One of the most expansive and complicated fictional realms has been created by J.R.R. Tolkien. The War of the Rings epic, which covers The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, is actually only the tip of the iceberg, even if the general public may be more acquainted with Peter Jackson’s cinematic adaptations. Tolkien’s Third Age is where we find Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, the cuddly Hobbits who become dragged into the maelstrom of power rings, dragons, and wizards. It implies that by the time most of us first learn about Arda and its people, centuries’ worth of history have already occurred. (Arda, for the non-book people, is the author’s imagined Earth; it includes both Middle-earth and Valinor, the enigmatic Eastern region whither the Elves flee at the conclusion of Return of the King.)
Nevertheless, if fans go back to the Second and First Ages, they will discover even larger, badder, and stronger animals that are capable of terrifying whole armies and ransacking towns. The beasts and monsters that fans face during the Third Age are fairly incredible. Several of the animals that inhabit Middle-earth are also found in our world, but Tolkien also created many of his own and borrowed many well-known creatures from mythology, such as dragons and werewolves. As the term “creature” may have a wide range of meanings, we’ve included everything on this list except for the races of Arda that are closest to humans: Men, Elves, Dwarves, and Hobbits. We’ll be mixing collective and individual contributions since some animals are very strong for their species.
SHADOWFAX
In The Two Towers, Gandalf refers to Shadowfax as the “King of all horses,” and this isn’t simply the wizard waxing poetic over his preferred mount. The finest horse to ever set foot in Middle-earth, Felaróf, is directly descended from by the name of Shadowfax. Both belong to the Mearas, an exceptionally excellent breed of horse.
Shadowfax is exceedingly courageous, devoted, and shrewd; he sticks behind Gandalf even while engaging in one of the biggest conflicts and is able to comprehend every order he gives. His quickness, though, is his best quality. He is said to be “faster than the wind,” and he proved this when he transported Gandalf from The Shire to Rohan in less than a week.
WARGS
Wargs are distinguished from regular wolves in Tolkien’s mythology by their size and apparent intelligence. The Lord of the Rings creatures may ride like horses and can form alliances with other species, notably goblins. In addition to being able to attack on their own for a reason other than foraging for food, wargs can.
After turning into agents of Mordor, they did exactly this to the Fellowship outside of Moria in The Fellowship of the Ring. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’s conclusion included the employment of wargs by Azog and his Orc army, who almost sent Gandalf and the rest of the party plunging down a cliff as they sought safety in a tree and nearly killed Thorin.
GOBLINS
Jackson portrayed them as such in his films, despite Tolkien’s confused habit of using the terms “Orc” and “goblin” interchangeably. Fans consider them as two related but distinct species. Goblins are often smaller, more nimble, more technologically aware than their tougher orcish kin, while sharing a similar form and ugliness.
As a matter of truth, Tolkien said in Over Hill and Under Hill that “it is not impossible that they developed some of the things that have since disturbed the world […] because wheels and motors and explosives always pleased them.” The Big Goblin, who captures Thorin and his companions in The Hobbit and imprisons them in his castle in Goblintown, represents the pinnacle of the species in terms of physical strength.
URUK-HAI
The Uruk-hai are a superior Orc species bred specifically for war. In The Lord of the Rings, Saruman cooks up an army of them in Isengard and sends them after the Fellowship. Two of them play key roles in the story: Ugluk, who captures Merry and Pippin, and— in Jackson’s films— Lurtz, who cuts down Boromir.
As a hybrid of Man and Orc, they have the combat and strategic skills of the former and the raw strength of the latter. One particularly barbaric tradition left-over from their orcish half is to fill their helmets with the blood of their enemies before battle. The smell of it running down their bodies makes them wildly thirsty for more in a variety of gory scenes.
OGRES
Ogres may just be mythical beings in Tolkien’s Middle-earth since they are only briefly referenced in The Hobbit during Bilbo and Gollum’s riddle game. Nonetheless, they appeared in Peter Jackson’s The Battle of Five Armies as very capable foot warriors and army commanders.
Ogres may be distinguished from trolls by their lower size and lack of sensitivity to sunlight. Trolls are another species that they might be confused for. Although trolls are used as transportation and a battering ram by orcs in The Lord of the Rings movies, Azog entrusts his ogre comrades with crucial tasks that they successfully complete.
TROLLS
Trolls are much larger and older than their ogre brethren— the biggest reaching up to 50ft. They’re also artificial beings, created by Melkor (Sauron’s master) for his War of the Wrath during the First Age. Their weakness to the sun’s rays, which turns them into stone, is echoed in their rock-like hides, shielding them from physical harm.
