Word Count 3,715
The Creatures of Middle Earth
The Lord of the Rings is one of the most influential and important literary works of the twentieth century. One could say without question that the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien gave way to the entirety of the Fantasy genre. This is somewhat common knowledge, however most people simply do not know the reason why Tolkien decided to make the remarkably complex worlds that are Arda and Middle Earth. He was attempting to create a mythology for England to replace the one that the Anglo-Saxons had lost after the Norman Invasion in 1066. A key constituent to this mythology included creating a myriad of gods, races, monsters, and animals to inhabit the worlds that are fabricated. While most readers are in the dark concerning this goal of Tolkien’s, even less known are the Anglo Saxon influences and the direction from various other folklore that he used to shape these creations. This paper will focus on some of the gods, monsters, and animals featured in Tolkien’s works and shed light on where he obtained the ideas and inspiration for them. Also, it will examine how they were placed in Middle Earth (or other regions in Arda), their history, and their role in The Lord of the Rings.
The first beings to be discussed are the Balrogs. The etymology of “Balrog” within The Lord of the Rings is fairly straightforward:
Balrog is a Sindarin – the spoken language of the Sindar or “Western Elves” – term, a compound derived from balan and torog…We find balan defined as “one of a race of powerful spiritual beings.” Torog is the Sindarin term for “Troll.”; thus, we have the original concept of the Balrogs…as “powerful spirit trolls.” (Abbot 20)
The elvish roots from which “Balrog” stem from gives hints to the history and origin of this particular beast. The Balrogs were originally Maiar who were corrupted by Morgoth during the fist age and the Great War. The mighty beasts commanded the hosts of Orcs in Beleriand and were amongst the enemy’s most powerful servants. So the title “one of a race of powerful spiritual beings” suits them well. “Torog” is the term that allows one to see how such a holy being as a Maiar spirit can be changed into an evil incarnation of itself. Furthermore, through this interpretation of the words that make up the name, one can get a hint of the subtle Christian characteristics given to Middle Earth by Tolkien. The corruption of the Maiar can be seen as a fall from grace into the influences of evil.
It is known that Tolkien drew from as many sources as he deemed fit for the creations of elements in Middle Earth. The name “Balrog” can be traced back to Old Norse terms.
…Balrog is a compound derived from the Old Norse terms bal (Fire) and rok (wonder). The Balrogs were certainly “fire-wonders,” and they do exhibit characteristics common in Northern mythology, Specifically of Surt, the guardian giant of Muspellsheim…the world of fire and home of the fire-dwellers. (Abbot 20)
Surt is described as a “Demon of the Slain” and brandishes a sword of fire that shines like the sun. This description is very similar to the Balrog at Khazad-dum, whom also carries a flaming sword. Surt is also told to wield a “sviga laevi” According to Joe Abbot’s article on the concept and function of Balrogs, “sviga laevi means a sort of “switch (of fire) for death” and it’s a short step from this to the “whips of flame” described by Tolkien. (Abbot 20) Although the description of “powerful spirit trolls” does not include anything alluding to their fiery nature, we are to assume that the demon Surt played some influential role as well as the Norse term “bal” meaning fire.
Seeing that Tolkien was an Anglo Saxon scholar, one cannot fail to take into account Grendel from Beowulf and its powerful influence on the nature of the Balrog. The way the Balrog is so vaguely described in the book by Gandalf and Aragorn shows how the incorporeal quality of Grendel led to the Balrog’s appearance. The Balrog is described by Aragorn as being made of “shadow and flame,” And Tolkien tells us that “…It was like a great shadow, in the middle of which was a dark form, of man shape maybe, yet greater…(Tolkien II/5)” Furthermore, we are later led to believe that the Balrog has hands, feet, and wings. The ill-defined descriptions given in The Fellowship of the Ring lead the reader to the conclusion that the Balrog is based on Grendel, who was physically powerful, but also not in the same state of being as those in the living world (Abbot).
Tolkien not only obtained inspiration from Norse and Anglo Saxon origins, but also Old English. He accompanied “Balrog” with two Old English equivalents in a list recorded in The History of Middle Earth; “Bealuwearg” (evil-outlaw) and “Bealubroga” (evil-terror). Both of these words are similar to “Balrog.” (Abbot 20) The latter being most similar from an etymological standpoint, seeing as “Balrog” is actually within the word and the description as an evil-terror is more accurate to the beast. However, evil-outlaw still applies seeing as Balrogs were once noble Maiar shaped by the evil of Morgoth, in a way breaking the laws placed on them by Iluvatar and the Valar.
