Déagol

Déagol was a cousin of Sméagol. On one of Sméagol's birthdays, they both went fishing, and Déagol was pulled underwater by a big fish, which is presumed to be a pike. It was then that he discovered the Ring, half-buried in the river-bed. When Sméagol saw the Ring, he wanted it, and strangled Déagol to get it.

He became the third bearer of the One Ring, after Sauron and Isildur when he found the One Ring while diving in the Gladden river (a tributary to the Anduin) with his cousin Sméagol. Sméagol (later known as Gollum) demanded the ring and murdered Déagol when he refused to give it to him.

Of the ring's bearers Déagol carried the ring for the shortest collective time; possessing it only for a few minutes. By contrast the next shortest Samwise Gamgee carried it for a full day, and all the ring bearers held it for at least a year.

Déagol is an Old English translation of the "original" Westron name Nahald. Both names carry the meaning "apt to hide, secretive".

In Peter Jackson's movie The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Déagol is played by New Zealand actor Thomas Robins.