Ceryutian

Name: Ceryutian

AKA: Unknown

Location: Show Low, Arizona (originating from the fourth planet from the eighth star in the L'Sariax Sector)

Novel: Jed the Dead

Author: Alan Dean Foster



Natural History:
The Ceryutians were massive aliens who probably weighed three or four hundred pounds and were seven feet tall. They had thick muscular legs, which were jointed at the knee, front and back. Far slimmer arms reached to the ground. The long arms ended into a dozen flexible digits eight to nine inches in length. The digits resembled tentacles.

Their heads were rectangular in shape with large oval eyes. Below the eyes was a down-curving, wide mouth. No nostrils were visible and what appeared to be ears reached over the top of their heads.

The Ceryutians carried packs on their backs that had hoses on the end. These packs probably contained whatever gases they needed to breath, as they would bring the hoses up to their mouths occasionally. On their legs they had what looked like tapered gallon jugs. These jugs were weapons that would cause invisible explosions wherever they were aimed.

The Ceryutians came to Earth when a group of cultists used Jed as a type of beacon when performing a ritual. The first contact between man and alien was a swift kick to the crotch.

"Hey, if you'd seen a Ceryutian before you wouldn't have to ask. They're famous for their tempers. It was bad enough to draw them off course, but the fact that it was to a backwater primitive world like Earth made it much worse."

Martian

Name: Martian

AKA: Unknown

Location: Mars

Novel: The War of the Worlds

Author: H.G. Wells





Natural History:
The Martians were a race of beings from the planet Mars. They invaded the earth in the late Nineteenth Century.

Arriving on Earth in large cylinders, the Martians revealed themselves quite dramatically. They heaved out of the cylinder as a dark bulk, larger than a bear, that glistened like wet leather. The whole creature heaved and pulsated convulsively.

Two large dark-colored eyes were above a lipless brim, much like a fleshy birds beak, that quivered and panted, and dropped saliva. The peculiar V-shaped mouth with its pointed upper lip, the absence of brow ridges, the absence of a chin beneath the wedgelike lower lip, the incessant quivering of this mouth, the Gorgon groups of tentacles, the tumultuous breathing of the lungs in a strange atmosphere, the evident heaviness and painfulness of movement due to the greater gravitational energy of the earth--above all, the extraordinary intensity of the immense eyes--were at once vital, intense, inhuman, crippled and monstrous. There was something fungoid in the oily brown skin, something in the clumsy deliberation of the tedious movements unspeakably nasty.

Their huge round bodies, or heads, were about four feet in diameter. In the back of the body was a single tympanic surface, which was probably useless in Earth's dense air. Around their mouths were sixteen slender, almost whip-like tentacles, arranged in two bunches of eight. Their bodies were composed mostly of brain, but internally had lungs, a heart, vessels, and nerves. Their eyes saw blue and violet as black, but their sight was comparable to a humans.

The Martians had a peculiar way of eating. They injected the fresh living blood of their victims into their own bodies. They did not sleep or fatigue. It was discovered later that they reproduced by budding. Audio communication among the Martians was never observed, but it was believed that they communicated telepathically and with elaborate gestures.

Upon their arrival, they also (perhaps unknowningly) brought the red weed. A cactus like vegetation that grew over everything rapidly. This red weed perished before the Martians.

The Martians were slain by putrefactive and disease bacteria against which their systems were unprepared; slain as the red weed was being slain; slain, after all man's devices had failed, by the humblest things that God, in his wisdom, had put upon the Earth.

"Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us."

Mars

The Pods

Name: The Pods

AKA: Anything else

Location: Deep Space

Novel: Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Author: Jack Finney




Natural History:
Probably one of the oldest lifeforms in the galaxy, the Pods have perfected survival. As their planet began to die, slowly, over immeasurable time, they too evolved, slowly over immeasurable time. As the planet died, they escaped, fleeing to whatever planet they drifted upon, taking the form of the inhabitants and eventually taking over as the dominant life.

They look like seed pods, but on a giant scale. They grow like normal plants do with those already taken over serving as care takers for the fields of pods that are produced to replace the indigenous population. Those care givers place the pods into towns, hidden places, trunks, and in closets for the non-taken over to be replaced.

The Author and myself were able to see this transformation. The pod is placed in close proximity to the target. Over a short span of time, maybe a night, the pod begins to burst at the sides, a white foamy substance emerges, and the pod bursts open. There is a semi-formed white, blank, life-form inside, slowly developing and taking on the characteristics of the target. Eventually it becomes identical to the target and steals the life force and memories, becoming anything organic. The original is left a lifeless husk and is turned to empty grey matter.

The only difference between the pods and the original: emotion. The replicas cannot emote or share emotion, only the pretense of it, a simulation of emoiton Also, a collective knowledge of where the pods came from, their history, and their purpose. A collective knowledge of everything the pods were and have become. Mars and the moon used to have life, but no longer thanks to the pods. The transformation is painless and generally occurs while the target is asleep. Needless to say, The Author and I did not sleep while around this dangerous parasites. It seems plant-life has evolved to be the predator and us, the prey.

