Why Didn't Gollum Become a Ringwraith?

The nine rings which Sauron bestowed upon mortal men drew their bearers into the wraith world and bound them to him in servitude.

So, why did Gollum, who possessed the ring for nearly five centuries, not also fade and become a ring wraith?

The process of fading from the mortal world into the realm of shadows is a gradual one. It takes time for Sauron's necromancy to fasten its grip upon the bearer of a Ring of Power and cause their physical form to fade away into nothingness.

So, is it possible that Gollum simply did not possess the ring for a long enough period of time for the ring to be able to draw him into the wraith world?

To answer this question, we must compare the life of Gollum with that of the Nazgûl.

In a recent video on the channel, I covered the early life of the Witch King. In this exploration of his history, I charted a timeline that offers us a valuable insight into the slow erosion of his physical form.

We first established that three of the Nazgûl were Númenórean colonists, and according to the records that Tolkien provided us with in the appendices, it was around the year 1800 of the Second Age, a full century after Sauron reclaimed the Rings of Power, that the ships of Númenor ventured east and established dominions upon the shores of Middle-earth.

The appendices go on to inform us that the Nazgûl first appeared around the year 2251. Therefore, there lies a span of 451 years between the Númenóreans establishing their dominions in Middle-earth and the first appearance of the Ringwraiths.

This gives us an estimate of the maximum amount of time that it may have taken the Númenórean Nazgûl to fade from mortal sight and fall beneath the dominion of the One Ring.

Interestingly, Gollum actually possessed the ring for slightly longer than this. It came to him in the year 2463 of the Third Age. Soon after this, clutching his newfound treasure, he vanished beneath the Misty Mountains. And as the centuries passed by, Gollum's life was stretched by the power of his ring.

Until at last, it betrayed him, slipping from his grasp in the year 2941, and thus coming to Bilbo Baggins of the Shire. Therefore, we can calculate that Gollum bore the ring for a total of 478 years.

That span of time exceeds even our highest estimate of how long it took the three Númenóreans to be consumed and reshaped into the Ringwraiths by some 27 years.

So how did Gollum not end up succumbing to a similar fate? Well, although Gollum's possession of the ring stretched across nearly five centuries, he possessed a natural resilience to the influence of the ring, as he was of Hobbit kind.

'Long after, but still very long ago, there lived by the banks of the Great River on the edge of Wilderland a clever-handed and quiet-footed little people. I guess they were of hobbit-kind; akin to the fathers of the fathers of the Stoors, for they loved the river, and often swam in it, or made little boats of reeds. [...] the most inquisitive and curious-minded of that family was called Sméagol.'

Hobbits, by nature, possess a quiet resilience, a sturdiness of spirit that partly shields them from the ring's devouring influence.

It is for this reason that they make such excellent ring bearers. And more specifically, we see the hobbit's resistance to fading clearly demonstrated after Frodo is pierced by the Morgul blade of the Witch King at Weathertop. Upon receiving his wound, Frodo is marked for the wraith world.

Yet he does not fade easily, and when he awakens in Rivendell, wounded yet unbroken, Gandalf marvels at his strength and at the sheer endurance that allowed him to resist the pull of the shadow.

'Well, four nights and three days, to be exact. The Elves brought you from the Ford on the night of the twentieth, and that is where you lost count. We have been terribly anxious, and Sam has hardly left your side, day or night, except to run messages. Elrond is a master of healing, but the weapons of our enemy are deadly. To tell you the truth, I had very little hope; for I suspected that there was some fragment of the blade still in the closed wound, but it could not be found until last night. Then Elrond removed a splinter. It was deeply buried, and it was working inwards.' Frodo shuddered, remembering the cruel knife with notched blade that had vanished in Strider's hands. 'Don't be alarmed!' said Gandalf, 'It is gone now. It has been melted, and it seems that hobbits fade very reluctantly. I have known strong warriors of the Big People who would quickly have been overcome by that splinter, which you bore for seventeen days.'

The passage reveals that Frodo possesses a rare and quiet strength, which enables him to resist the fading process. And Gollum, like Frodo, seems to have carried within him that same stubborn spark, twisted though he became.

Another important thing to consider when discussing the rate at which the Ringwraiths succumbed to the power of their rings is the fact that the Nazgûl were ushered faster into the wraith world by the dark will of Sauron.

In the days of the Second Age, when he still held the One Ring, Sauron used its power over the lesser rings in order to peer into the minds of the Nine. Utilizing a form of dark telepathy, he then began to weave visions into their thoughts, reshaping their perception of reality until their wills crumbled.

