The scariest characters in the LOTR?

[Thinlómien]

Originally Posted by Aganzir

Really, I can't imagine he'd win an Elven lord in a song contest anymore. Not without the help of a bunch of Orcs.

I hope not!

More seriously, I think neeker-breekers are surely really horrible and possibly even scariest. Even the thought of them makes me shudder.

And in the Hobbit, Thranduil, his Elves (well maybe except the butler, Galion), the River and the whole Mirkwood are much more scary than say Smaug.

[Liriodendron]

Yes....eactly what were those woodelves doing with the movable fires and feasting, in and out, on and off? Were they luring the starving company into a trap? Were they dumbly oblivious? Or were they simply selfish, cold and uncaring......that whole bit was quite annoying. Weird creepy elves ......

[Volo]

Bill Ferny was actually very scary when I read the book for the first time.

[The 1,000 Reader]

Originally Posted by hewhoarisesinmight

He destroyed a whole civilisation!

That civilization he destroyed was going to destroy a civilization.

[Elmo]

So, he still did it didn't he. As I said I wouldn't want to get the wrong side of him because obviously has no qualms about smiting.

(sigh) I probably shouldn't have mentioned him because conversations about Eru always get people worked up.

[The 1,000 Reader]

Actually, your post sounded like you were saying he did that as an evil act. He's strong to have destroyed Numenor, but that wasn't an evil act.

[Folwren]

Originally Posted by hewhoarisesinmight

So, he still did it didn't he. As I said I wouldn't want to get the wrong side of him because obviously has no qualms about smiting.

(sigh) I probably shouldn't have mentioned him because conversations about Eru always get people worked up.

lol. You can mention him, just don't mention him in a bad way... There's a real Eru, you know, and you don't want to be on the wrong side of Him! But it's because of this real 'Eru' that people get all huffy and puffy about what's said about Eru. It's just easy to be riled up in the matter.

-- Folwren

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by hewhoarisesinmight

So, he still did it didn't he. As I said I wouldn't want to get the wrong side of him because obviously has no qualms about smiting.

(sigh) I probably shouldn't have mentioned him because conversations about Eru always get people worked up.

I agree, ultimately, Eru must be the most scary character in the whole work! True, he's not a traditional 'horror' or 'monster', nor is he one of Melkor's spooky, twisted minions. He isn't some earthly horror nor is he a power hungry person. But he is in control, and he can and will smite you. The rules aren't set down for most people in Middle-earth and they must work out for themselves what is right and wrong. Put it this way, in the real world an ordinary man or woman might find it hard to believe the words of not another race, but a whole other species on what was right and wrong. Sure, some Men carried the words of Eru, but in a situation where the whole world is at war, trust is in short supply, so we cannot simply blame people for not believing in Eru.

I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of him either. But who would be there to tell me otherwise? I think that's why you get so many complex figures and absolutely no 'perfect' people in Middle-earth; they're all trying to figure out what's right and wrong. If I was an ordinary Man trying to eke out a living why would I take everything that a Gondorian, descendant of the drowned Numenor, told me about Eru? Especially knowing the horrible tales that would've been passed down about the evil deeds of Numenoreans!

Eru is the Alan Sugar of Arda - he can say "You're fired!" at any point. And why? He's omnipotent.

Not everyone gets worked up about Eru.

Originally Posted by The 1,000 Reader

Actually, your post sounded like you were saying he did that as an evil act. He's strong to have destroyed Numenor, but that wasn't an evil act.

That's a moot point, not a given. I wouldn't word it as 'evil' myself, just as 'dodgy'.

[Gil-Galad]

all i have to say about the sinking of Numenor is that Eru was "The lesser of two evils"


brings into light a machiavelian aspect to Eru doesn't it...


weel Bill Ferny might be scary, hes no Sharku, i at first had no idea who Sharku was and that he had conquered the Shire when they were gone...


but the worse of all


Lobelia Sackville


scary

[Elmo]

That umbrella

[Lord Halsar]

Originally Posted by hewhoarisesinmight

So, he still did it didn't he. As I said I wouldn't want to get the wrong side of him because obviously has no qualms about smiting.