"The pods arrived, drifting onto our planet as they have onto others, and they performed, and are now performing their simple and natural function - which is to survive on this planet. And they do so by exercising their evolved ability to adapt and take over and duplicate cell for cell, the life this planet is suited for."

Uroon

Name: Uroon

AKA: Frontrunner Uroon

Location: Seen over Malibu Pier, California

Novel: Jed the Dead

Author: Alan Dean Foster

Natural History:
Uroon is a member of the species Culakhan and maintains the title of Frontrunner.

The Culakhan were quadrapedal extra-terrestrials. They had barrel-like bodies that were supported by four surprisingly gracile yet strong legs, the front pair of which were longer than the rear. The legs supported what appeared to be an almost 300 pound body. They were no taller than an average human female.

Atop a two foot flexible neck was a flattened skull with two stalked eyes set well out on the sides, like the sideview mirrors on a car. A flap of pinkish, flexible skin formed a forward-facing crest that ran between the stalks. The crests could be streaked with black or grey. Uroon had bright pink eyes. Their mouths were filled with two rows of grinding teeth,and they spoke in what sounded like a frustrated bulldog's barking.

Even more surprising than the neck was the single rope-like, flexible tail. Slightly longer than the body, it split at the end into half a dozen flexible, super-strong hairs. The tail-hairs had a great range and delicacy of touch, and were used like hands.

The Culakhan came to Earth in search of Jed, who was in their minds a criminal. The Culakan are famous, or perhaps infamous, for their strict adherence to their Codes of Conduct.

"What does it matter to you, human? We are the Culakhan and we have our reasons. You will comply. Without wishing to appear impolite, I must point out that you can be made to comply. But we have no quarrel with you. We do not harass simple animals."
- Frontrunner Uroon

Morlock

Name: Morlock

AKA: Thing

Location: Earth - 802,701 A.D.

Novel: The Time Machine

Author: H.G. Wells





Natural History:
The Morlocks are a race of ape-like, nocturnal creatures that inhabit tunnels in the earth full of machinery.

These small creatures, perhaps four feet high, are dull white, with strange large greyish-red eyes and chinless faces. They have flaxen hair on their heads and down their backs. They can move on all fours very quickly and can nimbly climb like a spider down the large shafts that lead to their underground lair.

Thought to have evolved underground, the Morlocks' eyes are abnormally large and sensitive, just as are the pupils of the abysmal fishes, and they reflected light in the same way. In their tunnels, the smell of freshly-shed blood permeated the air - and it was found they are carnivorous!

Perhaps at one time the Morlocks fed on small beasts, such as rats, but as they grew scarce they moved on to larger and more readily available prey - the Eloi, the child-like surface dwellers. The Morlocks used them as cattle! What was once a single race, now evolved into two - with one now consuming the other!

For some reason, the Morlocks were very interested in the Time Machine and stole it. For what purposes, we do not know.

"I struck another light, and waved it in their dazzled faces. You can scarce imagine how nauseatingly inhuman they looked—those pale, chinless faces and great, lidless, pinkish-grey eyes!—as they stared in their blindness and bewilderment." 
-The Time Traveller

Future

Abyss Creature

Name: Abyss Creature

AKA: Unknown

Location: Abyssal Plain

Short Story: In the Abyss

Author: H.G. Wells





Natural History:
The Abyss creatures are strange vertebrated humanoids that live at the bottom of the ocean.

They have dark purple heads that are dimly suggestive of a chameleon's, but with a much higher forehead and such a braincase as no reptile has ever before displayed. The vertical pitch of the face gives them the most extraordinary resemblance to a human being.

Two large and protruding eyes project from sockets in chameleon fashion, and they have a broad reptilian mouth with horny lips beneath their small nostrils. Two large operculum replace the ears and filamentous gills branch out from behind them.

The Abyss Creatures are bipeds with an almost globular body poised on two frog-like legs and a long thick tail. It's forelimbs grotesquely caricatured the human hand, much like a frog's do. The color of the creatures is variegated; it's head, hands, and legs were purple; but its skin,which hangs loosely upon them, is a phosphorescent grey. In their hands they sometimes carry a long shaft of bone tipped with copper.

In the deep, the creatures live in a large city with a wall made of human skulls, water-logged wood, and twisted wire-rope surrounding it. The city seems to glow like drowned moonshine due to phosphorescent bones that were used to create many of the roofless structures.

"At last this unknown creature of the abyss blinked its eyes open, and, shading them with its disengaged hand, opened its mouth and gave vent to a shouting noise, articulate almost as speech might be, that penetrated even the steel case and the padded jacket of the sphere."

Abyss

Jed

Name: Jed

AKA: The Enlightment

Location: Cloudcroft, New Mexico

Novel: Jed the Dead

Author: Alan Dean Foster




 
Natural History:
Jed is a dead alien that was found in a cave near a public picnic area.

Jed had a triangle-shaped body with three arms and three legs and was no taller than three feet. His face had a keel going down the front that extended along his spine. One of his three eyes fit into a depression in the keel. His eyes were small, like a child's. What appeared to be his mouth had two silvery cockscomb like appendages on either side. Each arm had three digits and each foot had three toes that were almost like a hoof.

