Week 11: Villains – Tuesday 9th
May 2023
#TolkienTrewsday #TolkienTuesday #Tolkien
Welcome to #TolkienTrewsday #TolkienTuesday.
The hub for this Twitter-based event can be found here.
Tolkien Trewsday (the Hobbit name for Tuesday!) invites the #Tolkien community to form a fellowship to collectively tweet about a pre-selected theme about Tolkien, his works and his life.
Each week a new theme will be selected, often via a poll or by a guest host/curator, and together we will build a collective outpouring of creativity, knowledge and love for J.R.R. Tolkien and the adaptions based on his works.
The inspiration for this comes from the highly successful #FolkloreThursday which engaged lovers of Folklore, academics, artists and more to use Twitter to discuss it.
We only ask that if you are joining in, please do so with courtesy and kindness in your tweets. This is a positive-action community event, open to all and supportive of fan diversity. Intolerance, racism, bigotry have no place here.
💬 This week’s theme
Week 11: “Villains” – Tuesday 9th
May 2023
Instead of a poll, we are going with suggestions from Twitter users. This week the choice was “Villains” by @DRD_Tim.
How to contribute
We are keeping it very simple. All you need to do to join is tweet something about the current week’s theme and use the following hashtags in your tweet:
#TolkienTrewsday #TolkienTuesday #Tolkien
Your tweet, besides following the theme, can be anything. Examples include:
- Villains in Tolkien’s legendarium and other works
- Female agency in representations of evil
- Tolkien’s views on evil
Thuringwethil attacks in the 2022
trailer for “Конно-трюковой музикл” Villains: “Evil does not sleep,
it waits.”1
This line, spoken by Morfydd Clark’s Galadriel in “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” (Season 1 Episode 1: A Shadow of the Past), speaks on many levels: that evil can be relentless (and patient) in its goals, that evil creatures often can be physically different to heroes in that some are untiring and therefore not bound by mortal weakness, and some do not live at all, but are undead.
Eru created the Ainur and together they sang a great Music. During this Melkor rebelled and created a dissonance in the songs that eventually made Eä and within that Arda (and Middle-earth). Melkor corrupted spirits from the Void who became Úmaiar (“demons”) such as the Balrogs. Other Maiar were turned by Morgoth and Sauron to aid them in their wars against the Valar and free peoples of Middle-earth. These are the relentless creatures that mortals fear, that bring dread to heart soul and soul when you approach their places of darkness.
Today I want to explore how some of these beings are visualised in adaptions including games, television, film and art. Research is ongoing on this subject, especially in the ideas of what forms Maiar take on the landscapes of Middle-earth, but I will focus on three types of villainous creature in this blog:
💀 Wights
🐺 Werewolves
🦇 Vampires
All of these creatures predate Tolkien’s works and he borrows from various mythologies. They are also staples of modern Horror, appearing as monsters in many books, television series and films.
18/06/23 update: I've discovered Dr. Sara Brown's wonderful lecture about "Interrogating the Liminal Space: Vampires and Werewolves in Middle-earth" is available here on YouTube. This lecture was given at both the International Medieval Congress (IMC) at Leeds in 2022 and Festival Internacional de Cine Fantástico (FantaElx) in Elche (Spain) in 2022. I attended the IMC Leeds event.
“Barrow wight” by John Howe (2003). Source.
💀 Wights
The Landvættir (Old Norse: “land wights”) in Icelandic texts were spirits of the land and guardians of places. These supernatural beings were respected in those texts and seem to be benevolent if appeased. In Tolkien’s Middle-earth, the Barrow-wights were embodied spirits more akin to Norse draugr, undead beings connected with burial mounds.
“In folktales, many draugr have some type of connection to burial mounds. They are deceased loved ones who come back to life in their graves or tombs, with the primary purpose of protecting the treasures that they were buried with. They are a type of revenant in a physical body, as opposed to something more ethereal like a ghost, and can put up a fight if provoked.”
“The Draugr” by Molly Wadstå (2021) in “Scandinavian Archaeology”
The draugr, reanimated corpses, are associated directly with the dead in the mounds, the spirit of those buried there. In Tolkien’s lore, the Barrow-wights are something much more sinister.
