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

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."  

 

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."

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

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

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