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In Lord of the RIngs, Morgoth created all kinds of dark and evil creatures in Middle-earth, including werewolves, dragons, trolls and even vampires!
The Lord of the Rings movies featured all kinds of dark, villainous monsters. From orcs and trolls to Sauron and his Nazgul, the films did a good job of highlighting just how much Frodo, Aragorn and the rest of the protagonists had to overcome to defeat Sauron. However, The Lord of the Rings trilogy is part of such a massive universe that the movies were only able to cover a small snippet of the written lore that Tolkien compiled. As such, there is always something new and exciting to be discovered.
Tolkien’s additional Lord of the Rings material has shown that once upon a time, there was a Dark Lord that was much worse than Sauron. In addition to that, werewolves and a giant spider-like-creature wandered Middle-earth, along with Balrogs, dragons and other dark, demonic monsters. If all of that wasn’t bad enough, Middle-earth was also home to a version of vampires.
Although they have been called by many different names through the centuries, dark tales about vampires have been around since ancient times. Inspired by the real-life figure of Vlad the Impaler, most modern renditions portray vampires as shape-shifting, blood-drinking monsters. Dracula is, of course, the most popular version of the evil figures, but images of Bela Lugosi or Gary Oldman as the blood-drinking Dracula do little to describe the vampires of Middle-earth.
Known as a twisted creator, Morgoth took the good things of Arda, that the Valar had placed in Middle-earth, and mangled their designs for his dark purpose. In that way, he bred orcs, trolls, werewolves and dragons. Vampires were another of his creations. In Tolkien’s work, vampires were simply man-sized, bat-like creatures. They served their creators – the Dark Lords Morgoth and Sauron – in their quest for war-fought domination of Middle-earth.
Sauron himself was a shape-shifter and was said to have taken the form of a vampire on at least one occasion during the travels of Beren and Lúthien. During that time, he was said to have been “dripping blood from his throat.” On the whole, though, vampires don’t receive a lot of attention. Other than Sauron, only one other vampire was formally named in Tolkien’s work. Serving as Sauron’s herald in the First Age, Thuringwethil was a female Maia who regularly took the form of a vampire. She had fingered wings and iron claws. Not much is known about the vampire-like Thuringwethil, but she was probably killed during the fight between Sauron and Huan the Hound, which took place within Sauron’s fortress on Tol-in-Gaurhoth (the Ise of Werewolves).
Although there has been no official mention of vampires in Lord of the Rings since the first age, Peter Jackson may have taken some inspiration from the creatures for his adaptation of The Hobbit. At one point in the trilogy, Legolas and Tauriel investigated the Orc fortress of Mount Gundabad, and while they were there, the two elves encountered large war bats. The bats later participated in the Battle of the Five Armies, and Legolas even hitched a ride on one for a bit. Given their evil nature, size and propensity for war, it’s probable that Jackson took inspiration from Middle-earth’s vampires. Who knows, Jackson could even confirm that the bats are actually the vampires of Middle-earth, and it would make complete sense.
Credit: Header image of Thuringwethil is from http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Thuringwethil.
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