LotR -- Book 2 - Chapter 04 - A Journey in the Dark

[Boromir88]

Aiwendil wrote:

Now it has often been remarked that Gandalf, Aragorn, and Frodo are the three heroes of the book.

I've always happened to believe Gollum was the hero of the book/hero of Middle-Earth. May sound wierd, but Gollum was the one who destroyed the ring, whether it was intentional or not. The whole fate of Middle-Earth was saved because Gollum happened to slip in.

I don't see any reason to think that they were not "real". As you point out, Gandalf certainly considered them a threat.

I would guess that there would be a trace of them if they were "real." Even if they were demonic spirits, in a physical wolvish body, there would be some sort of trace of them. A body, tracks, but there wasn't and Gandalf did say that those weren't your ordinary wolves. Atleast, we can agree that they weren't ordinary
wolves looking for meat, they were most likely from Sauron.