The Balrog’s main role during the plot of The Fellowship of the Ring was to create an evil entity as a climax to the journey from Rivendel through Moria. Considering that Sauron is a difficult image of evil to portray, especially in the first third of the story, a powerful antagonist was needed so a sense of danger could be rekindled within both the fellowship within the book and the reader following their quest. Also, Tolkien had a habit of fashioning his six books that comprise the entirety The Lord of the Rings very similarly. They all had a formula that is easy to find once the reader knows how to look for the parts. During each book there needed to be a significant threat to the fellowship. The Ringwraiths were defeated at the Ford of Rivendel and were no longer following the party, so an evil force barring the fellowship’s path needed to be included in the second book, and the Balrog makes for an appropriately intimidating adversary. Tolkien allows Gandalf to die in this epic battle between two extraordinarily powerful Maiar spirits to let the hero roles to shift to Aragorn and Frodo more smoothly. The reader needs to know that these two are the main protagonists in the trilogy and that Gandalf is there to push him in the right direction and guide him during the War of the Ring.
The Balrogs of Beleriand and Khazad-Dum aren’t the only creatures in Middle earth exhibiting supernatural abilities. There are also the Nazgul. According to Tom Shippey, these Ringwraiths were Tolkien’s second major generic image of evil next to the orcs.
The image is strikingly original: there is nothing like it in any early epic, not even Beowulf. Yet as with so many of Tolkien’s creations, light is shed on the “wraiths” by the exercise of looking up the meaning of the word in the Oxford English Dictionary…The entry on “wraith” in the OED shows a rather characteristic self-contradiction. Meaning 1 offers this definition: “An apparition or specter of a dead person; a phantom or ghost…” [As for meaning 2] the OED offers, “An immaterial or spectral appearance of a living being…(Shippey 189)”
Tolkien must have found this contradiction interesting. Because of this dual meaning in the Oxford English Dictionary, he created a malevolent being, which was very ghost or phantom-like, while at the same time is capable of interacting with the physical world. According to the definition in the OED, you cannot be sure if one is alive or dead. The wraiths can’t be killed by any conventional means and they are thousands of years old dating back to the fall of Numenor. They are also said to be unable to see anything in the living realm and are only able to view the world in the realm they are connected to. The spectral nature of these creatures is alluded to by how they’re not described by their shape, but more by their substance. The Ringwraiths are often depicted as shadows, much like the Balrog. Although, Frodo is able to see their true forms when he puts on the ring at Weathertop, in a way looking into their dark realm. All of these examples are demonstrative of the definition given by the Oxford English Dictionary and they explain how Tolkien drew from the few hints he saw and came to his own conclusions on what wraiths must’ve really been like.
The derivation of the word “wraith” is somewhat unknown. In the Oxford English Dictionary comments only that it is of “obscure origins.” From this lack of information Tolkien determined for himself where “wriath” originated from by following the etymology of the word. The Scottish word “wraith” is drawn back to the Anglo-Saxon word “wri dan”, which means “to twist” or “to writhe” (Shippey 189) One could interpret this in a few ways at this point. It is true that the Nazgul were given rings by the evil Sauron, twisted and corrupted by his will, and put under control of the One Ring. Writhing is a word one might used for the reactions the characters, especially the Hobbits, have when they hear the piercing shriek of the Nazgul.
While it may seem that the Ringwraith is an invention of Tolkien based off of interesting patterns in words, there is evidence to support a possible connection to a creature in northern English folklore known as either the barghest or barguest. This creature was a demonic-like spirit that is depicted as quite fearsome in Yorkshire and North Country texts. The barghest is stated to have a “terrifying [shriek]…boding death to anyone who happens to hear the sound (Ryan 11)” This is very similar to the shrieks that the Ringwraiths emit. Furthermore, the barghest was said to be able to perceive the disembodied spirits of men (Ryan 11), much like the supernatural senses of the Nazgul. It is easy to see how Tolkien may have partly obtained some inspiration for his wraiths from this folktale demon. It’s worth saying that even if Tolkien didn’t admit to using information that seems to be too coincidental to not have been used, and considering the material that boys in his situation were required to learn in school, there is little doubt that he was exposed to this information. This exposure would lead to him subconsciously drawing from learned information in the creation of important elements and creatures in his books.
While many servants of the enemy have supernatural qualities, most of the forces of goodness are a bit less involved in the realm of magic abilities and paranormal powers. The next few creatures to be discussed are either against the evil of Sauron or are of a more neutral stance in Middle Earth, some of the most important being the Ents, Entwives, and Huorns.
