Daily Sweepings 3-5-15

More Images of Bilbo and Gollum

More versions of Bilbo and Gollum, most from Eastern Europe. Special credit to Babel Hobbits ( www.tolkien.com.pl/hobbit/ ), where I found many of these pictures.

A Column On Gollum: Portraits Of A Fallen Hobbit

While the way that Gollum (the tormented fallen hobbit in the works of J. R. R. Tolkien) is imagined will probably be influenced for some time to come by his portrayal by Andy Serkis (and CGI) in Peter Jacksons' movies, it was not always so. When The Hobbit was first published in 1937, details of his size, shape, and even species were so mysteriously ominous that various forms of monstrous size and shape were presented as representations of him. Even when much more was known about Gollum with the publication of The Lord of the Rings, descriptions of his aquatic nature and webby hands would have him appearing like "a rotten evil swamp frog," and his skin has been every imaginable shade from green to grey to corpse-like. The pictures above are tagged with the artists last names, when known, and are in no particular order.

Design Similarities 3

Big nose. Round eyes. Long nose. Blubbery lips. Clawed fingers and toes. Hunched, rubbery physique. These two water-frequenting monsters, the Troll from an old Fifties-era school reader and Gollum from the Brothers Hildebrandt 1978 Tolkien Calendar look like they were separated at birth. Could the Hildebrandts have had this book at school?