Scariest Thing In All Of Tolkien's Creation...Ever

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Originally Posted by Bom Tombadillo

5. Ungoliant/Shelob/the giant spiders of Mirkwood. They fall under the category of "big, obvious menaces" for sure, but this particular geek DOES. NOT. LIKE. SPIDERS.
4. The Dead Men called by Aragorn. I only remembered them after reading about people's fears of the Barrow-Wight (which for some reason fails to scare me at all).
3. Nameless Things. Like the Nazgul, except they take what's scary to me (undefined, unknown, stealthy, relentless things) and become it to the point where it's not quite so scary anymore. They still creep me out veeeery badly though.
2. Thuringwethil. As with the Dead Men, I had forgotten about her until reading some other posts on this thread . . . Then I thought about her and ended up thinking "Oh my God that's scary!"
1. Nazgul. Just enough of everything that scares me, without overdoing it like the Nameless Things.

Bom, welcome to the Downs!

If I were to analyze your post a bit, I would conclude that you fear the unknown more than the known. Or that your imagination (fex. what *might* be out there) really runs wild, given little data. You would fear less the dungeons of Sauron than the shadows just outside some ruin's door mayhap.

And fear of spiders may be instinctive, right from the DNA.

Anyway, was watching the 80's TV miniseries "V" last week, and, if you don't know, the aliens are reptiles in human costumes. This fact, I guess, was to creep you out, because everyone who sees a Visitor unmasked runs screaming. Julie, the human rebel leader, was psychologically tortured by being made to believe she was being chased by an iguana.

My point (there might be one ) is that either the culture has changed, as this iguana looks darn right silly (and after a few episodes of "Man vs Wild," I might be chasing it with a bottle of ketchup), or I have changed, meaning that what you (or society) might think scary today may be silly tomorrow.

Even those things you cannot name.