The cockney-voiced trio that nearly devours Bilbo and the dwarves in The Hobbit might give fans the impression that trolls aren’t up to much, but the ones that survived into the Third Age and joined forces with Sauron were considered massive threats. What they lack in brain power, they make up for in sheer size and muscle.
OLOG-HAI
How would somone build a better troll? Easy. Get rid of their one weakness. That’s basically what an Olog-hai is, an improvement on the original mentioned Lord of the Rings creature in The Return of the King. Trolls are already frightening forces to face down on the battlefield if there is a smaller, squishier creature, but at least their older enemies knew they were only active at night.
Olog-hai are also a little brighter than other trolls— though that’s not really saying much. Like Uruk-hai, they were purpose-bred to fight in Sauron’s armies during the Third Age. Some have mouths full of sharpened teeth while others have large tusks. They range from 15-30ft and, unlike most trolls, wear full battle armor and can skillfully wield weapons. It’s fair to say that the inclusion of trolls are a brilliant fantasy trope in the genre.
CARCHAROTH
Carcharoth is a werewolf who lived in the First Age and is a direct descendant of Draugluin, the first of their breed. Draugluin was created by Morgoth— the name that the first Dark Lord Melkor came to be known by— by infusing a wolf with an evil spirit. Morgoth raised Carcharoth on a diet of magically-enhanced “living flesh.”
This resulted in the beast growing to an enormous size with a hunger to match. His eyes were said to glow like “coals,” his fur was striped scarlet and his teeth were tipped with poison, earning him names like Red Maw and the Jaws of Thirst. True to that last title, he famously bit the hand and wrist clean off Beren Erchamion (Aragorn’s distant ancestor.)
ENTS
Indistinguishable from trees when sleeping, Ents are sentient tree-like creatures tasked with tending and protecting forests. They each tend to closely resemble the type of tree that they’re in charge of. Treebeard, the fantastic movie monster who Merry and Pippin encounter in Fangorn Forest, is the oldest surviving member of their kind.
Though they’re famously slow-moving (and speaking) Ents are incredibly strong and resilient, as Merry and Pippin tell us: “Their punches can crumple iron like tinfoil, and they can tear apart solid rock like bread crusts.” The two hobbits help galvanize Treebeard’s herd to destroy Saruman’s Isengard stronghold to avenge his assault on their forest, leading to the wizard’s demise.
MUMAKIL
Sometimes, size really is everything. Mûmakils are Tolkien’s spin on elephants. They were exclusively used by the Haradrim, a race of Men who lived in the Southern region of Middle-earth and became indoctrinated by Sauron to serve as his human allies in the War of the Ring. During the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, 18,000 of them faced down King Theoden’s forces.
At up to 90ft tall, the Mûmakil they brought with them struck devastating blows on the battlefield, acting like the animal equivalent to tanks. With their naturally armored skin, they’re very hard to even scratch, while anything smaller than them caught in their path will either get squashed or swiped away by a trunk or one of their four, long tusks.
WERE-WORMS
Like ogres, Were-worms’ actual existence in Tolkien’s writing was questionable. Hobbits believed they lived in deserts to the far East of the Shire, but they could have mixed them up with dragons— who resembled long, wingless lizards to begin with. Peter Jackson decided to include them in The Battle of Five Armies.
Azog the Defiler used them to create an underground passage for part of his army between Mount Gundabad and Erebor. Here, Jackson envisioned them to be about 400ft long and 75ft wide with huge, earth-crushing mouths. Luckily for the horrified Dwarves, Elves and Men at Erebor’s gate, they weren’t keen on leaving their tunnels.
AZOG THE DEFILER
While he’s not an Uruk-hai, Azog the Defiler was probably the greatest Orc to ever set foot in Middle-earth. Great, but certainly not “good.” He got his title by beheading the Dwarven King Thrór, Thorin’s grandfather, beginning a bitter war between the two species. Thorin avenged his family by taking one of the Orc’s arms.
In Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy, Azog’s missing appendage has been replaced by a metal spike, making his already scarred and muscular body even more intimidating. Azog isn’t just strong though — he’s also cunning: preferring to corner and wear down his enemy so that he can strike at exactly the right moment. No wonder Sauron took a shine to the Lord of the Rings monster.
SHELOB
For a lot of people, there’s nothing scarier than spiders— no matter the size. That’s why Shelob left such a lasting impression on fans of The Lord of the Rings as one of the film trilogy’s creepiest creatures. Knowing how powerful she is, Gollum leads Sam and Frodo right into her lair in Mordor, having previously had his life spared by Shelob on the promise of satiating her with juicier meat.
