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Gollum formerly known as Sme ́agol was a Stoorish Hobbit who bore the One Ring in the Misty Mountains. By the narrater he has been described mainly as black, however on some occasions as white. While he is exclusively described as black by the characters. Do you have anything else on this topic, as you may or may not know Samwise Gamgee was also described with dark skin and I believe the film is a whitewashed adaptation of the book.
Descriptions of him as black:
'He was a Gollum - as dark as darkness, except for two big round pale eyes in his thin face.’-The Hobbit
’Well, no, lord,’ said the man. ‘No Orc at least. But I saw, or thought I saw, something a little strange. It was getting deep dusk, when the eyes make things greater than they should be. So perhaps it may have been no more than a squirrel.’ Sam pricked up his ears at this. ‘Yet if so, it was a black squirrel, and I saw no tail. ‘Twas like a shadow on the ground, and it whisked behind a tree-trunk when I drew nigh and went up aloft as swift as any squirrel could. You will not have us slay wild beasts for no purpose, and it seemed no more, so I tried no arrow. It was too dark for sure shooting anyway, and the creature was gone into the gloom of the leaves in a twinkling. But I stayed for a while, for it seemed strange, and then I hastened back. I thought I heard the thing hiss at me from high above as I turned away. A large squirrel, maybe. Perhaps under the shadow of the Unnamed some of the beasts of Mirkwood are wandering hither to our woods. They have black squirrels there, ’tis said.’ –Two Towers
'You must have seen him: little thin black fellow; like a spider himself, or perhaps more like a starved frog. He’s been here before. Came out of Lugburz the first time, years ago, and we had word from High Up to let him pass. He’s been up the Stairs once or twice since then, but we’ve left him alone: seems to have some understanding with Her Ladyship. I suppose he’s no good to eat: she wouldn’t worry about words from High Up. But a fine guard you keep in the valley: he was up here a day before all this racket. Early last night we saw him. Anyway my lads reported that Her Ladyship was having some fun, and that seemed good enough for me, until the message came. I thought her Sneak had brought her a toy. or that you’d perhaps sent her a present, a prisoner of war or something. I don’t interfere when she’s playing. Nothing gets by Shelob when she’s on the hunt.’-Two Towers
They peered down at the dark pool. A little black head appeared at the far end of the basin, just out of the deep shadow of the rocks.-Two Towers
Faramir turned to the man at his side. ‘Now what would you say that it is, Anborn? A squirrel, or a kingfisher? Are there black kingfishers in the night-pools of Mirkwood?'-Two Towers
Descriptions of him as pale or white:
Not even an eagle poised against the sun would have marked the hobbits sitting there, under the weight of doom, silent, not moving, shrouded in their thin grey cloaks. For a moment he might have paused to consider Gollum, a tiny figure sprawling on the ground: there perhaps lay the famished skeleton of some child of Men, its ragged garment still clinging to it, its long arms and legs almost bone-white and bone-thin: no flesh worth a peck.-Two Towers
Frodo was just yielding to the temptation to lie down again when a dark shape, hardly visible, floated close to one of the moored boats. A long whitish hand could be dimly seen as it shot out and grabbed the gunwale; two pale lamplike eyes shone coldly as they peered inside, and then they lifted and gazed up at Frodo on the eyot. They were not more than a yard or two away, and Frodo heard the soft hiss of intaken breath. He stood up, drawing Sting from its sheath, and faced the eyes. Immediately their light was shut off. There was another hiss and a splash, and the dark log-shape shot away downstream into the night. Aragorn stirred in his sleep, turned over, and sat up. – Fellowship of the Ring
Posts: 1 | From: San Francisco | Registered: Aug 2020
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I'm not terribly familiar with LotR, but my understanding is that the African characters in Tolkien's world were from a region called Harad, and that they sided with Sauron along with the "Easterlings". Which, if you think about it, has pretty racist implications like you would expect from European fiction of the time.
If Gollum was described as "black", that's probably more of Tolkien's racism at work. He's not supposed to be sympathetic or attractive, is he?
P.S. You should probably post this in the Kemet or Deshret forum rather than New Member Introduction. I'll see what I can do to have this topic moved.
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