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

[Groin Redbeard]

10. Gollum. All that talk about him crawling through windows and stealing babies just makes me shudder.

9. The Watcher.

8. Balrogs, specifically the Balrog that overthrew the kingdom of Khazad-Dum. I can just picture him reeking havoc across the great halls and mines.

7. The Old Forest. Those are some angry trees!

6. The dungeons of Barad-Dur. It is scary to think about all the possible devices that Sauron might have used on his prisoners.

5. The far north. It's where the greatest evil always comes out of and there just might be some remnants of that ancient evil left.

4. Carcharoth

3. The Barrow Wights. The thing that scares me the most is to think that they were once great men now fallen and cursed by the Witch King.

2. Morgoth, the power-fullest of all the Valar. The depiction of him fighting Fingolfin is just amazing.

1. Nazgul, by far the scariest things that Sauron ever created. The concept of the living dead has been around for years but Tolkien really nails it with these nine.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Groin Redbeard

The Barrow Wights. The thing that scares me the most is to think that they were once great men now fallen and cursed by the Witch King.

Actually, not, mind you. That's one common mistake. The Barrow-Wights are evil spirits which have nothing to do with the Dúnedain or Men from there. The spirits of the Men from there hopefully already departed to where Men go after death. Cf. for example LotR, Appendix A, I, iii:

It was at this time that an end came of the Dúnedain of Cardolan, and evil spirits out of Angmar and Rhudaur entered into the deserted mounds and dwelt there.

[Groin Redbeard]

Rhudaur? That's the realm where Rivendell is, how can evil spirits dwell there? Hmm... I'm going to have to look up on that.

Thanks ,Legate, for clearing me up on that and sparking my interest in it!

[Mithalwen]

for she is one of my favourites but maybe Galadriel - think of the effect on that toughest of all tough nuts Gimli:

The travellers now turned their faces to the journey; the sun was before them, and their eyes were dazzled, for all were filled with tears. Gimli wept openly.

"I have looked the last upon that which was fairest," he said to Legolas his companion. "Henceforward I will call nothing fair, unless it be her gift." He put his hand to his breast.

"Tell me, Legolas, why did I come on this Quest? Little did I know where the chief peril lay! Truly Elrond spoke, saying that we could not foresee what we might meet upon our road. Torment in the dark was the danger that I feared, and it did not hold me back. But I would not have come, had I known the danger of light and joy. Now I have taken my worst wound in this parting, even if I were to go this night straight to the Dark Lord. Alas for Gimli son of Gloin!" .

The power to make a dwarf cry - now THAT is scary.

[A Little Green]

Now that I came to think about it, the only things that really creep me out in Tolkien's books are hints - hints such as the given examples about things in the Sea, or rumours of darkness gathering in the East in the very beginning (that is one thing I forgot to mention in my last post, though it is probably one of the most disquieting things in the whole LotR), or dark things that creep in the northern wilderness.

The proud, ambitious people who fall into madness are a different thing entirely, they are, as has been said, scary in a different way. But scary nonetheless, I insist.

[Mithalwen]

Thats a good point Greenie. I remember Mirkwood seeming scary when I first discovered the Hobbit and I still puzzle why Gandalf, Beorn and Bilbo went the long way around to get home even after they had the blessing of The Elvenking to pass through.

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

for she is one of my favourites but maybe Galadriel - think of the effect on that toughest of all tough nuts Gimli:

The travellers now turned their faces to the journey; the sun was before them, and their eyes were dazzled, for all were filled with tears. Gimli wept openly.

"I have looked the last upon that which was fairest," he said to Legolas his companion. "Henceforward I will call nothing fair, unless it be her gift." He put his hand to his breast.

"Tell me, Legolas, why did I come on this Quest? Little did I know where the chief peril lay! Truly Elrond spoke, saying that we could not foresee what we might meet upon our road. Torment in the dark was the danger that I feared, and it did not hold me back. But I would not have come, had I known the danger of light and joy. Now I have taken my worst wound in this parting, even if I were to go this night straight to the Dark Lord. Alas for Gimli son of Gloin!" .

The power to make a dwarf cry - now THAT is scary.

She always makes me think of Margaret Thatcher (with a better haircut, nicer clothes and less of a liking for South American dictators) with her aura of frightening determination. Like that alleged story about her having a meal with her Cabinet where she was asked what she wanted:
Mrs T: "I'll have the steak."
Waiter: "And what about the vegetables, madam?"
Mrs T: "They'll have what I'm having."

Or was that just Spitting Image?

[Mithalwen]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

She always makes me think of Margaret Thatcher (with a better haircut, nicer clothes and less of a liking for South American dictators) with her aura of frightening determination. Like that alleged story about her having a meal with her Cabinet where she was asked what she wanted:
Mrs T: "I'll have the steak."
Waiter: "And what about the vegetables, madam?"
Mrs T: "They'll have what I'm having."

Or was that just Spitting Image?

I think that was just spitting image.... but I did meet someone who had hosted Sir Denis as a guest speaker for a dinner and he proffered his empty gin glass "any chance of another one of these?- it's true what they say about me you know!"

Yeah I could think of him as Celeborn.... wonder if the wise one kept hitting the miruvor ...

[Eönwë]

The old forest- trees that can hate, and go against you, and do things when your back is turned.