One of the most expansive and complex fictional worlds was created by J.R.R. Tolkien. The epic War of the Rings, which includes The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, is just the beginning. Although many people may be more familiar with Peter Jackson’s film adaptations, Tolkien’s Third Age is where we encounter Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, the lovable Hobbits who are caught up in the turmoil of power rings, dragons, and wizards. This implies that by the time most of us learn about Arda and its inhabitants, centuries of history have already unfolded. (For those unfamiliar with the books, Arda is the author’s imagined Earth which encompasses both Middle-earth and Valinor, the mysterious eastern region where the Elves escape to at the end of Return of the King.)
However, if fans delve into the Second and First Ages, they will discover even larger, more formidable, and more powerful creatures capable of terrifying whole armies and ravaging towns. The beasts and monsters encountered during the Third Age are truly remarkable. While some of the animals that populate Middle-earth can also be found in our own world, Tolkien has also created many unique creatures of his own and borrowed well-known beings from mythology, such as dragons and werewolves. Since the term “creature” can encompass a wide range of meanings, we have included everything on this list with the exception of the races in Arda that closely resemble humans: Men, Elves, Dwarves, and Hobbits. For the sake of diversity, we will incorporate both collective and individual contributions, as some animals possess exceptional strength within 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 distinguishable from regular wolves in Tolkien’s mythology due to their larger size and apparent intelligence. These creatures, featured in The Lord of the Rings, are capable of being ridden like horses and can form alliances with other species, particularly goblins. Unlike regular wolves that primarily attack for food, wargs have the ability to initiate attacks for reasons beyond mere foraging.
After betraying the Fellowship and becoming agents of Mordor, they carried out this very act outside of Moria in The Fellowship of the Ring. In the conclusion of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Azog and his Orc army used wargs to attack Gandalf and the rest of the party. They almost drove them off a cliff while they sought refuge in a tree, and they 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 to be two related but distinct species. Goblins are often smaller, more nimble, and more technologically aware than their tougher orcish kin, while sharing a similar form and ugliness.
In truth, Tolkien stated 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 the Lord of all Balrogs in the First Age. As the High Captain of Angband in Morgoth’s army, he held an official position that placed him on equal footing with Sauron, Morgoth’s successor. Similar to Durin’s Bane, Gothmog earned a reputation as a king-slayer by taking the lives of two High Kings of the Ñoldor Elves.
In addition to a whip, he wielded a massive, 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. He remained the greatest of his kind to ever walk Middle-earth.
SMAUG
Smaug is undoubtedly the most famous dragon in Tolkien’s works, and by the Third Age, he was the sole surviving “great” dragon. Dragons have a strong affinity for treasure, so it was inevitable that Smaug would be captivated by the vast hoard of gold and silver accumulated by the Dwarven King Thror inside the Lonely Mountain.
The Hobbit reveals that Gandalf is concerned about Smaug becoming a valuable ally to Sauron, and his worries are justified. Smaug is not only one of the largest, fastest, and most intelligent creatures in all of Middle-earth, but he is also exceptionally cunning. If it were not for a weakness in his armor that had previously been exploited, defeating him would have been challenging.