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Originally Posted by tom bombariffic
I'm sorry, I was slightly wrong, but I still don't think that you're right. What I should have said is that Smeagol comes from the Old English verb 'smeagan' - to think, ponder, or examine. This makes more sense for Gollum than 'to delve, burrow, creep', as after all Smeagol is what he was called before he retreated to the mountains.
The verb you are thinking of is the Old Norse verb 'smjúga', the past tense of which is 'smaug' - "he crept". This is presumably where the dragon's name came from.
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"Smial (or
smile) 'burrow' is a likely form for a descendant of
smygel, and represents well the relationship of Hobbit
tran to R[ohirric]
trahan. Smeagol and
Deagol are equivalents made up in the same way for the names
Trahald 'burrowing, worming in', and
Nahald 'secret' in the Northern tongues." --Appendix F.II "On Translation."
Remember, even before the Ring, Smeagol "was interested in roots and beginnings," "burrowed under trees," and "tunnelled into green mounds."
Smaug is "the past tense of the primitive Germanic verb
Smugan, to squeeze through a hole: a low philological jest." --Letter no. 25