[shevy-java]

"I’m aware some people think the original version didn’t specify his size"

Well, he was a hobbit once, right? So a 10 meters tall Gollum makes less sense than a Gollum that has about the same size as other hobbits, give or take.

[riffraff]

But that's only known if you read other material, it's not in The Hobbit.

[rsynnott]

That's a retcon. There was no indication that he was a hobbit in The Hobbit (and as others have mentioned, in the original there was no physical description at all.)

[sarchertech]

https://www.theonering.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/The-Ho...

This version says it’s the 1937 edition. It has the pre change story about Gollum offering the ring which Tolkien said is what he changed. But it also says he was a small slimy creature.

[rawling]

Neither the "before" nor "after" here have "small slimy"

https://www.ringgame.net/riddles.html

[sarchertech]

Yeah it's entirely possible the version that I have that is supposed to be from 1937 was tainted with later versions despite it not containing any of the more well known 1951 changes. That is maybe someone reconstructed it by taking a 1966 copy and undoing the changes, but forgot about the small slimy creature change.

But apparently there were dozens of different versions that actually ended up in print that had different amounts of the changes caused by some printers mixing old plates and new. So it's entirely possible that small slimy appeared in some versions around 1951 but not others and that's what that page is working off of.