Jed (as he was named by the human Ross Ed Hager who found him) was of the species Shakaleeshva. Unfortunately, the little alien had crashed on Earth during his escape from his planet and ended up stranded. The suit he wore slowly shut down non-vital systems one by one, until only his memories and thoughts remained. Ross picked up the alien while on his way to San Diego, California. The two became an unlikely duo.

To the Shakaleeshva, Jed was known as the "Enlightment" due to his prolific abilities as a writer. Being a writer, however, does have its drawbacks. Such as having a price put on your head for controversial material.

 "I was not designated the Enlightenment because of paucity of imagination. Even deceased, I like to think I'm a little smarter and cleverer than the majority of the living." -Jed

 

Cloudcroft, New Mexico

Grand Lunar

Name: Grand Lunar

AKA: Master of the Moon

Location: Moon caverns, Great Hall

Novel: The First Men in the Moon

Author: H.G. Wells





Natural History:
The greatest of the Selenites and ruler of the Moon. The Grand Lunar seemed to be no more than a brain, which looked like a featureless bladder with dim, undulating ghosts of convolutions writhing visibly beneath.

Upon further inspection, two elfin eyes peered out from below the bladder. The Grand Lunar did not appear to have a face. A small body, dwarfed by the immense brain, had insect-jointed limbs that were shriveled and white. His voice was like the rubbing of a finger upon a pane of glass. A faint wheezy noise.

The Grand Lunar had many attendants, Selenites of all all shapes and sizes. Many  sprayed the great brain with a cooling spray, while others patted and sustained it. He has also had a group of Selenites that were encyclopaedic in their knowledge of the galaxy. These attendants gathered around his throne, which was bathed in a blue radiating blaze from behind, which the Grand Lunar could control.

The Grand Lunar was immensely interested in the affairs of planet Earth. Though upon hearing about war, the Grand Lunar cut off all of Cavor's communication. Most likely in fear of more humans coming to the Moon.

"You mean to say," he asked, seeking confirmation, "that you run about over the surface of your world - this world, whose riches you have scarcely begun to scrape - killing one another for beasts to eat?"  - Grand Lunar

Triffid

Name: Triffid

AKA: Mankind's savior

Location: Taking over the world

Novel: The Day of the Triffids

Author: John Wyndham




Natural History:
Rather than explain a Triffid to you in her own words, The Author was able to obtain an eyewitness account from William Masen, the scientific leader in Triffid knowledge:

"I have a picture in my memory now of him (Masen's father) examining ours and puzzling over it at a time when it must have been a year old. In almost every detail it was a half-size replica of a fully grown triffid-only it didn't have a name yet, and no one had seen one fully grown. My father leaned over, peering at it through his horn-rimmed glasses, fingering its stalk, and blowing gently through his gingery mustache, as was his habit when thoughtful. He inspected the straight stem, and the woody bole from which it sprang. He gave curious, if not penetrative, attention to the three small, bare sticks which grew straight up beside the stem. He smoothed the short sprays of leathery green leaves between his finger and thumb as if their texture might tell him something. Then he peered into the curious, funnel-like formation at the top of the stem, still puffing reflectively, but inconclusively, through his mustache. I remember the first time he lifted me up to look inside that conical cup and see the tightly wrapped whorl within. It looked not unlike the new, close-rolled frond of a fern, emerging a couple of inches from a sticky mess in the base of the cup. I did not touch it, but I knew the stuff must be sticky because there were flies and other small insects struggling in it."

The Triffid's origin's are unknown, but Masen believes they are the result of ingenious biological meddling. Appearing out of nowhere and solving the worlds oil crisis. Yes, Triffids were kept on farms and bred for their oil, which eliminated the use of fossil fuels. On a fateful night, however, the human race became part of the food chain and the Triffids top meal. On the night of a spectacular meteor shower that lit up the sky in an eerie green hue, the human race went blind. The Triffids escaped the farms, wild ones joining packs, and began to hunt for food. Overwhelming the Earth, Triffids became the dominate species and are still hunting humans today.

Masen and a group of survivors escaped to an island, a colony known as Elspeth Cray. I have looked through their history and while the Triffids dominate the landscape, humanity carries on and endures.

"...-in other words, they know what they're doing. Look at it this way. Granted that they do have intelligence; then that would leave us with one important superiority--sight. We can see, and they can't. Take away our vision, and the superiority is gone. Worse than that--our position becomes inferior to theirs, because they are adapted to a sightless existence and we are not."

Triffoil Factory

Mirkwood Spiders

Name: Mirkwood Spiders

AKA: Unknown

Location: Mirkwood

Novel: The Hobbit

Author: J.R.R. Tolkien



Natural History:
Discovered by Bilbo Baggins and company on their journey to the Lonely Mountain. Upon entering Mirkwood, which had become a dark and sinister place with the coming of the Necromancer in Dol Guldur, these giant spiders ensnared the thirteen dwarves.

