Old Woodcut of Gollum

Deep down here by the dark water lived old Gollum, a small slimy creature. He was as dark as darkness, except for two big round pale eyes in his thin face. He had a little boat, and he rowed about quietly on the lake. He paddled it with large feet dangling over the side, but never a ripple did he make. Not he. He was looking out of his pale lamp-like eyes for blind fish, which he grabbed with his long fingers as quick as thinking. He liked meat too. Goblin he thought good, when he could get it; but he took care they never found him out. He just throttled them from behind, if they ever came down alone anywhere near the edge of the water. They very seldom did, for they had a feeling that something unpleasant was lurking down there, down at the very roots of the mountain.

—The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

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