'They had, as it seemed, unending life, yet life became unendurable to them. They could walk, if they would, unseen by all eyes in this world beneath the sun, and they could see things in worlds invisible to mortal men; but too often they beheld only the phantoms and delusions of Sauron.'

Therefore, while Gollum possessed the ring, Sauron would have been unable to manipulate him in the way that he had done with the Ringwraiths. So, although 478 years may logically seem like it would be more than enough time for the ring to work its magic and draw Gollum into the wraith world.

There is no evidence in the text that conclusively proves that such a span could doom one of hobbit-kind to such a fate. Yet, despite the lack of concrete proof, there is also no evidence that 478 years wasn't long enough to cause him to fade.

So we must continue to delve into the lore for further answers. And the next logical question to ask is whether Gollum used his ring in the same manner as the Nine once did. Perhaps those mortal men, consumed by pride and hunger, wore their rings more freely and more routinely, hastening their own downfall.

The theory that it was not time alone, but rather how often the bearer summoned the ring's power that affected the rate at which the bearer faded, is confirmed by Gandalf when he spoke to Frodo in Bag End after the ring passed to him from Bilbo.

He told Frodo how the Rings of Power were forged in ancient days by the Elves of Eregion and hinted at the deep peril that came not merely from possession, but from use.

'A mortal, Frodo, who keeps one of the Great Rings, does not die, but he does not grow or obtain more life, he merely continues, until at last every minute is a weariness. And if he often uses the ring to make himself invisible, he fades: he becomes in the end invisible permanently, and walks in the twilight under the eye of the Dark Power that rules the rings. Yes, sooner or later – later, if he is strong or well-meaning to begin with, but neither strength nor good purpose will last – sooner or later the Dark Power will devour him.'

This quote leaves no doubt. It is the act of donning the ring and slipping into the unseen world that causes the bearer to eventually fade permanently. So what do we know specifically regarding Gollum's usage of the ring?

Within the pages of The Hobbit, we discover that Gollum, despite being consumed by feelings of possessiveness towards the precious, actually used the ring very sparingly, rarely ever slipping it onto his finger.

'Gollum used to wear it at first, till it tired him; and then he kept it in a pouch next his skin, till it galled him; and now usually he hid it in a hole in the rock on his island, and was always going back to look at it. And still sometimes he put it on, when he could not bear to be parted from it any longer, or when he was very, very, hungry, and tired of fish.'

Gollum's restraint in using the ring offers the clearest reason as to why he did not pass into the shadow realm. He quite simply had not used the power of invisibility often enough for it to have had much of an effect on him.

Yet fading alone does not craft a ring wraith. Their deeper curse lies in their absolute thralldom to their rings, their devotion so complete that their wills were no longer their own. So why is it that Gollum did not fall into servitude as the Ringwraiths had? How did Gollum remain his own master?

In the following quote from letter 131, we find our answer. 'But at Eregion great work began - and the Elves came their nearest to falling to 'magic' and machinery. With the aid of Sauron's lore they made Rings of Power [...] but secretly in the subterranean fire, in his own Black Land, Sauron made one Ring, the Ruling Ring that contained the powers of all the others, and controlled them, so that its wearer could see the thoughts of all those that used the Lesser Rings, could govern all that they did, and in the end could utterly enslave them.'

It is clear from this passage that the Nine could only be bound into servitude and thus become the Nazgûl because Sauron possessed the One Ring, and they themselves bore lesser Rings of Power, which were subject to the dominion of the One.

Consequently, Gollum's experience with the Rings of Power was very different from that of the Nazgûl, for he bore the Master Ring, whereas they had been gifted lesser rings. Therefore, Gollum was spared the chains of subjugation that bound the Ringwraiths to the One.

And Gollum also chose a very different life. Where the Nine had sought glory, dominion and splendor in the mortal world, Gollum fled from it all, seeking only the shadows, the still waters, and the forgotten places beneath the mountains. As a result of this choice, he did not use the ring often enough for it to cause him to fade. Therefore, lonesome and pitiful though he was, he ever remained his own master, right up until the moment that he met his bitter end in the fires of Mount Doom.

Thank you very much for tuning into Realms Unraveled. I would like to take this opportunity to light the beacons and call for aid. If you did enjoy this video, I would be very grateful if you would click the like button below and consider subscribing to the channel. And until next time, farewell, fellow explorers of Middle-earth.