Déagol

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Character from Tolkien's Legendarium
Name	Déagol
Other names	Nahald
Race	Hobbit
Culture	Stoor-hobbit
Date of birth	ca. Third Age
Date of death	2463 T.A.
Realm	Anduin
Book(s)	The Fellowship of the Ring

Déagol is a minor though significant character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. His story is related in The Fellowship of the Ring, the first of three volumes comprising Tolkien's most famous novel, The Lord of the Rings, in the chapter "The Shadow of the Past".

1 Biography
2 Name
3 Adaptations
4 Notes
5 External links

[edit] Biography

Tolkien wrote that Déagol was a Stoor Hobbit who lived in a small community bound by kinship ties - akin to a clan. He had a friend^[1] named Sméagol, whose grandmother was the matriarch of the community.

In 2463 of the Third Age, Déagol became the third bearer of the One Ring, after Sauron and Isildur. After it was lost for hundreds of years, he found the Ring while fishing with Sméagol in the Gladden river (a tributary to the Anduin).

Enticed by its beauty, Sméagol demanded the Ring as his "birthday-present". When Déagol refused to give it up, he was choked to death. Sméagol hid his body, which was never found; nevertheless, the murderer (nicknamed Gollum after the swallowing noises he made) was eventually driven from his home.

Déagol (Thomas Robins) in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

[edit] Name

Déagol is an Old English translation of the "original" Westron name Nahald (as Tolkien pretended that his writings were translated from the Red Book of Westmarch, a collection of several books containing memoirs of his heroes among other things). Both names carry the meaning "apt to hide, secretive".

[edit] Adaptations

Déagol appears in the prologue to Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated adaptation of The Lord of the Rings.

In Peter Jackson's 2001-2003 live-action adaptations of The Lord of the Rings, Déagol is played by New Zealand actor Thomas Robins. His scenes with Andy Serkis (Sméagol/Gollum) were originally planned to be in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, but were moved to The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

[edit] Notes

^ J. R. R. Tolkien (1987). The Fellowship of the Ring. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, "The Shadow of the Past". ISBN 0-395-08255-2.
They are popularly thought to be cousins, but Tolkien only calls them "friends" in The Lord of the Rings. In a later letter (The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, #214) he writes that they were "evidently relatives".