Moria's Nameless Things...

[TedShatner10]

In the chapter "The White Wizard" from The Two Towers Gandalf mentioned the Nameless Things he came across in the very deep bowls of the Misty Mountains, well below the official delvings of the Khazad'Dum, when he duelled with the Balrog. He described these mysterious creatures as very ancient and alien gnawing things that even Lord Sauron was unaware of, but didn't want to describe them in vivid detail, even though he was desperately fighting a high ranking servant of Morgoth at the time.

What were they?

 

[Skywalker]

Fanboys.

 

[T'Baio]

Ba-DUM, dum, CRASH!

 

[JuanBolio]

I'd imagine they were just some ancient arthropods or cephalopods evolved and adapted for life deep underground... perhaps even something akin to the Watcher in the Water. Creepy crawlies. Things you wouldn't want to find in your bed.

 

[Candlelight]

Fox Execs?

 

[T'Baio]

Ba-DUM dum, CRASH!

 

[Skywalker]

There ya go.

 

[Klaus]

Berman and Braga?

...but aside from rim-shots, I'd say even the Watcher is a surface dweller. This is much further down!

I love that reference in the book, and I think the unexplained nature of the "things" is part of their appeal.

The passage is very evocative and worth quoting:

"We fought far under the living earth, where time is not counted. Ever he clutched at me, and ever I hewed him, till at last he fled into dark tunnels. They were not made by Durin's folk, Gimli son of Glóin. Far, far below the deepest delvings of the Dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things. Even Sauron knows them not. They are older than he. Now I have walked there, but I will bring no report to darken the light of day."

- Gandalf

The Two Towers, Book Two, Ch. 5 --"The White Rider"

Even the Maiar don't get that far down very often, and certainly none of the younger races went far enough down to have seen and named them.

Just calling them "nameless" imples that the Elves didn't get there... their passion for naming [and talking to] things was nearly boundless.

 

[broberfett]

The old ones-guys like Cthulhu.

 

[JuanBolio]

...but aside from rim-shots, I'd say even the Watcher is a surface dweller. This is much further down!

I don't think the Watcher was originally a surface-dweller. There is a point at which the fellowship speculates that whatever it was it was likely driven out of the deep places beneath Moria.

 

[FreezeC77]

I figure it was things created by Morgoth that Sauron never knew about. Just because he eventually took Sauron on as his 'lieutenant' doesn't mean he told Sauron everything he experimented with or tried to set into motion.


As to the Watcher I figure it originally resided deeper in Moria and when the Balrog was uncovered at an even deeper level and eventually set loose it was forced out and came up to the surface level.

 

[Evil Twin]

http://www.thebrasse.com/game-guides/19

Scroll down to Foundations of Stone for an example of Lord of the Rings Online's interpretation of them. Looks like something out of Aliens.

 

[Klaus]

I should have said that the Watcher was a surface dweller by comparison to the nameless ones... even if the Balrog drove it upward, that was from a level the Dwarves had reached since they woke the Balrog in the first place... the first storey of stone, perhaps.

 

[Hound of UIster]

The Misty Mountains were raised up by Morgoth so there presumably could be servants of Morgoth that predated the First Age who hid there when their master was a prisoner in Valinor and never returned to him.

 

[TedShatner10]

^Yeah, the Misty Mountains being a elaborate outposts raised by a younger Morgoth could be a factor why the unknown creatures lurk at its depths and perhaps why the Balrog was drawn to the mountain chain.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Even Tolkien isn't above a Lovecraft nod, eh?

 

[Checkmate]

Even Tolkien isn't above a Lovecraft nod, eh?

Every single piece of his various stories came from real world mythology and legends. Hell, his entire schtick was creating a fantasy world where all of our myths and legends came from.

Why act so bewildered that he'd rip off Lovecraft like he did everyone else?

 

[sidious618]

It's funny. I love the world that Tolkein created but I can't stand the books.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Even Tolkien isn't above a Lovecraft nod, eh?

Every single piece of his various stories came from real world mythology and legends. Hell, his entire schtick was creating a fantasy world where all of our myths and legends came from.

Why act so bewildered that he'd rip off Lovecraft like he did everyone else?

No, I'm just bewildered that nobody else in the thread sensed the obvious conclusion to be drawn...

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Even Tolkien isn't above a Lovecraft nod, eh?

Every single piece of his various stories came from real world mythology and legends. Hell, his entire schtick was creating a fantasy world where all of our myths and legends came from.

That's not precisely true. Different cultures had different mythologies. England, because it had been conquered and reconquered so many times had no native mythology. Middle-Earth was a recreation of what the native Brithonic mythologies might have been.

Why act so bewildered that he'd rip off Lovecraft like he did everyone else?

Is there any evidence that Tolkien was even aware of Lovecraft? Yes, I can easily imagine the Nameless Things as something vaguely Lovecraftian, but that doesn't quite fit with Tolkien.