The Ents are large tree-like beings that predominantly inhabit Fangorn Forest. They and the Entwives originated from the thought of Yavanna, one of the Valar, with their purpose and duty being to “look after the trees of Arda (Farr 13).” Where the Ents were more interested in remaining in large forests among trees, the Entwives were more concerned with the orchards and gardens across the Great River. After the first war against Sauron, those lands turned barren and the Entwives left to unknown areas to the south, east, or west.
The origins of the Ents as giants concerning Tolkien came from an Anglo-Saxon text describing the Roman structures in Britain. According to Anglo Saxon scholar Angela Fulk, the text roughly translates to, “Built by the Ents.” When the Anglo Saxons first came to the island of Britan they had never seen structures built to the scale of the forts and bathhouses constructed by the Roman Empire, and it seemed reasonable to think that giants must have built them.
Ents and Entwives also played an important role in conveying Tolkien’s environmental beliefs. They care for the earth more than most other element in the books, including hobbits, elves, and perhaps even Tom Bombadil. However the Ents differ from the Entwives in the way that they are content with looking after the forest the way it is. They begin war on Saruman on the basis that the fires of industry and the war machines at Isengard Tower were destroying Fangorn Forest. The Entwives cared greatly for their fields and orchards, and were active in tending and planting flora; in this respect they differ from the Ents. The labors of the Entwives were also destroyed by war. Together, both genders of the race created an important environmental theme in Middle Earth These premises of environmentalism, preservation, and conservation are pivotal in displaying Tolkien’s worldview.
Tolkien’s environmental argument can also be seen early on before the reader is aware of Ents and is shown by the character Old Man Willow in The Fellowship of the Ring. Old Man Willow can be classified as a Huorn, a kind of creature similar to Ents but different in the respect that they are much more tree-like. He attacks the Hobbits in the Old Forest and it is later said by Tom Bombadil that over time he had become bitter and evil.
The fact that [he was] malevolent may be because in earlier ages they were more widespread across Eriador but were felled and cleared by mannish races (including Hobbits). (Farr 13)
Huorns communicate a side of Tolkien’s beliefs that tell us how if man interferes with nature on such a high level, we may regret it in the long run and nature will fight back in dangerous ways.
While the Ents are demonstrative of Tolkien’s environmentalist worldview, the Eagles also played a very important role in displaying how The Lord of the Rings is Christian in nature.
The eagles don’t play a huge role in the events in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. However, the actions they participate in are essential to the plights of the protagonists. They are the deciding force in the Battle of Five Armies in The Hobbit, and save Frodo and Sam from certain doom in Book VI, chapter 4. They never appear unless the end result would be disastrous if they didn’t. The Eagles function as a trump card to solve a possibly unsolvable situation.
Before one can see this role of the Eagles as a holy one, they must know the origin of the creatures. Eagles live in eyries located on the Mountains of Middle Earth and are not as solitary, or as greedy as Dragons are. (Bywater 14) But in The Silmarillion, The Eagles appear frequently as a mirror to the Dragons used by the Enemy.
At first the origin of the eagles is to be found at the very beginning of the world, as Manwe, [one of the Valar,] used birds, mainly eagles, as messengers and spies, whereas the dragons meddled in the wars between the Elves and Morgoth for the first time during the Dagor Bragollach (Muller 17)
Morgoth created and bred Dragons to create his own air force to combat the Valar’s Eagles. When one thinks of how the Eagles are tools of the Valar, and how the Valar’s duty from Eru is to protect Arda and Iluvatar’s children (Elves and Men), then one can see the Eagles as a kind of Divine intervention (Muller 18). This element of Eagles is demonstrative of Tolkien’s belief in Catholic Christianity and his decision to make The Lord of the Rings a Christian book.
This makes perfect sense once one digs a bit deeper into the symbolism behind the Eagles. In Book VI, chapter 5, an Eagle comes to Gondor to spread the news that the Black Gate has fallen, and that Sauron has been destroyed for good. This shows the influence of Christianity in this creature because the symbol of St. John the Evangelist is an eagle. This information Further entrenches the role of Eagles as Divine messengers of the Valar such as St. John the Evangelist told the word of God.
The Eagles are given a high place amongst the good creatures within Tolkien’s work. However, there are other birds that are very often overlooked and forgotten within the story of The Hobbit. These are the Ravens.
