Thread: Vampires
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Old 03-29-2003, 02:44 PM   #2
VanimaEdhel
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Silmaril

I looked into that a little, and I found myself on greenbooks.theonering.net, where a very similar question was asked.

Quote:
Q: In the Silmarillion, at one point Lúthien turns herself into a "Vampire." Is there any indication in the rest of Tolkien's work as to just what a vampire was supposed to be?

-Anonymous
The ultimate answer turned out to be:

Quote:
[...]I don’t know of any place where Tolkien commented further about vampires in Middle-earth.

Luthien doesn’t quite turn herself into a vampire, but she did take the shape of Thuringwethil, the messenger of Sauron, who flew in the form of a vampire-bat with an iron claw at each joint of its wings.

Here’s the passage from the chapter "Of Beren and Luthien," where Huan and Luthien take the forms of Draugluin and Thuringwethil in passing through Taur-nu-Fuin:

"and he took thence the ghastly wolf-hame of Draugluin, and the bat-fell of Thuringwethil. She was the messenger of Sauron, and she was wont to fly in vampire's form to Angband; and her great fingered wings were bared at each joint's end with an iron claw."
Anthony wrote in with some other pertinent comments:

"There is other mentions of both werewolves and vampires in Silmarillion, though probably not in the manner that we are accustomed from contemporary culture. When Beren and Finrod are taken captive by Sauron, Finrod's followers were devoured by werewolves (not Sauron).
"Tolkien's werewolves generally do not appear to be shape-shifters; they instead seem to be wolves inhabited by malevolent spirits and thereby altered (see the descriptions of Draugluin and Carcaroth).
"There -is- an account of Luthien at least taking the -form- of a vampire. She did this by taking Thuringwhethil's 'shaping-cloak'. What sort of creature Thuringwhethil really was isn't known; my guess would be a fallen Maia. Anyway, the vampires that Tolkien writes of probably have little in common with our present notions."
I think Anthony is completely correct in pointing out that Tolkien’s vampires and werewolves would have little in common with the cinema generated notions we immediately think of today, from Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney, Jr., to Christopher Lee and others.
I hope that answers your question. As I looked in my books and couldn't find anything else, I figured that the people at theonering.net would probably have a good answer.

[ March 29, 2003: Message edited by: VanimaEdhel ]
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