Monsters and Servants of the Shadow
Also calledCreatures of Morgoth, Servants of the Enemy, the Shadow
The monsters and servants of the Shadow are the creatures made, bred or bent to evil by Melkor and later Sauron: Orcs, Trolls, dragons, great spiders, wargs, werewolves, vampires and the winged mounts of the Nazgûl. They were the armies and terrors of the Dark Lords in every age, and their power broke with the destruction of the One Ring.
Description
What the category holds
The Shadow in Tolkien's histories is the power of Melkor, the rebel Vala, and after him of his lieutenant Sauron. Neither could create life; they could only twist, breed and enslave what already existed. Every creature in this category descends from that corruption. Some, like the Orcs and Trolls, are whole peoples made in mockery of the Children of Ilúvatar and the Ents. Some, like the dragons, were engineered as weapons. Others, the great spiders, the wargs, the werewolves and vampires, the fell beasts that carried the Nazgûl, and the nameless things beneath the mountains, were beasts and spirits drawn into the Enemy's service or let loose in the dark before the Elves awoke.
In the Elder Days
Melkor's first stronghold of Utumno was already full of monsters when the Elves woke at Cuiviénen, and its shadows sent out riders and hunters that took Elves captive; from those captives, by the account in The Silmarillion, the Orcs were bred. After his return from Valinor Melkor filled Angband with Orcs, wolves and Balrogs, and in the long wars of Beleriand he added dragons to his host, Glaurung first, then the winged brood that ended the War of Wrath. Trolls appeared in his ranks by the Nirnaeth Arnoediad. The great spider Ungoliant was an ally rather than a servant, and her offspring haunted the Mountains of Terror. The Isle of Werewolves under Sauron bred Draugluin's kind and the vampire Thuringwethil.
Under Sauron
After Morgoth's defeat Sauron gathered the remnants. In Mordor and later Dol Guldur he bred new strains of Orc and Troll, the Uruks and the Olog-hai, drew the Nazgûl to him with the Nine Rings, and tamed the fell beasts as their steeds. The spiders of Mirkwood, and Shelob in her pass, were not his creatures but served his purpose; the wargs of the Misty Mountains allied with the Orcs of the North; and the dragons of the Grey Mountains, though masterless, worked destruction on the Dwarves that suited him.
After the Ring
With the One Ring unmade the will that drove these creatures was withdrawn. Orcs and Trolls at the Black Gate scattered or died witless, the Nazgûl were consumed, and the beasts of Mordor fled. Some kinds endured in the wild, dragons in the north and Orcs in the mountains, but none again gathered under a single dark hand.
Physical traits
The creatures of the Shadow have no one form, but they share a common signature: bodies and natures distorted from something that was once good, a hatred of the sun and of the works of the Free Peoples, and a dependence, in the great ones, on the will of their master.
Culture
The Orcs alone among them had anything like a culture, and it was a mockery of one, with crude tongues, cruel humour and constant strife. The rest were beasts, or single monsters with their own appetites. All were held together by fear of the Dark Lord rather than by loyalty.
Origins
Melkor entered Arda with the intent of ruling it, and being unable to create, marred. In the darkness before the Elves he bred and gathered every fearful thing, and the Orcs, the first and most enduring of his mockeries, were made from captive Elves. Later ages saw the Trolls, the dragons and the new breeds of Sauron.
Fate
The great servants of the Shadow perished with their masters. The lesser ones lingered in the wild places of Middle-earth, diminished and leaderless.
Sub-kindreds9
- Race
The Orcs are the foot-soldiers of the Shadow, a numerous and cruel race bred by Melkor in the Elder Days, by the published account from captured Elves. Hating the sun and all things fair, they served Morgoth, Sauron and Saruman in every war against the Free Peoples, and their breeds ranged from the small goblins of the Misty Mountains to the great Uruks of Mordor and Isengard.
7 figures - Race
Trolls are huge, brutish creatures of great strength and small wit, made by Morgoth in mockery of the Ents. Most breeds turn to stone in sunlight, and they were used as beasts of burden and shock troops by Morgoth and Sauron. The Olog-hai of Mordor, bred late in the Third Age, could bear daylight and were the most dangerous of their kind.
- Race
Morgoth's most terrible creations: vast serpentine beasts of fire and cunning, bred in Angband to break the armies of the Eldar. Glaurung was the first, Ancalagon the greatest, and Smaug the last of the great worms, and their fire, their greed and their power over the minds of those who meet their gaze run through every age of the legendarium.
- Creature
The brood of Ungoliant, the primeval spirit of darkness who drank the light of the Two Trees. Her descendants haunted the mountains of terror in Beleriand, and in the Third Age Shelob guarded the pass into Mordor while her lesser children infested Mirkwood.