Ravens are included in a multitude of different European folktales. In most cases they are harbingers of doom, or mischievous spies, and tellers of the future, qualities that people even today associate with crows and similar birds. According to Ruth Lacon, this may have started due to the fact that ravens and other carrion birds would appear before a battle, hoping to perhaps get a free meal out of it. Because of this they were seen to foretell disasters. Ravens would also tell important information to those worthy of it, but this was not always good news. According to Greek mythology, Apollo turned ravens black for informing him about an unfaithful lover. Also, from more pertinent origin, the Norse god Odin had two raven servants. (Lacon 15)
Tolkien’s take on ravens is quite different than that of the common association with malevolence. The ravens that live on the Lonely Mountain do follow many old stereotypes. For example, they are very intelligent, are able to speak to people, are very long lived, and pass important information to those who need it, in this case Thorin and company. Tolkien fails to include anything that may shed a bad light on his ravens. They aren’t any detriment to the party, but Lacon believes this is because The Hobbit, in essence, is a children’s book (15). Other than that, it seems Tolkien wanted to make the raven a more helpful character to the Dwarves and a way to send a message to Thorin’s Kin in the Iron Hills.
Just as the Ents, Eagles, and Ravens were forces of good and lawful neutrality in The Lord of the Rings, there are also less savory creatures that Tolkien made to roam the dark places of Middle Earth and Beleriand. These include the spiders Ungoliant, Shelob, and their foul offspring, the spiders of Mirkwood.
To begin, the origin of Ungoliant is in the time before the world was made. From this we are to assume that she is a Maiar Spirit, considering she is not one of the Valar and also that she is a servant of the mightiest of the Valar, Melkor. In The History of Middle Earth, it is said that she took the guise of a Giant Spider, this spider form being “The Physical Embodiment of [her Maiar] essence”(Abbot 41). The Silmarillion tells one that as Melkor was envious of Manwe’s Kingdom, he corrupted Ungoliant to his service. With her help he successfully destroyed the two trees and stole the Silmarils from Valinor.
The etymology of Ungoliant is taken mostly from English and the Elvish language Sindarin. According to Joe Abbot, her name could be Tolkien’s most successful attempt at what he called the “Linguistic Aesthetic” which means “the desired combination of word form and word function.” This makes a word visually and verbally pleasing and meaningful.
The sense of enormity is easily discernable as even the casual eye detects the presence of the word Giant within the larger word – a presence which no doubt contributes to the equally effective mispronunciation “Un-go-‘li-ant.”… This visual suggestion of immensity [is] coupled with the Sindarin word Ungol (“spider”) (Abbot 41).
The name Ungoliant also derives from a definition for one of Tolkien’s earlier monster known as “Moru.” The name Moru, also being a spirit within a spider-like appearance, was defined by Tolkien as “a name of the Primeval Night personified as Gwerlum or Gungliont.” He also used “Ungoliont the Spider” as another name Moru was called by the people pf Middle Earth (Abbot 41). It seemed as if Tolkien had many ideas for a spider-like monster and finally decided on one with qualities that encompassed most of his earlier incarnations.
Though Ungoliant is a more powerful entity and is an important element before and during the first age of Middle Earth. Her offspring Shelob plays a vital role in The Two Towers. Shelob’s function is to put the ring in the hands of Samwise, hence making him the effective Ringbearer. Considering his role had been secondary up until this point, Shelob’s effect on the story allows for much more character development of Sam and demonstrates that he can also be the hero of the trilogy and achieve “The primary role – the Ringbearer (Abbot 43).”
Shelob’s name is actually a very simple combination of words, created similarly to Ungoliat’s. “She” is from the modern English pronoun, and “lob” is derived from the Old English “lobbe” meaning spider (Abbot 41).
The offspring of Shelob are said to be the spiders of Mirkwood, which Bilbo encounters during The Hobbit. These spiders play a role in showing that not only can Bilbo use his Hobbit inherent abilities of stealth and cleverness to aid Thorin and company, but he can also fight if need be. This is also the point at witch the sword Sting gets it’s name. This is important due to the fact that in the fight against Shelob, it is Sting that Sam uses and not his own sword. Sting thwarts the Mother just as it thwarted the offspring so many years before.
In conclusion, The creatures fabricated by J.R.R. Tolkien that inhabit his world of Middle Earth share a great significance in that they were all created by using information long forgotten due to war and the passage of time. Through these creatures, Tolkien created a link to a lost mythology and at the same time generated a fantasy spectacle yet to be unsurpassed by anyone afterwards. They demonstrated his love for Anglo Saxon and Norse history, language, nature, and his faith. Without the creatures of Arda, his books would have hardly the amount of depth and meaning they do even to this day.
Works Cited
Brian Nacov December 11, 2008, at 05:27 PM
