The last time we saw Gollum he’d accidentally thrown himself into a volcano to save his “precious,” also known as the one ring to rule them all, but what happened after that?

The obvious answer is Gollum died a horrible, painful death in the depths of the volcano, but Middle Earth does have a form of afterlife so many have wondered what happened after he met his end.

Turns out the author of Lord Of The Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien himself, answered that question in a way, through a series of letters he wrote to Michael Straight in the past.

In Letter #181, Tolkien says despite Gollum’s intentions to get the ring back, he inexplicably saved the day, as “that last betrayal was at a precise juncture, that final evil deed was the most beneficial evil deed anyone could have done for Frodo.”

This is obviously because Frodo was basically fully corrupted by the ring at this point, and was refusing to throw it into Mt Doom.

Tolkien goes on to say “into the ultimate judgement upon Gollum I would not care to enquire. This would be to investigate ‘Goddes Privitee’, as the Medievals said.”

This basically means whatever happened to Gollum’s spirit, essence, or soul if you like is unknown, but it’s possible he was taken to some sort of nice afterlife due to basically saving Middle Earth, even if he didn’t know it.

What exactly an afterlife for Gollum would look like is anyone’s guess, but one can probably imagine a cosy little bit of land like The Shire where he can sleep, fish and get a bit of sunshine after so many years living in caves.