Ghosts, myths and legends of Middle-earth

[Estelyn Telcontar]

There are several poems in "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil" that have scary elements: a troll of whom people are afraid; an island upon which people land, only to find that it is a tortoise' back; the tale of a shadow-bride. However, the creepiest one is "The Mewlips", which I quote here (not quite in its entirety, but extensive passages to show the effect):

The shadows where the Mewlips dwell
Are dark and wet as ink,
And slow and softly rings their bell,
As in the slime you sink.

You sink into the slime, who dare
To knock upon their door,
While down the grinning gargoyles stare
And noisome waters pour.
...

Over the Merlock Mountains a long and weary way,
In a mouldy valley where the trees are grey,
By a dark pool's border without wind or tide,
Moonless and sunless, the Mewlips hide.
...

They peep out slyly; through a crack
Their feeling fingers creep,
And when they've finished, in a sack
Your bones they take to keep.

Beyond the Merlock Mountains, a long and lonely road,
Through the spider-shadows and the marsh of Tode,
And through the wood of hanging trees and the gallows-weed,
You go to find the Mewlips - and the Mewlips feed.

I suppose we could speculate on the kind of creature Mewlips could be, but I don't need to know. True horror depends much more upon imagination than on actually seeing something, and the last line creeps me out without any further information!