Gulavhar, the Terror of Arnor (and other assorted beasties?)

[ninja91]

I was browsing through Games Workshop's Lord of the Rings miniatures when I came across this:

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat1110129&prodId=prod1090050&rootCatGameStyle=lotr

Gulavhar is a being from an earlier time that should have perished long ago - a winged demon with a hunger for blood. How he came to survive the terrible wars against Morgoth will never be known, yet survive he did, sleeping through countless centuries.

"Gulavhar, the Terror of Arnor", it is named. Obviously it is merely a creation of Games Workshop itself. And I am sure many here dont appreciate these "expansions" to the legendarium, and although I partly agree, I also think that these creations are very interesting.

Any thoughts? Also, has anybody seen or heard, or even thought, of an ancient monster lurking somewhere in the corners of Tolkien's world which was not specifically named in the books? Taking in how ancient, mysterious, and vast the lands of Middle Earth and its fellow continents were, who knows what walked the earth beyond Tolkien's published lore?

[Rumil]

Demons, er no, except the odd Balrog

I can sort of see where GW are coming from in that Middle Earth is surprisingly quite restrictive in terms of roleplaying and fantasy miniatures. After the good guys, orcs, trolls, easterlings and haradrim and featured monsters what next? Iron Crown (MERP) ran into the same problem when they held the licence and invented all sorts of horribly un-canonical things.

However, 'Nameless things that gnaw the world beneath' and 'the Wild, where live strange things beyond reckoning' do give some leeway. Some beings are mentioned only in Hobbit legends, like Fastitocalon, the Mewlips etc, or in passing in the 3rd Age ie Giants, or 1st Age eg. Vampires, or even in early drafts eg. Pygmies, Fay and Ogres. Its unclear whether any/all of these were intended to still exist at the time of Lord of the Rings.

[Pitchwife]

a being from an earlier time that should have perished long ago - a winged demon with a hunger for blood.
Sounds like one of Thuringwethil's lesser relatives (vampires). Some of them may well have survived into the Third Age, just like the Balrog of Moria and Shelob ("the last child of Ungolianth") did.
My main problem with Gulavhar is that the name doesn't seem to make any sense. Is that supposed to be Sindarin, or what? If yes, meaning what? (Sorry, but I'm a philologist at heart, if not by profession.) Nothing against expanding on Tolkien's work, but can't we try to get the details right? But that's probably too much to ask from a merchandising company...

[Rumil]

Perhaps this demon enjoyed travelling??;)

[ninja91]

Great point, Pitchwife, I had'nt thought of that. Or, on a save-face scale, I had'nt had the effort to search out the meaning ;). Obviously GW was merely looking for a name that could fit the creation, and sound both evil and Tolkien-esque at the same time. But without regard to the actual language accuracy, of course.

[Gordis]

My main problem with Gulavhar is that the name doesn't seem to make any sense. Is that supposed to be Sindarin, or what? If yes, meaning what?

Almost certainly it was supposed to be spelled "Gûlavhar", with "Gûl" meaning "Sorcery", like in "Morgûl" or ""Gûldur"

as for avhar, I don't know. Maybe it has something to do with "avari"=the unwilling?