Many fans of The Lord of the Rings ask why Gollum never died when the One Ring was taken from him by Bilbo.

After all, when Bilbo passes the ring to Frodo he begins his decline into death rather quickly.

The answer to this question has been pointed out and it makes a lot of sense.

When this was asked on Reddit, several fans were happy to step in a point out why Gollum didn’t die and it concerns the power of the ring itself and how it changes a person.

Putting it simply, this reply gets to the root of the question, “Well Sméagol had the ring for ~480 years before losing it while Bilbo only had it 60 years.”

The Lord of the Rings trilogy is very long, but it still doesn’t capture everything from the books. It all comes down to time.

Gollum holding onto the ring for that long completely changed his body, extending his life, and he had it for hundreds of years.

Redditor mbcolemere goes on to say, “I believe since Sméagol had it so long it really had done a lot of work on him and his lifespan.”

This is backed up by Naturalnumbers who says, “Bilbo still lives to an extremely high age (the oldest hobbit in recorded history), so it’s not like as soon as the Ring is away from him he loses all his longevity.”

With this information in mind, it goes to show that Gollum, who was under the influence of the ring for much longer, would take longer die.

Another reply points out that we may not even know Gollum was aging rapidly, “In addition, because of Gollum’s unusual and somewhat grotesque appearance, it might not be easy for someone to detect signs of Gollum having aged.”

It all comes down to the power of the ring and its influence over the longevity of life.