“A shadow came out of dark places far away, and the bones were stirred in the mounds. Barrow-wights walked in the hollow places with a clink of rings on cold fingers, and gold chains in the wind. Stone rings grinned out of the ground like broken teeth in the moonlight.”
The Fellowship of the Ring, Book One Chapter 7: “In the House of Tom Bombadil” from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (p. 130). HarperCollins Publishers. Kindle Edition.
“Wight” from Khraniteli (Russian: Хранители “Guardians of the Ring”,
The spirits inhabiting the bodies in the Barrow-downs as Barrow-wights do not come from there, but from further away. In some adaptions it is claimed or hinted at that the spirits are from Angmar where the Witch-King once dwelt. During the War of the Ring, prior to Frodo and his Hobbit friends travelling through the Barrow-downs, the Witch King awakens the wights to help in stopping the passage of the Ring bearer, as described in “The Hunt for the Ring” in “Unfinished Tales” by J.R.R. Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien.
“The Barrow-downs” by Zuzana Čupová (2016). Source.
Barrow-wights use magic to send beings into a slumber and then kill them with an icy grip, like one nearly did to Frodo and company. On at least two occasions Tom Bombadil fought Barrow-wights, using magical song to repel them.
The Barrow-downs in “The Lord of the Rings Online” (Author screenshot, 2023).
In “The Lord of the Rings Online” (LOTRO) Barrow-wights are one of the many creatures player characters have to fight on numerous occasions. They are part of “The Dead” (both spirits and spirits in bodies) and you can see just how many variations there are as well as named entities in this list from LOTRO-wiki. In LOTRO Rohan, wights are known as Draugar, bringing them back to their Norse mythological origins. LOTRO has an epic storyline involving Gaunt-men and their five Lords who were twisted men, now inhabited by ancient spirits.
Galadriel mourns Finrod, “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”
🐺 Werewolves
“In the pits of Sauron Beren and Felagund lay, and all their companions were now dead; but Sauron purposed to keep Felagund to the last, for he perceived that he was a Noldo of great might and wisdom, and he deemed that in him lay the secret of their errand. But when the wolf came for Beren, Felagund put forth all his power, and burst his bonds; and he wrestled with the werewolf, and slew it with his hands and teeth; yet he himself was wounded to the death.”
Chapter 19: “Of Beren and Lúthien” from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion (p. 204). HarperCollins Publishers. Kindle Edition.
In the first episode of season one of Amazon Studio’s “The Rings of Power”, though they can’t directly show it, they hint at the battle that took place between Finrod Felagund and a werewolf in the dungeons of Tol-in-Gaurhoth (Isle of Werewolves) after Sauron captured him. The deep scratches on the arms of his corpse, over which Galadriel swears an oath, show the werewolf’s mark.
There are three famous named werewolves in lore, the one that devoured Finrod’s companions and fought him to the death remained unnamed. Draugluin is the first werewolf, bred from wolves and then inhabited (like wights) by an evil spirit. He is called “sire of the werewolves of Angband” in The Silmarillion. One of those was Carcharoth who bit off Beren’s hand whilst he was carrying the Silmaril in it. Carcharoth is claimed to be the father of later wargs. Huan, the hound of Valinor, defeated and killed Draugluin at Tol-in-Gaurhoth and Huan also defeated the third werewolf there. This was Sauron himself who shape-changed into wolf-form:
“Now Sauron knew well, as did all in that land, the fate that was decreed for the hound of Valinor, and it came into his thought that he himself would accomplish it. Therefore he took upon himself the form of a werewolf, and made himself the mightiest that had yet walked the world; and he came forth to win the passage of the bridge.”
Chapter 19: “Of Beren and Lúthien” from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion (p. 204). HarperCollins Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Sauron at first makes Huan jump away in terror but the hound soon regains his composure to attack Sauron as he falters in his attack on Lúthien. Huan grabs Sauron with his mouth:
“Then Sauron shifted shape, from wolf to serpent, and from monster to his own accustomed form”
Chapter 19: “Of Beren and Lúthien” from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion (p. 204). HarperCollins Publishers. Kindle Edition.
But Sauron could not escape Huan’s grip. He loses the battle and the tower on the Isle of Werewolves falls to Huan and Lúthien. The hound releases his grip on Sauron, who then changes to another form (see our last entry) to escape.