The spiders were huge and hideous, weaving their webs in the trees and hanging their captured prey in bundles,which they preferred to let hang a bit. They spoke to one another in a sort of thin creaking and hissing. To slow down their prey, they used their stingers. Their legs were hairy and they had many eyes.

Bilbo Baggins enraged them by calling them Attercop, Old Tomnoddy, lazy Lob and crazy Cob. The spiders were easily defeated by the throwing of stones and by Sting, Bilbo's sword.

The spiders may have been from the brood of Shelob.

"What nasty thick skins they have to be sure, but I'll wager there is good juice inside." -Spider

Phi-oo

Name: Phi-oo

AKA: Selenite, Man-Insect, Mooney

Location: Moon caverns

Novel: The First Men in the Moon

Author: H.G. Wells





Natural History:
Phi-oo was a Selenite sent by the Grand Lunar to establish whatever mental communications that were possible with the man from Earth, Cavor.

The Selenites were a race of insectoid beings that lived below the moon's surface in large and extravagant caverns. Each Selenite, it seemed, presented an incredible exaggeration of some particular feature - one had a vast right forelimb, an enormous antennal arm, as it were; one seemed all leg, poised, as it were, on stilts; another protruded an enormous nose-like organ beside a sharply speculative eye that made him startlingly human until one saw his expressionless mouth. Some had horns or strange features like whiskers, microscopic heads, distended brain-cases, blobby bodies; some seemed like flimsy things that existed just to hold large white-rimmed eyes. Their eyes were calculating or looked like black bottomless pits, both large and small. Some even carried umbrellas in their tentacular hands! A Selenite was born into their place and all of their training, education, and surgery he undergoes is to fit that place so he has so purpose beyond it.

Phi-oo was a Selenite with a large brain case. He was about five feet high with small, slender legs. One could see his pulsating heart through his small body. Pulsating brain movements could be seen behind the thin membrane that stretched from his small head over the large, globe-like bladder. From behind he looked like Atlas holding the world. Phi-oo was a Selenite of the top class, an adminstrator, Selenites of considerable initiative and versatility.

Phi-oo was sent to communicate with Cavor. He did so by imitating every sound Cavor made, beginning with a cough. Phi-oo would point and imitate Cavor until he felt he had mastered the word. The first word he learned was "man" and "mooney," which is what Cavor called them instead of Selenite.

Phi-oo caught on to one or two phrases, especially "If I may say," "Do you understand," and "M'm-M'm," and adorns all his speech with them.

"M'm - the Grand Lunar - wished to say - wishes to say - he gathers you are - m'm - men - that you are a man from the planet earth. He wishes to say that he welcomes you - welcomes you - and wishes to learn - learn, if I may use the word - the state of you world, and the reason why you came to this." -Phi-oo

Glaurung

Name: Glaurung

AKA: The Father of Dragons, the Great Worm, the Worm of Morgoth, the Golden

Location: Angband

Book: The Silmarillion

Author: J.R.R. Tolkien

Natural History:

Glaurung was said to have been the first of the Urulóki, the fire-drakes of the north, conceived during the First Age. He left the gates of Angband as a young and scarcely half-grown dragon, causing dismay to the Noldor. Being young and not fully armed, he fled from the darts of the Noldor and returned to Angband for over 200 years.

 In 455, Glaurung led Morgoth's army during the Battle of Sudden Flame, or Dagor Bragollach, against the Noldor Elves and their allies. He then returned in 472 during the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, or Nírnaeth Arnoediad. During that battle he stopped the two armies, Maedhros and Fingon, from joining. However, the Naurgrim, Dwarves of Belegost, stood their ground, for they had armor that could withstand the fire of the dragon. The Naugrim, led by Azaghâl, Lord of Belegost, formed a circle around Glaurung. Glaurung in his rage struck down Azaghâl and crawled over him. Azaghâl, with his last stroke, stabbed the dragon in the belly. Glaurung fled, and the beasts of Morgoth followed him in his retreat to Angband.

 In 495, Glaurung led the Battle of Tumhalad against the Noldor. Túrin was the only one of the Noldor who could withstand the dragon's fire, being clad in dwarf armor. However, Túrin was not immune to the dragon's spells and stood helpless. Glaurung overthrew the people of Nargothrond, enslaving the women and maidens and plundering what treasure lay there, making himself king.

Glaurung eventually moved from Nargothrond to Cared-en-Aras, near the river of Teiglin. There, while he rested, he was mortally wounded by Turambar (Túrin). Turambar thrust his sword, Gurthang, into the dragon's soft belly. Retrieving his sword, Turambar was burned by the venomous black blood that spouted from the wound. Turambar lay as one dead. Glaurung was not dead yet. He would finally perish when Nienor, daughter of Húrin and sister of Túrin, came looking for Turambar. Glaurung lifted his curse on her, and she, remembering her life and lineage, threw herself into the river to be lost in the wild water. Glaurung then finally perished.

Glaurung's lidless serpent eyes could put a binding spell on those that looked into them. He could learn all about someone just by bending his will. His words were poison to those that heard his voice, enchanting the listener with spells of forgetfulness and utter darkness. Laying in a river, he could blind his foes with vast vapour and a foul reek. For even horses cannot stand the maddening dragon-stench. 

