The Nightmare World of Tolkien

[Laitoste]

Firstly, between this thread and my English class, I no longer have the appetite to finish the Pride and Prejudice re-read I started...it is FAR too tame and mundane to follow the romantic and marital difficulties of Elizabeth Bennet when I could be rejoicing in deliciously gruesome descriptions!

And now for the point. Perhaps this lack of an "inner monologue" heightens the fear and terror...because we don't know for sure what the character is thinking and/or feeling, we must put our own emotions in the character's place. So instead of the Ringwraith sniffing out the hobbits, we feel as if it is actually searching for us. Any thoughts?

Oh, and one more thing: dragons! How are they horrific? In their description, or their cunning, or malicious personality? Did Smaug frighten anyone? I personally was not scared by him, but was intrigued by his way of speech. Once I read the Sil, however, I was (naturally) far more impressed by Glaurung, for his clever manipulation of Turin if nothing else--come to think of it, Glaurung was probably my favorite character in that story... For example:

Then suddenly [Glaurung] spoke, by the evil spirit that was in him, saying: 'Hail, son of Hurin. Well met!'

Then Turin sprang about, and strode against him, and the edges of Gurthang shone as with flame; but Glaurung withheld his blast, and opened wide his serpent-eyes and gazed upon Turin. Without fear, Turin looked into them as he raised up his sword; and straightway he fell under the binding spell of the lidless eyes of the dragon, and was halted moveless...But Glaurung spoke again, taunting Turin, and he said: 'Evil have been all thy ways, son of Hurin. Thankless fosterling, outlaw, slayer of thy friend, thief of love, usurper of Nargothrond, captain foolhardy, and deserter of thy kin. As thralls thy mother and thy sister live in Dor-lomin, in misery and want. Thou art arrayed as a prince, but they go in rags.'

And so on. Glaurung's destructive qualities lay not so much in the actual fact that he was a dragon with all the physical strength and attributes of a dragon, but that he was able to manipulate Turin to make poor choices. He captivates Turin, preventing him from following the obvious choice: rescuing Finduilas. What is it about cunning and manipulation, the "dragon-spell", that is so frightening? Do we see too much of it in ourselves? Or because we are terrified of falling under the spell ourselves and having the wool pulled over our eyes?