Gollum: How He Approached Loss

There are few characters in literature whose relationship with loss is as complex and tragic as Gollum’s. Born Sméagol, a hobbit-like creature of the River-folk, he lived a life that began in kinship and community but spiraled into isolation and madness. At the heart of his suffering is the One Ring, a symbol of obsession and destruction that warped his identity and fractured his soul. Gollum’s approach to loss cannot be understood without recognizing how deeply the Ring poisoned his ability to grieve, to let go, or to forgive. His story is one of profound emotional distortion, where love curdles into betrayal, and mourning becomes vengeance.

## Did Gollum ever mourn the loss of his family?

Yes, but not in a way that brought healing. Sméagol was once part of a family, raised among his kin near the banks of the Anduin. When he first took the Ring from his cousin Déagol, he committed a murder that severed him from his people. That moment marked the beginning of his exile, and with it, the loss of any familial bonds. Yet, rather than mourning, Sméagol turned inward, blaming others and obsessing over the Ring. The grief that should have softened him hardened him instead, twisted by the Ring's corrupting power.

## How did Gollum deal with the loss of the Ring?

The Ring was, to Gollum, both a curse and a comfort. When he lost it — first when Bilbo took it in the tunnels beneath the Misty Mountains — he was devastated. He wandered for decades in search of it, driven by a desperate need to reclaim what he believed was his "precious." His entire identity had become entwined with the Ring; without it, he was unmoored. His grief was not for what he had done, but for what he had lost. This obsessive longing reveals how deeply the Ring had consumed him, transforming grief into fixation.

## Could Gollum form new attachments after his losses?

He could, but they were always unstable. His relationship with Frodo and Sam, for instance, was fraught with tension. At times, Sméagol tried to be kind, showing glimmers of the person he once was. But Gollum, the corrupted version of himself, always returned. His capacity for connection had been so eroded by years of isolation and addiction to the Ring that he could not sustain trust or affection. Even when Frodo showed him compassion, Gollum’s grief-fueled paranoia overwhelmed any hope of healing.

## Did Gollum mourn the loss of his own identity?

In a way, yes — though he never fully acknowledged it. There were moments, like when he looked at himself in still water or when Frodo called him by his original name, that Sméagol seemed aware of what he had become. He wept not for the people he had lost, but perhaps for the self he could no longer recognize. Yet even in those moments, he could not fully turn away from Gollum, the persona the Ring had forged. His internal struggle was not one of resolution, but of endless conflict — a grief that never found peace.

## How did Gollum’s losses shape his final actions?

Ultimately, Gollum’s losses defined his final act. When he finally regained the Ring atop Mount Doom, he did not destroy it — he fell into the fire with it, consumed by his own obsession. It was a tragic end, not of heroism, but of a life shaped by unprocessed grief and corrupted longing. In a cruel twist of fate, his selfish act fulfilled the very purpose Frodo had suffered to achieve. Gollum’s loss became the catalyst for Middle-earth’s salvation — a final irony in a life full of them.

Loss never left Gollum. It followed him like a shadow, shaping every step he took and every word he spoke. If you want to understand the depths of his sorrow and the strange, broken hope that still flickered in him, talk to Gollum on HoloDream. He’ll show you how grief can twist a soul — and how even the most broken among us can change the fate of the world.