From: no.spam@no.spam   
      
   Concerning Gollum acquiring the Ring, Gandalf tells Frodo:   
      
      Long after [Isildur], but still very long ago, there lived   
      by the banks of the Great River on the edge of Wilderland   
      a clever-handed and quiet-footed little people. I guess   
      they were of hobbit-kind; akin to the fathers of the fathers   
      of the Stoors, for they loved the River, and often swam in it,   
      or made little boats of reeds.   
      
   I suppose because of the above I've seen assertions in the Google   
   archives for this forum that Gollum was a Stoor.   
      
   However, Gandalf goes on to say:   
      
      There was among them a family of high repute, for it was large   
      and wealthier than most, and it was ruled by a grandmother   
      of the folk, stern and wise in old lore, such as they had.   
      
   The prolog in FotR says:   
      
      Before the crossing of the mountains the Hobbits had already   
      become divided into three somewhat different breeds: Harfoots,   
      Stoors, and Fallohides.   
      
      In Eriador they [Fallohides] soon mingled with the other kinds   
      that had preceded them, but being somewhat bolder and more   
      adventurous, they were often found as leaders or chieftains   
      among clans of Harfoots or Stoors. Even in Bilbo's time the strong   
      Fallohidish strain could still be noted among the greater families,   
      such as the Tooks and the Masters of Buckland.   
      
   It's a bit of a stretch, of course, but Gollum's grandmother   
   could have been a Fallohide, and so could Gollum himself.   
   And the bold, adventurous quality of the Fallohides would have   
   made him all the more dangerous.   
      
   ps. I wonder if the Fallohides made any particular effort to maintain   
   their distinct breed [JRRT's own word; see above] after they   
   had mingled with the other kinds. IRL there is a tendency for   
   the upper classes to discourage marrying "beneath one's station",   
   although few societies took this to such an extreme as   
   the ancient Egyptians.   
      
   SQ   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)