It is the wolf-hame (Old English: skin) of Draugluin that Beren wears as a disguise that gains him entry into Morgoth’s inner chambers of Angband.
Besides this epic moment, werewolves do not feature much in the rest of Tolkien’s legendarium. In the case of Draugluin and Carcharoth, they are wolves controlled by an evil spirit (Maiar?) rather than a shape-changing beast, though Sauron himself does change his form into a werewolf with none of the traditional curse associated with such creatures.
In the first edition of The One Ring Roleplaying game by Cubicle 7 (2e is now by Free League Publishing after a change of ownership/publishing rights) there is however a werewolf which can pass on its curse.
The Werewolf of Mirkwood, The One Ring Roleplaying supplement: “The Heart of the Wild”
The Werewolf of Mirkwood, once a servant of Morgoth, fled into Mirkwood and made a lair near the mountains there. The game states it is a spirit in wolf-form and though its body can be destroyed, the spirit survives to seek out another wolf body to take over and return on the next moonless night. The hunt for the Werewolf takes a major role in The One Ring campaign, “The Darkening of Mirkwood”. Since the werewolf in this game is a spirit that can control the body of living animals, it could in theory possess a player character too, making the traditional curse of the werewolf a mechanic in the game.
“Werewolf” by Mark Evans from “Fell
Beasts and Wondrous Magic”. Source.In Decipher’s The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game a more traditional-looking werewolf appears in the “Fell Beasts and Wondrous Magic” supplement (2003). This roleplaying game uses both Tolkien’s works and Peter Jackson’s films as its sources. This type of werewolf image is however a departure from Tolkien’s own descriptions which favours fully wolf form and not a humanoid wolf.
“Concept art for Gauredain” by Devon Cady-Lee for The Lord of the Rings Online. Source.
There is however a group of wildmen called Gauredain (Wolf-men) in LOTRO who wear the skins of wolves. In battle they emulate the wolves they worship, going into battle on all fours. A similar tribe, the Ungoledain, are spider skin-changers. A Beorning is captured and tortured into revealing their secrets and it is said that Radagast plays a part in the creation of both Ungoledain and Gauredain. In the quest “The StolenGift” Radagast reveals he bestowed the gift of skin-changing upon men who became Beornings, but other men became jealous and gained this forbidden knowledge after capturing a Beorning. I don’t believe in-game we have seen Gauredain skin-change, but they do control wolf companions.
“Thuringwethil” by Tolrone.
Source.🦇 Vampires
We come to the final villainous creature featured today, made famous by Bram Stoker in “Dracula” but also by numerous films from Hammer Horror to the Lost Boys; the vampire. There are two named famous vampires in the works of J.RR. Tolkien, both appear (like werewolves) in the Beren and Lúthien story, and once again it is Sauron who takes on the form of a vampire to escape the peril he faces from Huan.
“Then Sauron yielded himself, and Lúthien took the mastery of the isle and all that was there; and Huan released him. And immediately he took the form of a vampire, great as a dark cloud across the moon, and he fled, dripping blood from his throat upon the trees, and came to Taur-nu-Fuin, and dwelt there, filling it with horror.”
Chapter 19: “Of Beren and Lúthien” from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion (p. 204). HarperCollins Publishers. Kindle Edition.
In the case of Sauron, he only assumes the form of a vampire (as he does a werewolf), but there is one who is named as being this creature: Thuringwethil, messenger of Sauron. Her name means "Woman of Secret Shadow" and she is killed during the battle of Huan and Sauron on the bridge at Tol-in-Gaurhoth. It is unclear how she dies but her cloak is used later by Lúthien to enter Angband.
“He turned aside therefore at Sauron’s isle, as they ran northward again, and he took thence the ghastly wolf-hame of Draugluin, and the bat-fell of Thuringwethil. She was the messenger of Sauron, and was wont to fly in vampire’s form to Angband; and her great fingered wings were barbed at each joint’s end with an iron claw. Clad in these dreadful garments Huan and Lúthien ran through Taur-nu-Fuin, and all things fled before them.”
