Déagol Riverfield

Intro Déagol was a friend and relative[3] of Sméagol, being "sharper-eyed but not so quick and strong". One day Sméagol had his birthday, Déagol gave a customary present (albeit begrudgingly, as he was a mean little soul), which he claimed was more than what he could afford. Later that day, though still very early in the morning, they went fishing in the Gladden Fields on a boat. When Sméagol took a break to nose about the banks, a great fish pulled Déagol to the bottom of the water. Upon seeing something gleaming in the river-bed, he abandoned his fishing equipment and seized the gleaming object. When he swam out, "with weeds in his hair and a handful of mud", he saw that what he discovered was a "beautiful golden ring". Yet, as he gloated over his finding, Sméagol watched him from nearby and silently approached him, desiring the ring. Sméagol, being greedy, thought that Déagol's gift to him was poor and insufficient,[3] and thus used his birthday as an excuse to claim the ring; and as Déagol refused to hand it over, Sméagol strangled him, and hid his body cleverly so that the others didn't find it. In the years following the murder of Déagol, Sméagol became haunted by his actions, making up the defense that it was his birthday and that Déagol should have given it to him. After Sméagol became Gollum, he repeated his defense over and over as he gnawed bones within darkness until he very nearly believed it himself.