Hobbit2 - Chapter 05 - Riddles in the Dark

[Tar-Jêx]

Originally Posted by Tuor in Gondolin

I confess I don't quite see the need Tolkien felt to rewrite this chapter for LOTR. Must reread The Illustrated Hobbit.

I know this is a bit of a revival of the topic, but in the original version of the chapter, Gollum willingly bets the ring on their riddle competition, which was in huge contrast to his character in LotR. It also clashes with the lore of the ring, as well, as there is no way that a being who had had possession of such an item for that amount of time could just give it up. It would not be possible to do such a thing because of the nature of the ring, and so it was revised that he dropped the ring somewhere without noticing.
While you can say that he would be so obsessed with keeping the ring on him at all times, I think that he would have let his guard down after facing no threats to his precious for a long time.
The revision was most necessary in order to keep consistent with the rest of the lore surrounding Gollum and the Ring. I'm pretty sure we'd rip the chapter apart otherwise for how non-canonical it would feel.