Chapter 19: “Of Beren and Lúthien” from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion (p. 204). HarperCollins Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Thuringwethil as cosplay and fan art appears popular which is not unexpected as one of the few named female villains in the Legendarium, besides the Ungoliant and her daughter Shelob. You can see berenikecosplay’s Thuringwethil here (photography by Laura Madlen). MGCoco’s version of Lúthien and Thuringwethil dancing (below) is a wonderful take on the characters.
A surprise event in 2022 brought a live-action version of Thuringwethil in the form of a Russian equestrian musical. Yes, you read that right. The “Конно-трюковой музикл (The Legend of Beren and Lúthien)” follows the story through stunt horse performance alongside a stage. In publicity shots, it appears Thuringwethil has an expanded role in the story and interacts with several characters but at one point it looks like she has a song-battle (of sorts) with Lúthien.
“Thuringwethil and Lúthien”
from Конно-трюковой музикл (2022).You can catch some of Thuringwethil’s
vocal performance here (Timestamp @ 37 mins) in a “concert of the soloists”.
During the trailer here, it appears that Thuringwethil rides a horse at some
point. Her costume includes a dagger and black leathery wings.
A Morroval in the Fanged Pit of Moria (LOTRO). Author’s screengrab (2023).
In The Lord of the Rings Online there is a new creature, called Merrevail (female, singular: Morroval) and Mervyl (male, singular: Morvul), an ancient evil and LOTRO’s version of Tolkien’s vampires. The Merrevail are a cross between bat (wings, claws) and woman (body) whilst the Mervyl have bat-like faces too. They are first met in Angmar but are later encountered in Moria, Mirkwood and beyond. There are multiple variations of Merrevail and many named individuals, as you can see here.
In the Morgul Vale, player characters come across the plots of Lhaereth the Stained (the Lady of Blight), one of Sauron’s most oldest and loyal servants who creates plagues and poisons. You learn more of the history of the species and her own followers in the “Songof the Stained” lost lore item. In Easterling nursery-rhymes she is known as "Sweet Lara" which you discover in a questline in the Black Book of Mordor (Chapter 3.5) and instance (“The Song of Sweet Lara”). Across your encounters you learn she desires a child from Sauron and that does not end with the destruction of Sauron at the end of the War of the Ring.
Morcheryn in Rimpúrod (LOTRO).
Author’s screengrab (2023).The earliest leader of Merrevail that players encounter is Morcheryn, the Mistress of Darkness, hidden in her forested cave known as Rimpúrod in the ravine of Duvairë in Angmar, a public dungeon in LOTRO. Morcheryn is the focus of a small fellowship quest, “Mistress of Shadows”. Inside the cave some of Merrevail rest upside-down on the ceiling.
Merrevail hanging from the
ceiling of Rimpúrod (LOTRO). Author’s screengrab (2023).Thuringwethil, the inspiration for the Merrevail in LOTRO has also inspired in-game cosplay from creatives such as Wandering Arda and LOTRO Fashion.
💀🐺🦇 Conclusion
We have explored a few
representations of three creatures: Wight, Werewolf and Vampire. These
villainous beings are adversaries to the heroes of Tolkien’s stories and the
player characters in the various Middle-earth games. Though Tolkien doesn’t
focus much on minor villains except a few named characters, adaptions do and
it’s often those we look towards for inspiration for our own creativity.
As we head towards the summer, perhaps you’ll join the Mythopoeic Society in
the Online Midsummer Seminar 2023 (5-6 August 2023), “Fantasy Goes to Hell: Depictions of Hell in Modern Fantasy Texts” looking at representations of evil
in their own landscapes.
〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰
📜 Footnote 1:
The
words used by Galadriel, “Evil does not sleep”, harks back to several other
places. In Peter Jackson’s 2001 “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of
the Rings”, Boromir warns about going to Mordor:
“One does not simply walk into Mordor. Its black gates are guarded by more than just Orcs. There is evil there that does not sleep. The great Eye is ever watchful.”
This saying may well be a reference to something from the Bible. In the New King James version of Proverbs 4:16 is the following statement:
“For they do not sleep unless they have done evil; And their sleep is taken away unless they make someone fall.”
And Sir Terry Pratchett may have been doing a nod to this when he wrote:
“Evil in general does not sleep, and therefore doesn't see why anyone else should.”
In “Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch” (1990).
No comments:
Post a Comment