Is THIS how you imagined the vampires?

[Nogrod]

Far from it!

It has no resemblance to any believable vampire whatsoever...

It's kind of a messy get-together of vampires, bats, gargoyles, balrogs or whatever monsters you can think... in a scale that is only unbelievable and clumsy.

Just think of bat-like humans and you're on your way to true vampireship... it's a lot scarier anyway.

Even if I don't exactly applaud the movie of the League of the Extraordinary Gentlemen (or whatever it was in English) the scene where the vampire-woman showed why no one needed to protect her by killing very suddenly the guy who was threatening her was something I liked a lot. It had something like a vampire-feeling in it. Neat and sneaky but at the same time over-aggressive and scary... vampirish in short.

Scary, not the imbecile fantasy-stereotype which always goes for the lowest common denominator.

People would not have feared of vampires through ages around the Western world if they weren't actually terrible - and believable...

[Hyarion]

I pictured them more like the above image, bat-like.

[Lindale]

Funny. SInce Tolkien was vague about those vampires of his, I always pictured them as almost Bram Stoker-ish, you know, a big bat, but then again able to transform into some hideous woman (for those familiar with Philippine lit, it's the mananaggal minus the separated upper body and lower body). Very relative thoughts... I thought of the hideous-woman thingy because Luthien transformed into a bat, right? Thuringwethil or however it is spelled, haven't reread Sil recently...

[sallkid]

I believe she transformed into a vampire, not a bat.

For my part i pictured them as being another perversion of morgoth, something fell and dark, but not this thing which looks more demonic than vampiric. and definately no more than a foot higher than an average elf.

[Finduilas]

Since Tolkien didn't describe Vampires, but used a well known mithological creature, he was probably meaning it to be the usual picture, half bat half human.

[Morthoron]

Thuringwethil could take the form of a large bat, a vampire bat. This does not mean she was some type of Nosferatu. There should be no connotations of Bela Lugosi-like creatures in Middle-earth. Also, Luthien did not transform into the likeness of Thuringwethil, she merely put on the 'bat-fell' of Thurngwethil after she was killed, just as Beren wore the 'wolf-hame' of Draugluin. Tolkien refers to vampire bats at the Battle of Five Armies as well, and they are indeed bats.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Also, Luthien did not transform into the likeness of Thurngwethil, she merely put on the 'bat-fell' of Thurngwethil after she was killed,

But somehow nonetheless acquired the power of flight thereby.

[THE Ka]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

... not transform into the likeness of Thurngwethil, she merely put on the 'bat-fell' of Thurngwethil after she was killed, just as Beren wore the 'wolf-hame' of Draugluin. Tolkien refers to vampire bats at the Battle of Five Armies as well, and they are indeed bats.

I once did an illustration of this event (sadly, it no longer is with us, my brother by *accident* threw it into the fire along with some junk mail long ago), and since Tolkien was rather vague about how actually Luthien might have looked, I highly doubt it is what the designers at GamesWorkshop thought of.
Though, I agree with you on how to consider the matter. Really, I can't see Luthien turning into a two-story vampire of sinewy porportions. When I drew it, I tried to get across the concept that it was a *cough* disguise, to give the sense of how Luthien wanted to appear to her surroundings and other creatures. There seems to be more of a sense towards secrecy and being unpretentious around other beings at Angband than, 'bwah! I be big vampiric monster...'.

~ Ka