Unknown beings!?

[Ulvenok]

'...brownies, fays, pixies, leprawns, and what else are they not called, for their number is very great... they were born before the world and are older than its oldest, and are not of it, but laugh at it much...'
The Book of Lost Tales, Part I, III The Coming of the Valar and the Building of Valinor

These are beings not explored by Tolkien, unknown by most maybe even the Valas. Ungoliant is clearly such a being and she could take on Melkor the most powerful of the Valas! "They were born before the world and are older than it's oldest, and are not of it, but laugh at it much", that sounds so much like Tom Bombadil he can't be anything but just that.

The one ring had no power over Tom just like Melkor had no power over Ungoliant. If Ungoliant is Tom's equal one can't help but to wonder the extent of Tom's actual power. Would he be able to contest with the powers of the world? Evidently there are many such creatures, brownies, fays, pixies, leprawns. Goldberry could very well be of their kind too. Also Gandalf mentions there being strange creatures gnawing at the root of the mountain. Gnawing is a direct reference by Tolkien to Níðhöggr.

Níðhöggr is a being which gnaws one of the three roots of Yggdrasill. It is sometimes believed that the roots are trapping the beast from the world. This root is placed over Niflheimr and Níðhöggr gnaws it from beneath.

So these creatures including Tom entered the world before the great powers, are not of it but are they of Eru? It seems odd that Eru would create "many" spirits equal to Melkor in power and place them in the world. This reminds me of when the silmarillion talks of the ents it says that Eru grabbed spirits from afar or something close to that. Is it possible that Tom, Goldberry, Ungoliant and beings of their kind answer to no one because there is nobody for them to answer to?

If that is true then how powerful would one rate a:

• Pixie
• Leprawn
• Brownie
• Fay
• Tom
• Goldberry
• Ungoliant
• Gnawing creature

and all the other unknown beings that has settled in Arda. Tolkien also said that one of the reasons he chose to include Tom in the story is to show that there are beings that are wholly unconcerned with what is going on in the world. Tom played with the ring as if was nothing, he made it dissapear, he wore it without being affected by it. He did not want it, yet was a bit curious about this "precious ring". Of course it's not precious to him, that was said in a sarcastic manner. What do you people think, what of these unknown beings?

[Bêthberry]

Those creatures are named in one of the very earliest tales Tolkien wrote. However, as Christopher Tolkien says in BoLT I, such creatures were very early on removed or edited out of the Lost Tales. They do not exist in the version of The Silm which CT published.

Dimitra Fimi's research on Tolkien suggests that in the very initial stages Tolkien conceived of fairies very similarly to their counterparts in Victorian literature (see the poem he came to dislike intensely, Goblin Feet) but that he came to despise these fluttering diminutive creatures and wanted to establish more robust fairies for himself.

The question of Tom's and Goldberry's similarity to them is very interesting and one I explored in a paper I gave at Return of the Ring last summer.I think there may well be others reasons Tolkien removed them.

However, since Tolkien did remove these fay creatures from his tales, that likely suggests they wouldn't rate in any power rating with those creatures who remain.

EDIT: Here's a link to Goblin Feet. I haven't verified if this online version is consistent with the print versions I've seen, though: Goblin Feet

[Lalwendë]

Also Gandalf mentions there being strange creatures gnawing at the root of the mountain. Gnawing is a direct reference by Tolkien to Níðhöggr.

Ulvenok, you've picked up on one of my favourite things there. I like digging out these references in Tolkien's work and he couldn't have chosen anything more frightening to be lurking under the Mountains (especially if you read the stark way the Niddhogr is described in the Voluspa).

I think the very presence of characters like Tom and Goldberry, and the 'nameless things' (and Pukel Men, and Ents etc) hints that there were more creatures and being in Middle-earth than we meet in the stories. That 'layering' adds the depth to Tolkien's creation that is missing from a lot of other stories. I'm not sure if Tolkien intended that, but it works in any case.

As to 'power' I think it can't be doubted that Ungoliant had an incredible level of it. Have a nose around because there's quite a lot of things on here about this subject.

[Ulvenok]

He may have removed the fairies but Tom and Goldberry are still there. Tom found Goldberry in a river and he sometimes refers to her as the riverwoman's daughter. Who is the riverwoman? Another unclassified being we know nothing about. Anyway I still find this quote intriguing.

They were born before the world and are older than its oldest, and are not of it, but laugh at it much...

It makes too much sense to be ignored, at least Tom and Ungoliant has to be of their kind. In which case Tom would be able to contest with the great powers, but never would since unlike Ungoliant he isn't concerned with a full belly or what is going on in the world at large. It's not in Tom's nature to fight, he is wholly neutral and just observes and studies everything as it is. So while he probably could make short work of Sauron, power really never plays into it since he isn't concerned with that or what is happening to innocent people in far away lands.

Anyway it's very interesting that Tolkien chose to include a being like Ungoliant in the Lord of the rings, a very minor major comment indeed.

[Inziladun]

Here is one of the many threads on the subject of Bombadil.

[Lalwendë]

I always think that Tom was part of Eru's creation of Arda itself, separate to the Valar, the Elves and Men. And put there by Tolkien to confound us! It would be very easy to have Eru create an ordered world with all the necessary gods and races in their correct place but Tolkien doesn't let Eru do that. Instead, Eru really is omnipotent and unknowable and lets beings like Tom and Ungoliant into his creation - as a result confounding all the readers!

We can only theorise

My theory on Ungoliant is that she isn't evil at all. She is simply an 'absence of light' or Un- Light. If Light is seen as somehow 'holy' in Tolkien's creation then Ungoliant is an absence of Light. She feeds on it like a black hole, but she isn't evil as she is part of what Eru either sent into the world or caused to happen during its creation.

[Rhod the Red]

Came to a sticky end too, didn't she eat herself?

[Elf_NFB]

I would say Ungoliant is a being of power somewhere between the Valar and the Maiar. It's pretty clear that sufficiently strong Maiar could defeat a Valar. Eonwe (Herald of Manwe) "whose might in arms is surpassed by none in Arda" So even the great warrior Tulkas could not defeat Eonwe.


At any rate, the Silmarillion describes Ungoliant as descending "from the darkness that lies about Arda, when Melkor first looked down in envy upon the Kingdom of Manwe, and that in the beginning she was one of those that he corrupted into his service." So, she was one of the spirits that entered the world after its creation.. just like the other Maiar and the Valar.

It's a pet theory of mine that lesser spirits (less than the weakest Maiar) explain creatures like the Eagles, Huon, Tom, and even (perhaps) Ents. These lesser spirits descent into the world but are not corporeal. They join the bodies of non-intelligent creatures and make them "more." The Eagles are HUGE. Huan can speak. Ents move about and speak. Melkor appears to do something similar with Carcaroth where "he became filled with a devouring spirit."