The brood of Glaurung would return in the Fall of Gondolin.

"But Turin passed away on the northward road, and Glaurung laughed once more, for he had accomplished the errand of his Master. Then he turned to his own pleasure, and sent forth his blast, and burned all around him."  

 

Agrajag

Name: Agrajag

AKA: Bowl of Petunias, Rabbit, Fish, Old Man with a weak heart, Fly, Newt, Flea, Innocent Bystander, among others

Location: Cathedral of Hate

Novel: Life, the Universe, and Everything

Author: Douglas Adams



Natural History:
Agrajag was a victim of coincidence and reincarnation. He was a mad fat bat that was black, bloated, wrinkled, and leathery. Small, only about three-quarters the size of a human, and cranky.

His bat wings were broken and floundering, giving him a rather frightful appearance. He also had the most astounding collection of teeth. Each tooth looked as if it came from a different animal and stuck out at bizarre angles. It seemed that if Agrajag tried to chew anything he would lacerate half his own face. Quite often he did just that, covering those lacerations with small, ragged, black band-aids. He had three small eyes that gave him a look of intensity and insanity.

He lived in a place called the Cathedral of Hate - a location he created just to destroy Arthur Dent, the human responsible for killing every reincarnation of Agrajag, just by coincidence. The inside of the Cathedral was dark, but not just black - it contained more horrific colors like Ultra Violent, Infra Dead, Liver Purple, Loathsome Lilac, Matter Yellow, Burnt Hombre, and Gan Green. Gargoyles looked inward from pillars towards a great statue. The walls were covered with engraved stone tablets, commemorating those that had fallen under Arthur Dent. The statue in the center was of Arthur Dent in a monstrous, over-exaggerated, ravenous, evil form with thirty arms, each destroying some poor animal, and many feet that were stamping mostly ants.

The Cathedral of Hate was clearly created by a creature that had reached a level of annoyance the like of which had never been seen in the Universe. It was an annoyance of epic proportions, a burning, searing flame of annoyance, an annoyance that had spanned the whole of time and space in its infinite umbrage.

It was not clear if this reincarnation was his last, as we would unfortunately meet Arthur Dent again on Stavromula Beta.

"Seems a strange way to relate to somebody you've got nothing against, killing them all the time. Very curious piece of social interaction, I would call it." -Agrajag

Barrow-wight

Name: Barrow-wight

AKA: Unknown

Location: Barrow-downs

Novel: The Fellowship of the Ring

Author: J.R.R. Tolkien

Natural History:

Barrow-wights are shadows that came out of the dark places of the world and re-animated the bones of the kings and queens that were buried in the barrows they inhabited. They were said to walk the hollows with a clink of rings on their cold fingers and chains in the wind.

Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin were captured by a Barrow-wight after meeting Tom Bombadil. The victims of a Barrow-wight are laid on cold slabs, dressed in all white, and adorned with circlets, gold chains, and many rings. A sword is laid across the neck, as to end the life of whoever is unfortunate enough to become captured by these spirits. A barrow-wight would chant an incantation before disposing of its victims.

Frodo cut the hand from the Barrow-wight and sang a song to call Tom Bombadil, who rescued them from the barrow. By letting in sunlight, the barrow-wight would be expelled from its dark retreat, never to return.

Some say that the barrow in which Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin were imprisoned had been the final resting place of the last prince of Cardolan, who fell in 1409. 

"Cold be hand and heart and bone
and cold be sleep under stone
never more to wake on stony bed
never, till the Sun fails and the Moon is dead
In the black wind the stars shall die
and still be gold here let them lie
till the Dark Lord lifts his hand over dead sea and withered land."

- Barrow-wight

Shelob

Name: Shelob

AKA: Shelob the Great

Location: Torech Ungol

Novel: The Two Towers

Author: J.R.R. Tolkien





Natural History:
Shelob was an evil thing in spider form that lived at the top of the stairs of Cirith Ungol. No one knows how she came there from long ago. She was there before Sauron and his tower.

Her lair was filled with a black vapour wrought of veritable darkness that blinded the eyes and the mind, as if night was all that had existed in her tunnels. She let off a stench foul and a lurking malice.

Very few had ever entered her tunnels. Even Orcs were not willing to go in. She served none but herself, drinking the blood of Elves and Men. All living things were her food, and she grew bloated and fat, and her vomit darkness. Her brood was spread far and wide, even in Dol Guldur and Mirkwood.

Gollum had bowed and worshiped her at one time, bringing her food. But all she desired was death for all others and for herself a glut of life, alone, swollen until the mountains could no longer hold her and the darkness could not contain her.

Gollum led Frodo and Sam to Shelob in hopes that she would devour them and he could pick through the left-overs and take back his precious. Frodo and Sam felt her malice and cruelty in the tunnels, and using the gift bestowed upon him by the Lady of the Wood, Frodo was able to reveal Shelob. She retreated for the time being and followed them out, exiting out of one of the many holes of her lair.