(sigh) I probably shouldn't have mentioned him because conversations about Eru always get people worked up.

Indeed. i beleive that people get so worked up about him, because he is sort of like the christian/jewish version of God. Everyone has a deep inner desire to defend the Lord's name should he be insulted. why would Eru be any different?

[Rikae]

Honestly, I found Boromir the scariest. The Nazgul, the Barrow Wights, etc, were straightforwardly dangerous; but Boromir was a member of the Fellowship who became a threat. The scene where he tries to take the ring from Frodo is probably the scariest to me, maybe because it hits closest to home...the people we trust being the greatest danger.

Caradhras

[Elmo]

why would Eru be any different?

because Eru is a fictional character, people don't worship Eru, there was never was an event called the Akallabeth, Eru never cursed mankind for eternity for worshiping at Melkor's temple. So I see no problem in questioning a fictional being's role in fictional events.

Stop me when this argument starts going round in circles

I agree with what was said about certain settings becoming the scariest moments of all in the Lord of the Rings.

I disagree with the whole Sauron isn't scary because he does nothing and you never see him thing.

I take Sauron and the ring together as one huge, invisible evil, an evil that can as someone here said, turn your friends like Boromir against you. What could be scarier then that invisible evil, and knowing that the only way to stop it is to destroy the ring itself, which holds the greater part of Sauron's power.

Not the Witch King. Dont get me wrong, I like the guy, but he seemed to make too many mistakes to be the scariest servant of evil.

Probably Durin's Bane, considering Gandalf's and Legolas' response upon seeing him.

Without his ring, would Sauron be as powerful as Durin's Bane? My initial guess is no, though I have little from the literature to back that claim up. And then, since Tolkein doesn't personify Sauron very well in the trilogy, it is tough to guess much of his power (and scary factor) very well. Though being an enigma might help his case.

[Aganzir]

Originally Posted by Famov

Without his ring, would Sauron be as powerful as Durin's Bane? My initial guess is no, though I have little from the literature to back that claim up. And then, since Tolkein doesn't personify Sauron very well in the trilogy, it is tough to guess much of his power (and scary factor) very well. Though being an enigma might help his case.

But there must have been something in Sauron that the Balrogs lacked. He was one of Morgoth's chiefs, and at least I have understood that his status was higher than that of the Balrogs'.
The Balrogs were of a different type of maiar than Sauron, but I don't know if being a demon of fire necessarily means being more powerful than an "ordinary" maia.

But his Ring lost a great amount of Sauron's original power was lost, too, so you may be right. Of course this depends whether we are speaking of Sauron whose Ring still existed, though not safely in his pocket, or of Sauron whose Ring was destroyed. A Balrog would probably win the latter in a combat.

[The Sixth Wizard]

Originally Posted by Mansun

Oliphaunts are pretty scary considering their size. What if one decided to land it's foot on the Witch King & crush him?

Well, the Witch-King had the raw power to drive his servants mad, couldn't he just raise a hand or scream or something and get away?

I think that the scariest places for me when I FIRST read the book (about 10 years old) were the places that it really seemed like there was no way out. The Balrog wasn't that scary to me because you knew Gandalf was going to finish it off. But in that chapter, I find the 'drums in the deep' very disturbing. Just as we finished reading about how the dwarves were trapped and killed, we get the same drums. Scary.

Other places that made me scared were the Barrow-Wights (until Tom came, which was a relief, let me tell you!) the lair of Shelob, Boromir attacking Frodo, anywhere past the Fellowship of the Ring involving Nazgul and Frodo and Sam, when the wolves closed in around them on the hilltop, the Nazgul that Legolas shoots down and was described as "a shadow [like] the Balrog", when Frodo was captured by the enemy (I really thought Sam would go it alone then) and Pippin saving Faramir.

Sorry, not so much characters as scenes.

Places that I didn't get scared in include: Balrog vs. Gandalf, Lorien (Galadriel), the King of the Dead (I was a bit lost at this point) and Saruman wasn't really scary either.

[Volo]

Originally Posted by The Sixth Wizard

Other places that made me scared were the Barrow-Wights (until Tom came, which was a relief, let me tell you!)

Yup, deffinitely!