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In the film Smeagol found the ring, went in the mountains and turned into Gollum. At the time when Gollum followed the Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf called him Gollum. Who gave him this name, or why do the others call him like that?

Edlothiad
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N.R.
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    Already answered at: http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/90400/why-or-how-smeagols-name-became-gollum?rq=1 – GreenMatt Jan 08 '16 at 14:16

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From The Hobbit. It's a verbal tic he's developed.

Suddenly up came Gollum and whispered and hissed: "Bless us and splash us, my precioussss! I guess it's a choice feast; at least a tasty morsel it'd make us, gollum!" And when he said gollum he made a horrible swallowing noise in his throat. That is how he got his name, though he always called himself 'my precious.'

Valorum
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  • doesn't gollum call the right 'My precious'? – DLE Jan 08 '16 at 14:32
  • Interestingly, in the Hobbit he exclusively calls himself "my precious" but in the LOTR books he calls the ring "my Precious". Note the capitalisation. – Valorum Jan 08 '16 at 14:38
  • Tolkien did "contradict" himself later in The Two Towers, for in that book the Gollum persona does at one point refer to himself using "Gollum," when contemplating regaining the ring from Frodo and the power he might gain, he says: "Lord Sméagol? Gollum the Great? The Gollum!" – ScottS Oct 13 '16 at 14:11