Werewolves

What the texts say

Werewolves belong to the First Age and above all to Sauron. When he took Finrod's tower on Tol Sirion in F.A. 457 and made it his own, the island became Tol-in-Gaurhoth, the Isle of Werewolves, and he filled it with wolves. The Silmarillion calls Sauron the lord of werewolves and a master of phantoms, and shows him able to take wolf-shape himself. His wolves are not ordinary animals. When Beren, Finrod and their ten companions were thrown into Sauron's pits, a wolf came in the dark and devoured them one by one, until only Beren and Finrod were left and Finrod died breaking his chains to fight the beast with his hands and teeth. When Lúthien and Huan came to the island, Sauron sent wolf after wolf across the bridge to kill the hound, and Huan killed them all in silence.

The chief of these wolves was Draugluin, an old and terrible beast who was the sire and lord of all the werewolves of Angband. Huan fought him on the bridge and Draugluin fled back to the tower to tell his master that Huan had come, and died. Sauron then took wolf-form himself, the greatest wolf-shape that had yet walked, and fought Huan and lost, and was forced to yield the tower. He escaped in the shape of a vampire. Beren afterwards wore Draugluin's skin, enchanted by Lúthien, to walk into Angband disguised as a werewolf.

The greatest werewolf was not Sauron's but Melkor's. Knowing the doom that Huan should die only by the greatest wolf that ever lived, Morgoth chose a whelp of Draugluin's line, fed it with his own hand on living flesh, and set his power in it until it grew beyond any wolf-hole of the world. This was Carcharoth, the Red Maw, who was chained at the gate of Angband. Lúthien put him to sleep; on the lovers' escape he bit off Beren's hand and swallowed the Silmaril, went mad with the pain of the holy jewel burning inside him, and ran through Beleriand and into Doriath itself, breaking the Girdle of Melian, until Huan killed him in the Hunting of the Wolf and died of his wounds.

What is implied but not stated

The word werewolf implies more than a large wolf, and the texts hint at that without quite saying it. Sauron's wolves are grouped with phantoms; Sauron himself can be a wolf and then a vampire and then a shadow, and the beasts he sends against Huan are described as bred by him. Carcharoth is not merely fed but filled with Morgoth's power, and after he swallows the Silmaril the Silmarillion speaks of a spirit of torment inside him. Taken together these passages suggest that a werewolf is a wolf-body inhabited by an evil spirit, either one of the lesser fallen Maiar that followed Morgoth or something of Morgoth's own will; and that reading is common among readers. But the published texts stop short of the statement. What they say is that the werewolves were wolves of unnatural size and malice, that Sauron bred and commanded them, that Draugluin fathered them and that Carcharoth was the greatest.

Whether the Wargs of the Third Age descend from these creatures is likewise never said. The wolves that attacked the Fellowship in Hollin left no bodies behind, which fits a spirit-wolf better than an animal, and the Atlas notes the connection as an inference.

Fate

The werewolves of Tol-in-Gaurhoth were slain or scattered when Sauron abandoned the tower. Draugluin and Carcharoth died in the same year. After the First Age the texts speak of wolves and Wargs but never again of werewolves.

Wolves of monstrous size. Draugluin was old, grey and huge; Carcharoth grew until his eyes were fire and his jaws could take a man's hand and the Silmaril in one bite. Sauron's wolf-form was the greatest wolf-shape yet seen. Beren in Draugluin's hide could pass for one of them at the very gate of Angband.

None. They were the hunting-beasts, gaolers and gatekeepers of Sauron and Morgoth, and they answered to their masters directly; Draugluin reported to Sauron in words.

Bred by Sauron and Morgoth in the First Age, from what stock the texts do not say. Draugluin was their sire; Carcharoth was chosen from his line and raised by Morgoth's own hand.

Not heard of after the deaths of Draugluin and Carcharoth in about F.A. 466.