who falls under the Ring's influence. It granted him “unnatural long life,” as Galadriel explained during the opening voice-over to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Gollum possessed the Ring for over 500 years before losing it to Bilbo during the events of The Hobbit. Why Does Gollum Stay Unchanged After Losing the One Ring? RELATED: Lord of the Rings: Gollum Is Middle-earth’s Biggest Drama King In actuality, the seeming difference fits in well with the mythology of the Ring. On the surface, it looks like a grave oversight, and since the details come from Tolkien’s novels, the spotlight falls on him. Gollum, on the other hand, was deprived of the Ring for decades, and while he clearly hungered for it fiercely, he suffered no effects of aging. Bilbo Baggins carries the Ring for decades - aging very slowly the entire time - only to find it all catching up to him in a few months once he lets it go. A poster on Quora questioned the Ring’s effects on its user, which appears to vary wildly when it comes to aging. Middle-earth is sufficiently complex that the director was forced to excise a great deal, even with the 11-hour running time of the director's cut.Ī perceived discrepancy of the One Ring, for instance, takes a good deal of sorting out to explain, largely because both Tolkien and Jackson focused on more pressing aspects of the narrative. With the arrival of Peter Jackson’s films, those incidents increase. The Lord of the Rings and Middle-earth in general subsequently became the standard by which world-building is judged, and even apparent continuity errors often have detailed explanations hidden slightly deeper in the lore. Tolkien devoted considerable energy to the task at a time when the notion of such an elaborate universe was far less common than today.
World-building is never easy, and continuity errors can crop up in even the most carefully crafted universe.