Shelob was able to sting Frodo, putting him into a deep sleep. Sam took up his master's sword and stung Shelob in one of her many eyes and stabbed her in the underside, letting forth a venomous ooze. But her hide was thick and foul. She was her own undoing as she tried to break Sam under her own weight therefore driving his sword into her. She stood quivering but resolved to destroy Sam. Sam used the Phial of Eärendil one last time and its rays entered her wounds, causing her great pain. She retreated into her lair never to be seen again.

Shelob may never have left her tunnels again. She may have healed herself and once again wrought webs and shadows . . . or she may have perished.

"None could rival her, Shelob the Great, last child of Ungoliant to trouble the unhappy world."

Grendel

Name: Grendel

AKA: Mighty War-Spirit, The Horrible Stranger, Monster of Evil

Location: The Moors, The King's Hall: Heorot

Novel: Beowulf

Author: Unknown (Anglo-Saxon origin)



Natural History:
Said to be the child of Cain and Grendel's Mother, Grendel is thought to be a demon. Envious of the Daneman's joy, Grendel has been terrorizing the great mead-hall, Heorot.

After the sun would sink, revealing darkness, Grendel would visit the hall while the Danemen slept. Finding pleasure in his raids, Grendel would grab thirty warriors and drag them to his lair where he would devour them. Returning night after night, Grendel would break into the hall, causing chaos and killing the warriors in their sleep. For twelve winters King Hrothgar suffered under the cruel malice that was Grendel.

The monster, Grendel, not only killed the warriors, but made no distinction as to who he killed. Elderly and young alike all were harassed by his evil deeds, trapping and tricking them every night in his mist-covered moor-fens. Having heard of the monsters rampages, Beowulf sailed to King Hrothgar's aide. After hearing of the attack's Beowulf decides to fight the monster unarmed since that is how Grendel fights. After a great celebration of Beowulf's boast to defeat Grendel, the Danes and geats fall asleep in the great hall, all except Beowulf, waiting for the attack.

With bitter fury Grendel ripped the doors off the great hall and strode furiously in. Staring at the sleeping warriors, the monster deliberates as Beowulf looked on in suspense. Grendel grabbed a Danesman, tore him open, bit into bone, and drank the blood, swallowing the rest in mouthfuls. Ready to grab Beowulf next, Grendel reach out, but Beowulf grappled with the monster. Both equally angry at being matched by the other in strength, they fought in the great hall.

Weapons would not work against Grendel as he bore a charmed life and no weapon could harm him. Beowulf fought hand-to-hand combat with the monster, waking the others and decimating the mead-hall. Having woken the other warriors, they helped Beowulf by tackling Grendel. Beowulf, determined to destory the creature grabbed Grendel's arm and tore at it. Sinew split at Grendel's shoulder and Beowulf ripped the monsters entire arm out of it's socket. Grendel's howl of agony echoed through the kingdom. With his defeat, Grendel retreated back to his mother's cave, waiting to die.

The arm of Grendel can be seen hung over the great hall of Heorot.

"...The monster of evil

Greedy and cruel tarried but little,

He drags off thirty of them, and devours them

Fell and frantic, and forced from their slumbers

Thirty of thanemen; thence he departed

Leaping and laughing, his lair to return to,

With surfeit of slaughter sallying homeward."

Zem

Name: Zem

AKA: Unknown

Location: Sqornshellous Zeta

Novel: Life, the Universe, and Everything

Author: Douglas Adams





Natural History:
Zem was a mattresses from the planet Sqornshellous Zeta in the Sqornshellous System.

No one really manufactures mattresses, so instead they are caught, slaughtered, dried out, shipped out and slept on. The mattresses do not seem to mind and all of them are called Zem. Mattresses are by nature large, friendly, pocket-sprung creatures that live quiet lives in the marshes of Sqornshellous Zeta.

There is a whole group of words that apply only to living mattresses that live in swamps and marshes of Sqornshellous Zeta. These words include: flollop, floopy, globber (a sound made when mattresses are feeling deeply moved by a story of personal tragedy),  vollue (for the meaning of this word buy a copy of Sqornshellous Swamptalk at any bookstore), voon, flurble, willomy, gup, glurry, flodge, quirrel, flur, glur, wurf, and lurgle. Etymologists are particularly fond of visiting Sqornshellous Zeta.

Mattresses rarely bother rearing themselves up. This takes a tremendous amount of energy and strength, and can only be done for a few seconds. There is not much to see except swamp for miles anyway.

One particular Zem, who was large and probably of high-quality, though of little brains, had once struck up a conversation with Marvin the Paranoid Android, who happened to be stuck on Sqornshellous Zeta after giving a poorly received speech during the opening of a bridge, which folded up and sank into the mire, taking all of those on the bridge with it, after Marvin plugged himself into the opening circuits. The conversation did not last long, as near the end a team of white robots took Marvin's leg and then came back to take Marvin. The poor mattress was left alone and almost lurgled in fear.

The fate of Zem was unknown, though someone is probably sleeping comfortably on him right now.