2 figures - Creature
The great evil wolves of the Wild, allies and mounts of the Orcs. They hunted with the Goblins of the Misty Mountains, ran with the Goblin host at the Battle of Five Armies, besieged the Fellowship in Hollin, and carried Saruman's wolf-riders to the Fords of Isen and Helm's Deep.
- Creature
The great wolves of Sauron and Morgoth in the First Age: Draugluin, sire of the werewolves of Angband; the wolves of Tol-in-Gaurhoth that devoured Finrod's companions; and Carcharoth, the greatest wolf that ever lived, whom Morgoth reared to guard his gate.
2 figures - Creature
Bat-winged creatures of the First Age in the service of Sauron. Thuringwethil, his messenger, was one; Sauron himself fled Tol-in-Gaurhoth in vampire-shape; and Lúthien wore Thuringwethil's skin to enter Angband.
1 figure - Creature
The winged, featherless creatures that the Nazgûl rode in the War of the Ring: beaked, leathern-winged, foul-smelling things of an older world, which Sauron fed on carrion and gave to his Ringwraiths. One was shot by Legolas over the Anduin; the Witch-king's was beheaded by Éowyn on the Pelennor.
- Creature
The creatures of the deep places under the world, of which Gandalf would say only that they were older than Sauron and that he would not darken the light of day by describing them. The Watcher in the Water at the gate of Moria is the one such creature the texts show.
1 figure
Notable figures
Of the wider kindred
First of the Urulóki
Glaurung
Fire-drakesThe first of the dragons and the greatest of the fire-drakes, bred by Morgoth in Angband. He led the flames of the Dagor Bragollach, broke the allied host at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, sacked Nargothrond, and with lies and the dragon-spell drove Túrin and Nienor to their ruin before Túrin killed him at Cabed-en-Aras.
Angband; Nargothrond- Great Spiders
The great spider of Cirith Ungol, last child of Ungoliant, who had haunted the pass into Mordor since before Sauron built Barad-dûr. Gollum led Frodo into her lair; she stung him, and Sam, with Sting and the light of Galadriel's phial, wounded her so grievously that she fled into the dark and was not seen again.
Cirith Ungol Chiefest and Greatest of Calamities (his own boast)
Smaug
Fire-drakesThe last great dragon of Middle-earth, who came down out of the North in T.A. 2770, destroyed Dale, drove the Dwarves from the Lonely Mountain and lay on their treasure for a hundred and seventy-one years. Roused by Bilbo's theft of a cup, he burned Lake-town and was killed by Bard's Black Arrow.
Erebor- Great Spiders
A primeval spirit of darkness in the shape of a monstrous spider, whose origin the Eldar never learned. Allied with Melkor she poisoned the Two Trees and drank their light, then turned on him at Lammoth and would have devoured him but for the Balrogs. Shelob and the spiders of Mirkwood were her descendants.
Avathar; later Nan Dungortheb Mightiest of the dragons of Morgoth
Ancalagon the Black
Winged DragonsThe greatest dragon that ever lived, black and winged, whom Morgoth loosed from Angband as his last weapon in the War of Wrath. Eärendil slew him from the deck of Vingilot after a day and a night of battle in the air, and his fall broke the towers of Thangorodrim.
AngbandChieftain of the Orcs of Moria
Azog
OrcsAzog was the great Orc who ruled Moria after the Dwarves had abandoned it, and whose murder and mutilation of King Thrór in T.A. 2790 provoked the War of the Dwarves and Orcs. He slew Náin of the Iron Hills at the Battle of Azanulbizar and was beheaded there on the doorstep of Moria by Náin's son Dáin.
MoriaChieftain of the Goblins of the North
Bolg
OrcsBolg, son of Azog, was the chieftain of the goblins of the North who led the great host of Orcs, Wargs and bats against Erebor in T.A. 2941. His attack turned the quarrel over Smaug's hoard into the Battle of Five Armies, in which Thorin Oakenshield was mortally wounded and Bolg himself was crushed by Beorn.
Mount Gundabad and the Orc-holds of the Misty MountainsWarden of the Gate of Angband
Carcharoth
WerewolvesThe greatest wolf that ever lived, bred by Morgoth from the line of Draugluin to be the doom of Huan and set as sleepless guard at the gate of Angband. He bit off Beren's hand with the Silmaril in it, ran mad with the jewel burning inside him, broke into Doriath, and died there in the Hunt of the Wolf, killing Huan even as Huan killed him.
AngbandLord of the Werewolves of Tol-in-Gaurhoth
Draugluin
WerewolvesThe first and eldest of the werewolves of Angband, sire of their whole race and of Carcharoth. He served Sauron on the Isle of Werewolves, was mortally wounded by Huan at the foot of the tower, and crawled back to die at his master's feet with a warning; afterwards Beren wore his hide to enter Angband.
