Gollum's exile
 

We all known that smeagol killed deagol to take the ring and we all know that it gave gollum a long, miserable existance.

But what I'd like to know is are there any tales of his life in exile and what did he do after he killed deagol I assume he was seen as a murderer and fled)?

The latest film shows his gradual change of appearance and character but still no insight into what the hell he did in the wilderness all that time.

Also is it just by chance that he picks up the the trail of the fellowship or did he have a way of finding them, after all middle earth is a big place!!

"No one ever found out what had become of Deagol; he was murdered far from home, and his body cunningly hidden. But Smeagol returned alone; and he found that none of his family could see him, when he was wearing the ring. He was very pleased with his discovery and he concealed it, and he used it to find secrets, and he put his knowledge to crooked and malicious uses. He became sharp-eyed and keen-eared for all that was hurtful. The ring had given him power according to his stature. It is not to be wondered at that he became very unpopular and was shunned (when visible) by all his relations. They kicked him, and he bit their feet. He took to thieving, and going about muttering to himself, and gurgling in his throat. So they called him Gollum, and cursed him, and told him to go far away; and his grandmother [a matriarch, of sorts], desiring peace, expelled him from the family and turned him out of her hole.

"He wandered in loneliness, weeping a little for the hardness of the world, and he journeyed up the River, till he came to a stream that flowed down from the mountains, and he went that way. He caught fish in deep pools with invisible fingers and ate them raw. One day it was very hot, and as he was bending over a pool, he felt a burning on the back of his head, and a dazzling light from the water pained his wet eyes. He wondered at it, for he had almost forgottten the Sun. Then for the last time he looked up and shook his fist at her.

"But as he lowered his eyes, he saw far above the tops of the Misty Mountains, out of which the stream came. And he thought suddenly: 'It would be cool and shady under those mountains. The Sun could not watch me there. The roots of those mountains must be roots indeed; there must be great secrets buried there which have not been discovered since the beginning.'"

And so he came to dwell under the Mountains, until Mr. Bilbo Baggins of the Shire came along. The rest is history.

<font size=1 color=339966>[ 2:38 PM December 31, 2003: Message edited by: Lord of Angmar ]

I'd imagine that when you're wandering alone in the wilderness, looking for food is pretty much a full-time job.

And avoiding nassssty little Orcses who were probably populating that general region.

Lord of Agmar, where is that passage from exactly??

It is Gandalf speaking to Frodo about the history of the One Ring in "Shadow of the Past."