what kind of creature is gollum from the lord of the rings?

Remnants of Gollum’s hobbit self are evident only in the sickly wisps of hair on his head, the loin cloth he uses to cover himself, and in the wide, worrying eyes that resemble those of the hobbit and Ring bearer Frodo Baggins.īut if Gollum’s tortured physiognomy should repel readers and audiences alike, Tolkien has crafted a creature who elicits our fascination and pity, and who ultimately becomes pivotal to the author’s dramatization of the power of goodness and mercy. On film in Peter Jackson’s “The Two Towers,” which opens today, Gollum is a digitized amalgam of the movements of actor Andy Serkis and computer manipulations that give Gollum the look of a pale newt. Introduced as a cave-dweller in Tolkien’s earlier book, “The Hobbit,” Gollum is a pale-eyed, hissing vestige of a hobbit, a fallen, conflicted figure whose fortunes were altered by his contact with the Ring, the One Ring of power that gradually corrupts even its sturdiest keepers.

Tolkien’s “The Two Towers,” the second part of his beloved “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, none arouses more fascination or pity than Gollum.

What kind of creature is gollum from the lord of the rings?