Tol-in-Gaurhoth- Nameless Things
A many-armed creature of the dark lake before the West-gate of Moria, which took the Dwarf Óin of Balin's colony and, a generation later, seized Frodo Baggins and sealed the Fellowship inside the mines. What it was is never explained.
The pool before the West-gate of Moria - Stone-trolls
Bert, Tom and William Huggins were the three stone-trolls who caught Bilbo and the Dwarves in the Trollshaws in T.A. 2941 and were tricked by Gandalf into arguing until the sun rose and turned them to stone. Their cave yielded the swords Glamdring, Orcrist and Sting.
The Trollshaws Captain of the Orcs of Minas Morgul
Gorbag
OrcsGorbag was a captain of the Orcs of Minas Morgul who found the paralysed Frodo in Shelob's pass and carried him to the Tower of Cirith Ungol. His quarrel with Shagrat over Frodo's mithril-coat set the two garrisons killing each other, and he died on Shagrat's knife.
Minas MorgulCaptain of the Orcs of Mordor
Grishnákh
OrcsGrishnákh was the leader of the Mordor-orcs who joined Saruman's Uruk-hai in the raid that killed Boromir and captured Merry and Pippin. He alone among their captors seems to have known about the Ring, and he died trying to carry the hobbits off to search them for it on the night the Riders of Rohan surrounded the Orcs at the eaves of Fangorn.
Mordor- Cold-drakes
A great dragon of the Grey Mountains, slain early in the Third Age by Fram son of Frumgar, lord of the Éothéod. His hoard set the Northmen and the Dwarves at feud, and a silver horn from it, carried south by Eorl, became the horn that Éowyn gave to Merry.
The Grey Mountains Captain of the Tower of Cirith Ungol
Shagrat
OrcsShagrat was the Uruk captain of the Tower of Cirith Ungol, the fortress guarding Shelob's pass into Mordor. He took the paralysed Frodo prisoner, killed his rival Gorbag in the fight that destroyed both their companies, and escaped to Barad-dûr with Frodo's mithril-coat and cloak, which the Mouth of Sauron later displayed at the Black Gate.
MordorChief of Goblin-town
The Great Goblin
Goblins of the Misty MountainsThe Great Goblin was the huge chieftain of Goblin-town beneath the High Pass of the Misty Mountains, who captured Thorin's company in T.A. 2941 and was killed by Gandalf in his own hall. His death set the goblins of the North on the road to the Battle of Five Armies.
Goblin-townCaptain of the Uruk-hai of Isengard
Uglúk
Uruk-haiUglúk was the captain of the Uruk-hai of Isengard who carried Merry and Pippin across Rohan after the breaking of the Fellowship. He held his quarrelling band together by force for three days and nights, and died fighting Éomer at the eaves of Fangorn when the Riders of Rohan destroyed the Orcs.
IsengardChieftain of the Orcs of Mount Gram
Golfimbul
OrcsGolfimbul was the goblin chieftain of Mount Gram whose raid into the Shire in T.A. 2747 was defeated at the Battle of Greenfields, where Bandobras Bullroarer Took struck off his head with a club. His is the only Orc invasion of the Shire recorded before the War of the Ring.
Mount Gram- Orcs
Snaga was a small Orc of the garrison of Cirith Ungol, one of the few survivors of the fight between Shagrat's and Gorbag's companies. He refused Shagrat's order to carry news to Barad-dûr, and died falling through the trapdoor of the topmost chamber when Sam attacked him as he whipped Frodo.
Mordor Messenger of Sauron
Thuringwethil
VampiresThe vampire messenger of Sauron, who flew in the shape of a great bat between the Isle of Werewolves and Angband. Her winged fell was found in the ruin of Tol Sirion, and Lúthien wore it to walk into Angband beside Beren.
Tol-in-Gaurhoth
Relations with other peoples
Places
Timeline
- Years of the Trees
Monsters of Utumno
Melkor's shadows hunt the newly awakened Elves; captives are twisted into the first Orcs.
- F.A. 260
Glaurung emerges
The first dragon comes out of Angband.
- F.A. 587
War of Wrath
Morgoth's creatures are largely destroyed; the survivors flee east.
- S.A. 1000
Sauron fortifies Mordor
The Orcs and other servants of the Shadow gather under a new master.
- T.A. 3019, March 25
Fall of Sauron
The creatures of the Shadow are left masterless.
Sources
- The SilmarillionOf the Coming of the Elves; Of the Return of the Noldor; Of the Rings of Power
- The Lord of the Rings: AppendicesAppendix F
- The Return of the KingThe Field of Cormallen