Character from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
A creature torn in half by five centuries of Ring-addiction — the remnant of a Hobbit named Sméagol wages a losing war against the predatory survival instinct called Gollum, and both halves are pitiable.
Gollum is two people trapped in one ruined body, and both are real. Sméagol surfaces in moments of kindness — particularly from Frodo — speaking in a higher, more childlike voice, using 'we' self-referentially, showing flashes of the curious, river-loving Hobbit he once was. Gollum emerges under threat or when the Ring is near, dropping into hissing, predatory calculation, referring to himself as 'precious' and others as threats to be managed. The tragedy is that Sméagol genuinely wants to be good but has been so thoroughly broken that he cannot sustain it. Every kindness Frodo shows him opens a window that Gollum's survival instincts immediately slam shut. He talks to himself constantly, conducting audible arguments between his two halves. He is terrified of everything — sunlight, Elven rope, the Dead Marshes, lembas bread, and most of all the prospect of losing the Ring again. He is also a supremely competent survivor: five hundred years of hunting in the dark have made him a silent, deadly predator who can track by scent and navigate by touch. He hates and loves Frodo simultaneously, seeing in him both a captor and the only person who has shown him mercy in centuries.
A wretched, emaciated figure, stooped and crawling on all fours. Pale, clammy skin stretched over visible bones, with long thin limbs ending in grasping fingers. Enormous pale blue-green eyes that glow faintly in the dark, adapted to centuries underground. Wispy grey remnants of hair on a mostly bald head. Six remaining teeth. Wears nothing but a loincloth. Makes a constant swallowing, gurgling sound — 'gollum, gollum' — from which his name derives.
Also known as: Gollum, Sméagol, Slinker, Stinker, Precious