The meeting of Bilbo Baggins and Gollum in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit is a classic moment in fantasy literature and sets off a sequence of events that would eventually lead to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. But the original version of that encounter, first written by J.R.R. Tolkien all the way back in the 1930s, was very different than the one in the editions of the novel available today.
In the first printing of The Hobbit, published in 1937, Bilbo still met Gollum deep within the Misty Mountain, but this denizen of the depths was a much less foreboding character. And while the two still played the game of riddles, Gollum willingly agreed to bet his ring as the “present” Bilbo would receive if he won. When Gollum could not produce the ring upon losing (because Bilbo had it in his pocket), the creature was disappointed because he could not keep his end of the bargain. But the two parted on friendly terms and Bilbo went on his way with the item he would have won anyway. When Tolkien began work on The Lord of the Rings, he decided to use that ring as the focal point for his new story and felt he had to change the tone and outcome of the encounter between these two beings.
Tolkien had been asked to produce a sequel to The Hobbit after it received positive reviews and sold out its initial run (of 1,500 copies) in only a few months. After his publisher rejected The Silmarillion (because it was much less Hobbit-centric), Tolkien began working on what he called The New Hobbit and what eventually morphed into the Lord of the Rings trilogy. As he began to develop that story, he felt the need to alter the character of Gollum as one obsessed by the corrupting force of the ring. He also changed the nature of the meeting with Bilbo to what we know now where Gollum agrees to show him the way out if he loses and is devastated by the loss of his “precious”. This altered version of the story would appear in print with the second edition which was published in 1951. Tolkien also addressed the issue of two different versions of the text claiming that Bilbo was altering the truth about his encounter in the first version because he too had become corrupted by the ring.
In the 1960’s, Tolkien began work on yet another version of The Hobbit where he tried to bring it more in line with the tone of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He abandoned this though, when he received feedback that it changed too much the feel of the original story (which was more fairy-tale-like). But the altered version of Bilbo’s meeting with Gollum stands and still acts as the primary link between the stories of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
Source: The Grey Havens and Wikipedia
