Perhaps the most tragic character in The Lord of the Rings trilogy is Gollum - yes, he’s a greedy, awful little creature at times, but his story is a sad one.
Captivated by the One Ring, spending his life in search of his precious, his existence is dragged out and extended, making him older than you might imagine.
Gollum is a major highlight in The Lord of the Rings trilogy
The ring did immeasurable damage to all who wore it, and it corrupted Gollum physically and mentally.
Advert
This change to him often leads fans to wonder just how old he was when he fell into Mount Doom, after ambushing Frodo.
The details exist within the original novels, and it’s a question answered over on Reddit.
It turns out Gollum was around 590 when he died, though his exact age isn’t known, only estimated by experts.
Does he look good for his age, despite his haggard looks?
Advert
One Redditor goes into detail, for those who want the full lore breakdown, saying, “I've seen people cite his birth year as 2430, making him 33 when he acquired the Ring in 2463, and therefore 589 when he died in 3019.”
This information is based on this idea that he acquired the ring when he came of age.
By his death, Gollum was “thin and stretched,” completely destroyed by the ring.
In my recent rewatch, which made the trilogy a deep love of mine, I’m not ashamed to say I was teary when Gollum died, and as we see him get more and more desperate by the end of the third film.
Advert
Until then, I’d always seen him as a villain with no redemption, but it’s hard to ignore what the ring did to him, and that should be his redemption.
Yeah, he was a horrible swine before his transformation, but he couldn’t help his fall into despair in the end.
Topics: The Lord Of The Rings, TV And Film