"You should be more mattresslike. We live quiet retired lives in the swamp, where we are content to flollop and vollue and regard the wetness in a fairly floopy manner." -Zem

Ancalagon

Name: Ancalagon

AKA: Ancalagon the Black

Location: Angband

Novel: The Silmarillion

Author: J.R.R. Tolkien





Natural History:
Ancalagon was the greatest of the winged dragons of Morgoth.

Morgoth used this new breed of winged dragons, which had not yet been seen before, as a last desperate assault during the War of Wrath during the First Age.

Ancalagon, the mightiest of those dragons, had a fire that nothing could withstand, and wings that could put a shadow over the land for miles.

Death befell Ancalagon after a day and night of battle. He fell from the sky upon the towers of Thangorodrim, which broke into ruin.

"It has been said that dragon-fire could melt and consume the Rings of Power, but there is not now any dragon left on earth in which the old fire is hot enough; nor was there ever any dragon, not even Ancalagon the Black, who could have harmed the One Ring, the Ruling Ring, for that was made by Sauron himself." -Gandalf

Mooncalf

Name: Mooncalf

AKA: Unknown

Location: Moon

Novel: The First Men in the Moon

Author: H.G. Wells





Natural History:
The mooncalf was an enormous beast, about 24 feet high and almost 200 feet long. Its sides rose and fell with its labored breathing. It appeared to have no feet, but instead rolled along the ground, creasing its leathery skin and dragging itself forward.

Mooncalves can emit a loud bellowing sound while browsing the unusual fauna of the moon. They were noisy eaters and appeared to relish the act of eating. Selenites herded them out during the day, when the moon was not frozen over and tolerable to living creatures.

The Selenites used the mooncalves as a type of cattle.

"They seemed monsters of mere fatness, clumsy and overwhelmed to a degree that would make a Smithfield ox seem a model of agility."

Moon

Ungoliant

Name: Ungoliant

AKA: Unknown

Location: Avathar

Novel: The Silmarillion

Author: J.R.R. Tolkien




Natural History:
No one knows whence she came. Some say she descended from the darkness when the world was new. She took the shape of a spider in monstrous form and lived alone, far from the people's of Middle-earth.

She had an immense hunger. She hungered for light and hated it. She had no master, for she desired to be mistress of her own lust, taking all things to herself to feed her emptiness.

She made her home in the cleft of the mountains, sucking up all the light she could find and spinning it into dark nets of strangling gloom and black webs so no light could come to her abode. She was able to spin Unlight, a cloak of darkness in which things seemed to be no more and which eyes could not pierce, for it was void.

She assisted Melkor, he promising her whatever she lusted for, in seeking vengeance on the Valar. On the green of Ezellohar, the Unlight of Ungoliant rose up to the roots of the trees of the Valar, Telperion and Laureli, the first sources of light in Arda. Melkor smote each tree to its core and Ungoliant sucked up the sap that came forth. The poison of death that was in her withered the trees until they died. Her thirst and hunger was great, and going to the Wells of Varda, drained them dry. She belched forth black vapors as she drank, and swelled to an immense size and hideous shape, that frightened even Melkor.

Ungoliant and Melkor traveled to Angband. Though Melkor feared Ungoliant and tried to elude her, he knew that she would not leave his side until his promise was fulfilled. She requested the Silmarils, but Morgoth (Melkor) would not have it and kept them tight in his clutch. The immense cloud of darkness grew and she tried to strangle Morgoth with her webs. His cries called forth the Balrogs, who assailed Ungoliant with their whips, then freed Morgoth and drove off Ungoliant.

Ungoliant fled, covering herself in black vapors, to Nan Dungortheb, the Valley of Dreadful Death. There she hid, devouring and breeding with the other foul creatures of spider form that dwelt there. Her offspring remained there, weaving their hideous webs, while she moved south, away from the people's of Middle-earth.

"Of the fate of Ungoliant no tales tale. Yet some have said that she ended long ago, when in her utter famine she devoured herself at last."

Middle-Earth

Grendel's Mother

Name: Grendel's Mother

AKA: The Mother of Grendel, The Devil-Shaped Woman, Fiend-Woman

Location: Bottom of the Sea

Novel: Beowulf

Author: Unknown (Anglo-Saxon origin)


Natural History:
Thought to inhabit the horrible, cold flowing waters of the moorlands, Grendel's Mother was forced to leave her watery home when her son Grendel was maimed by the hand of the hero Beowulf. Thirsty for revenge, Grendel's Mother made her way to Heorot while the danes were sleeping in the great hall of the King, Hrothgar.

Grendel's Mother rushed into the hall, destroying the doors and entrance, and grabbed one of Hrothgar's favorite liegemen, the Dane of Æschere. Beowulf, asleep in another room, only hears of the slaughter in the morning when Hrothgar accounts the gruesome death of the Dane by the hand of Grendel's Mother. Beowulf then sets off to find the home of the monster, aided only by the rumors of a mighty-march of striding creatures in the moorlands.