Despite her size, audiences see her stalk the unfortunate Frodo in total silence before paralyzing the Hobbit with her stinger and wrapping him up in webbing for later. Though she was considered a pet by Sauron, she’s neutral to any side but her own unending hunger and feared by every creature that knew what she was capable of.
FELLBEASTS
With their ear-splitting shrieks, it’s more likely to hear a Fellbeast long before anyone sees one. These black, winged monsters are the chosen flying steed of the Nazgȗl, or Ring Wraiths— Sauron’s formerly mortal servants who were corrupted by the Rings of Power and transformed into malevolent, ghostly entities.
Fellbeasts are incredibly agile and powerful hunters. They like to swoop down and bite their prey if they’re targeting a group or, for individuals, grab and lift them up into the air so that they can drop them to their doom. The only thing they seem to fear is direct sunlight, as demonstrated when Gandalf warded them off in The Return of the King.
GREAT EAGLES
Otherwise known as the deus ex machina of The Lord of the Rings, the Great Eagles are the side of good’s best defense against the likes of flying terrors like Fellbeasts and dragons. Though they may not look as ferocious, Tolkien stated they were definitely the fastest. Their king, Thorondor, was the biggest with a wingspan of 180 feet.
He did battle with the largest dragon ever to exist in Middle-earth, while his son, Gwaihir, played an instrumental role in the War of the Ring. Gwaihir is the leader of the eagles that rescue Gandalf after his tussles with Saruman and the Balrog, as well as Frodo and Sam after they bring the one ring to Mount Doom.
GIANTS
Despite their gigantic size— over 100 feet tall— giants are rarely seen in Middle-earth. In fact, Tolkien’s mention of them in the Red Book of Westmarch was his only, suggesting he simply dropped the idea of including them altogether. In An Unexpected Journey, Frodo, Gandalf and the dwarves pass through what they think is a thunderstorm in the mountains.
Looking up, they realize the cacophony of sound is actually a pair of giants tossing rocks at each other for fun. In Jackson’s version, these giants look like they could easily be mistaken for actual mountains because of their towering stature and rocky forms. It’s just as well they seem to care little for the affairs of the smaller people who live below them.
WATCHER IN THE WATER
The watcher might be Tolkien’s most mysterious monster. So mysterious that it doesn’t even have a proper creature name. Clearly, it’s inspiration was the Kraken, as it’s described as having 21 tentacles in The Fellowship of the Ring, which emerge from the lake in front of the gate to the Mines of Moria.
After it snatches up Frodo, all that the rest of the Fellowship can do is force it to the release the ring-bearer, before rushing inside the magically sealed gate to hide from it. The only information anyone gets about its origin is when Gandalf describes it as being “older” and “fouler” than Orcs and other Lord of the Rings monsters. Given its proximity, it could be another ancient evil disturbed by the dwarves in Moria and is an incredibly powerful being.
DURIN’S BANE
In The Lord of the Rings, the Fellowship find themselves surrounded by a goblin horde deep in the Mines of Moria, but just as they ready themselves to fight for their lives, a much bigger and older threat erupts from the deep. Named Durin’s Bane because of its slaying of the great Dwarven king, this Balrog is one of the last of its kind by the Third Age.
It may surprise Tolkien newbies to learn that Balrogs and wizards share common ancestry. Both are angelic entities called Maiar, but Balrogs were corrupted by Melkor to become the demonic, fiery beasts like the one that Gandalf spends days battling; an intense encounter that results in the destruction of both of their physical forms.
GOTHMOG
Gothmog, whose name means “strife and hate” was Lord of all Balrogs in the First Age. His official status in Morgoth’s army as the High Captain of Angbard meant he was also on equal footing with Sauron, Morgoth’s successor. Like Durin’s Bane, Gothmog gained a reputation as a king-slayer, claiming the lives of two High Kings of the Ñoldor Elves.
As well as a whip, he wielded a huge, black axe, and if that wasn’t intimidating enough, during the Beleriand wars he also had a personal protection detail of trolls as an extra layer of defense. Gothmog and the other Balrogs eventually broke free from servitude to claim Angbard as their own where he remained the greatest of his kind to ever walk Middle-earth.
SMAUG
Smaug is by far the most well-known dragon in Tolkien’s writing, and by the Third Age, he was the only remaining “great” dragon. Dragons revere money, therefore it was only natural that Smaug’s attention was drawn to the enormous hoard of gold and silver that the Dwarven King Thror had amassed within the Lonely Mountain.
The Hobbit makes it plain that Gandalf is worried about what a great friend Smaug would be to Sauron, and he is correct. Smaug is one of the biggest, quickest, and smartest creatures in all of Middle-earth, despite not being the biggest of his kind. He is also one of the cunningest. He could have been difficult to defeat had there not previously been a breach in his armor.