A different Gollum

[Mr. Blue]

I thought I knew the story about how Bilbo met Gollum, and was surprised to learn that in the 1937 edition of the Hobbit (the first one) the story was different. The main difference is that in the original Gollum and Bilbo agreed that if Gollum won the riddle game, he could eat Bilbo, but if Bilbo won, Gollum would give him a present (the ring.) When Gollum lost and could not find the ring, he was genuinely upset because he couldn't keep the terms of the bargain and cheating at the riddle game was a real no no, even for him. Bilbo offered to let him off of giving him the ring (which he secretly had anyway) if Gollum would show him how to get out of the goblins' tunnels, and Gollum agreed.

In the later and more familiar version, the agreed on prize if Bilbo won was that Gollum would show him the way out, and Gollum reneged on the deal when he realized that Bilbo probably had the ring. Gollum did show him the way out in the end, but not on purpose.
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" ... the mistakes that we male and female mortals make when we have our own way might fairly raise some wonder that we are so fond of it. " George Eliot

[Roland]

As I recall, Tolkien rationalized that the first, erroneous version was how Bilbo told the story, and the later version was what actually happened.

When Tolkien originally wrote the episode, he did not yet know that Bilbo's magic ring was the One Ring. When he wrote The Lord of the Rings, he had to revise The Hobbit to make it consistent with the history of the object at the center of the story.

[Salty Dog]

That sure sounds right. I read The Hobbit years ago but did not read Lord of the Rings. I watched LOTR many times in movie format.