Firm-rooted forests, miles-length of standing water, and stirring winds battered Beowulf in his search for Grendel's Mother, seeking places no deer or wolf would dare enter. Coming upon  Æschere head, Beowulf dives into the water beneath the cliffs, filled with sea monsters and serpents. Having taken a day to reach the bottom of the sea, Beowulf encounters the caves of Grendel's Mother and begins to fight her in the grim domain. Not being able to pierce the warriors armor, Grendel's Mother grabbed Beowulf and brought him to her den.

Having the upper hand, Grendel's Mother threw Beowulf to the ground and attempt to kill him with her mighty claws, but his armor was too thick. With all his strength, Beowulf grabbed a giant sword, one of the many treasures in the cave, and sliced through her neck. The body of Grendel's Mother lay next to that of her dead son, both slain by Beowulf.

"...His mother moreover
Eager and gloomy was anxious to go on
Her mournful mission, mindful of vengeance
For the death of her son..."

Babel Fish

Name: Babel fish

AKA: Clinching proof of the nonexistence of God

Location: Ear

Novel: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Author: Douglas Adams




Natural History:
I will not try to explain this mind-boggling bizarre creature, but instead use the entry from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -

The Babel fish is small, yellow, and leechlike, and probably the oddest thing in the Universe. It feeds on brainwave energy received not from its own carrier but from those around it. It absorbs all unconscious mental frequencies from this brainwave energy to nourish itself with. It then excretes into the mind of its carrier a telepathic matrix formed by combining the conscious thought frequencies with nerve signals picked up from the speech centers of the brain which has supplied them. The practical upshot of all of this is that if you stick a Babel fish in your ear you can instantly understand anything said to you in any form of language. The speech patterns you actually hear decode the brainwave matrix which has been fed into your mind by your Babel fish.

Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as a final and clinching proof of the nonexistence of God.

The argument goes something like this: "I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."
"But," says Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED."
"Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.
"Oh, that was easy," says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed at the next zebra crossing.

Most leading theologians claim that his argument is a load of dingo's kidneys, but that didn't stop Oolon Colluphid making a small fortune when he used it as the central theme of his best-selling book, Well That about Wraps It Up for God.

Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation.

"What's this fish doing in my ear?" -Arthur Dent

Space

The Dragon

Name: The Dragon

AKA: War Dragon, Fire-drake

Location: Stone-Cave

Novel: Beowulf

Author: Unknown (Anglo-Saxon origin)




Natural History:
Not much is known of the dragon that battled Beowulf. The dragon stole precious gems and gold from across Scandinavia, hiding them deep in a cave on the sea-side. Here the dragon would guard the treasure from intruders and kill any that dare try to steal his hoard. It terrorized the Scandinavian people for 300 winters.

One intruder did mange to steal some gold while the dragon was asleep, but upon waking it discovered the missing treasure and sought revenge on the people that stole it. Beowulf  on hearing about the dragons' attacks, sought to destroy it. Beowulf led a group of eleven men to confront the creature and all abandoned Beowulf but Wiglaf.

Like many dragons, this dragon was immune to physical attacks. Beowulf struck with his sword but could not skewer the dragon. The dragon raged and spewed fire at Beowulf, biting and clawing at the warrior. The battle raged for sometime until Beowulf drew his knife and began to cut at the dragons vulnerable underside. However, Beowulf had been poisoned by the dragons bite and the wound proved to be fatal. Beowulf's dying wish is to have the dragon's treasure brought to him. When Wiglaf returns to the cave the dragon is gone, and as far as we know as never been heard from again.

It is interesting to note that the dragon from Beowulf and Smaug might be related. They are both described as fire-drakes and are similar in color and their lust for jewels and gold. Perhaps this can be confirmed once we visit more dragon-kin.

Heorot

Smaug

Name: Smaug

AKA: The Great Worm, Smaug the Magnificent, Smaug the Golden, the Chiefest and Greatest of Calamities

Location: Erebor, the Lonely Mountain

Novel: The Hobbit

Author: J.R.R. Tolkien



Natural History:
In the year of the Shire 2770, the Third Age of Middle-Earth, Smaug the dragon descended on Erebor, having heard of the great wealth contained within its halls. Upon his arrival he destroyed the town of Dale and drove the dwarves from their home. Smaug remained king of the Lonely Mountain and its fortune until 2941, when Thorin Oakenshield set out to reclaim his throne and treasure. Smaug was killed by Bard of Esgaroth.

Though one of the mighty fire-drakes (Urulóki) of old, Smaug had a weak spot on his left breast near his heart. The hobbit Bilbo Baggins discovered the spot when riddling with the dragon, which is the only way to speak to dragons, if you don't want to reveal your proper name, and don't want to infuriate them by a flat refusal. No dragon can resist the fascination of riddling talk and of wasting time trying to understand it.

Smaug had a great sense of smell and taste, enabling him to identify other races. Especially if he had previously consumed them. The smell of hobbit, however, greatly puzzled him. His eyes let out piercing red light. Iron scales adorned his backside. His underside was covered with the jewels and emeralds from the treasure upon which he rested. Out of his nostrils and mouth he could send forth a raging fire and vapor.

Smaug may have been the last dragon in Middle-Earth.

"My armour is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears, the shock of my tail a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!" -Smaug