Editing Hobbits (section)

===The Gollum===
The closest thing that Middle-Earth has ever seen to an evil hobbit (well, give or take the Sackville-Bagginses), is a twisted little wretch called "Gollum", after the gagging, choking noise he developed a habit of making for no discernable reason. Originally, the Gollum was a Stoor hobbit by the name of Smeagol, until the day he and his cousin Deagol were out fishing in the Gladden Fields north of their mountainous home. There, Deagol fished up Sauron's One Ring, and upon seeing it, Smeagol was instantly smitten with it. He demanded that Deagol give it to him as a birthday present, and when Deagol refused, Smeagol choked the life from his cousin and took it. Almost at once, he became a slinking little thief, and whilst he claimed that Deagol had fallen into the river and drowned, Smeagol's family suspicions combined with his antics soon saw them drive him out of their home.

Fleeing into the [[goblin]]-infested caves of the Misty Mountains, Smeagol quickly went mad and degenerated into a wiry little [[troglodyte]], shunning the light and feasting cannibalistically on anything he could catch, be it raw cave fish or unwitting goblins. Whilst he made heavy use of the One Ring's power of invisibility at first, over the centuries he became incredibly stealthy in his own right, and took to hunting without it. His gurgling cough became the only warning sign of his presence, and the surviving goblins took to calling him "Gollum" after it.

After almost 500 years, Gollum met the hobbit Bilbo Baggins as he was fleeing from Goblins and got lost in the cave. Gollum initially sought to eat Bilbo for some variety in his diet, but Bilbo managed to get him talking by holding him at bay with Sting; due to his long centuries of exposure to the One Ring's corruptive energy, Gollum had become physically repelled by anything of [[elf]] make. Gollum offered Bilbo a false promise to lead him to the exit if Bilbo could defeating him in a game of riddles, an old hobbit entertainment that Gollum had long been unable to indulge in. Through sheer luck, Bilbo managed to claim the victory, but Gollum tried to renege on his promise by retrieving the One Ring and using its power of invisibility to murder Bilbo- which was when he found that he had lost his "birthday present", as he thought of it, and that Bilbo had found it. [[rage|Furious]], he attempted to chase Bilbo and kill him, but Bilbo used the ring to outmaneuver Gollum and escape him, having felt too much pity for the mad wretch to kill him.

Years later, Gollum finally mustered the courage to leave his caves and go searching for his "Precious", as he called the One Ring. Gollum himself achieved little other than, it's implied, to murder and devour assorted farm animals and small children as he searched endlessly to find the Shire, until he literally wandered right up to the borderlands of Mordor, where he found himself captured by the [[orc]]s and tortured for information. This led to Sauron becoming aware of the existence of the Shire and its resident hobbits, but Gollum managed to escape and flee back into the hinterlands, hiding in the dark places and living much as he had done in the Misty Mountains.

It was only when the Fellowship of the Ring began heading to Mordor that Gollum finally caught up with the One Ring's new bearer; Frodo Baggins. Frodo and his companion Samwise Gamgee captured Gollum instead and forced him to swear on "the Precious" to become their guide into Mordor. As they traveled together, Frodo became increasingly pitying towards Gollum, trying to coax his long-buried Smeagol persona to the surface in hopes of redeeming him, whilst Samwise remained hostile and suspicious. Ironically, Gollum would prove integral at the very climax of the quest; when Frodo's will faltered when it came time to throw the One Ring into Mount Doom, Gollum finally snapped and attacked Frodo in an attempt to reclaim the Ring for himself. But in his mad capering upon biting off Frodo's finger and claiming the One Ring as his own, Gollum slipped and fell into the lava, causing the Ring to be destroyed at long last.