Scariest Thing In All Of Tolkien's Creation...Ever

[Thinlómien]

1. Ringwraiths, really. All that sniffing and chasing in the Shire, the lonely cry, the attacks of Crickhollow, Bree and Weathertop and the flight to the Ford... *shudders*

2. The Barrow-Downs are really scary too. The fog, the stones and the wights. Also, I find the story of the Barrow-Wights rather creepy yet very fascinating. And very sad too. I wish we knew more about it.

3. I have to agree about the nameless things and the Watcher in the Water. The mysteriousness and their ancient origin are very fascinating and scary. Also, Moria itself is a rather scary place and the Book of Mazarbul is just thrilling...

4. The Oath of Fëanor. All the bloodshed and madness it creates. Or actually, maybe I should nominate Silmarils instead. Scary things, anyway. (But again, very fascinating...)

5. The Ring itself just because of what it does to people, especially to Frodo and Boromir. (Or should I now nominate Frodo and Boromir? They are both pretty scary when the Ring gets hold of them...)

6. Númenoreans. Their pride and arrogance and cruelty scare me, as does their colonialist attitude. And what scares me most is probably the fact that they are not utterly unlike me...

7. Sauron's dungeons in Tol-in-Gaurhoth, the werewolves and Thuringwethil. They too are only vaguely mentioned and thus make me both a little scared and more than a little curious.

8. Mirkwood. Not the spiders, not the presence of Dol Guldur, not the river, not even the Elves (although Thranduil is quite scary in a way)... it's just the atmosphere. Something magical and somewhat unsettling, the dark, the eyes and the lights of the Elves.

9 .Wargs. Maybe because Tolkien describes the atmosphere of them roaming around and their howling so scarily.

10. Everything else that is scary, so: the Silent Watchers, the Palantíri, Huorns (and especially trees of the Old Forest and Old Man Willow himself), Ungoliant, Shelob, Glaurung, Morgoth, Sauron (mostly for the really ugly Eilinel&Gorlim thing), angry Valar, Eru (mostly because he seems not to care most of the time), the great eagles (yes, really, but they are cool too), Denethor, Minas Morgul, Cirith Ungol and Dol Guldur (if places count). And then all the scary stuff I've forgotten...

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

4. The Oath of Fëanor. All the bloodshed and madness it creates.

Or just Fëanor and all he represents and where it leads to. The pride, the relentless pursuit of honour and right, the uncompromising souls... That is something that really scares me.

I mean you can come up with monsters of any sort but Fëanor and his tribe are really scary! Not the least because you can admire them at the same time. Maybe it's indeed just because of that?

[Thinlómien]

Originally Posted by Nogrod

I mean you can come up with monsters of any sort but Fëanor and his tribe are really scary! Not the least because you can admire them at the same time. Maybe it's indeed just because of that?

Oh indeed. I love the Noldor but they are pretty scary too. Actually, now that I think of it, almost all my favourite Tolkien characters are scary in a way. (Well, obviously, Merry isn't, and Théoden and Haleth aren't too scary either, but for example Galadriel, Maedhros, Gandalf and Boromir - whom I already mentioned - are...)

PS. By the way, Nerwen, skip and Morth, you are being funny...

[Lalwendë]

I might have to revise my list, there's so many things that I'd left off it...

...like the inhabitants of the Paths of the Dead, especially when I read in a copy of Vinyar Tengwar about what they did to Baldor:

"The special horror of the closed door before which the skeleton of Baldor was found was probably because the door was the entrance to an evil temple hall [of the same Men of Darkness to which the Oathbreakers presumably belonged] to which Baldor had come, probably without opposition up to that point. But the door was shut in his face, and enemies that had followed him silently came up and broke his legs and left him to die in the darkness, unable to find any way out."

That's just unspeakably horrific...

...but if I was Tolkien I'd have made sure to include it in LotR!

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

8. Mirkwood. Not the spiders, not the presence of Dol Guldur, not the river, not even the Elves (although Thranduil is quite scary in a way)... it's just the atmosphere. Something magical and somewhat unsettling, the dark, the eyes and the lights of the Elves.

That reminds me of another....Old Man Willow!!!!! Malevolent trees just scare me senseless for some reason....it's so primal.

Originally Posted by Folwren

Also, the Nazgul.

I think the Nazgul are the scariest thing in all Tolkien's creation ever in my opinion. They're the only thing that kept me up at night while I was reading the book.

I might bump these up my list of scariness actually, because they're pretty vile and terrifying. Loads of books seem to have similar things too - the Dementors in Harry Potter and the Spectres in His Dark Materials for example. Brrrrr.......

Originally Posted by Rumil

Ordinary sized non-poisonous (UK) spiders are bad enough, even when they are 100 times smaller than you. Now a Giant spider much bigger than you, with a pitch black lair and uncuttable sticky webs - er nasty!!! Not to mention the foul smells and orcs round the corner.

There was one in our house last week, sitting above the cot. I'm not scared of spiders, in fact I think they're quite cool, but it was so big I had to go and fetch a jug to catch it in and it just fell off the wall and nonchalantly scuttled away under the bed, where it remains. I swear it was like a shaved tarantula....

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by radagastly

Have to include the Watcher in the Water. Clearly life-threatening, and yet, nobody sees it! Except for a tentacle or two. Of course, he might be included with the "Nameless things" under the Earth. That seems to be where he came from.

I never thought about the Watcher as about one of these things (and, just as a funny thing aside, one of my friends long time ago didn't know LotR much and knew somewhat Dungeons and Dragons and concluded that Watcher in the Water = a Beholder). But maybe also partially thanks to the movie, which made him just a silly octopus, and what more, a CG octopus, I don't see the Watcher as that scary anymore.

The creepiest thing is not knowing . . . !

Well, that's the constituing point of all fear, ultimately

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

Also, Moria itself is a rather scary place and the Book of Mazarbul is just thrilling...

Ah yes, that's something I should have mentioned, too... especially these pits in Moria, and the "cannot get out" and "drums in the deep" parts are pretty scary.

8. Mirkwood. Not the spiders, not the presence of Dol Guldur, not the river, not even the Elves (although Thranduil is quite scary in a way)... it's just the atmosphere. Something magical and somewhat unsettling, the dark, the eyes and the lights of the Elves.

Hmmm... Mirkwood, actually to me, is not scary at all. I really like it a lot, and not even the way I may like some scary things. The atmosphere is magical, but not scary for me.

Sauron (mostly for the really ugly Eilinel&Gorlim thing

Yes, actually, I was about to write "dead Gorlim" or something like that into my list, because the beginning of the tale of Beren is just a very horroresque thing and really, really scary and as you said, ugly. Anyway Sauron is really scary especially in there, then at Tol-in-Gaurhoth, at Númenor and then in LotR when talking to Pippin in the Palantír.

Originally Posted by Lommy

4. The Oath of Fëanor. All the bloodshed and madness it creates. Or actually, maybe I should nominate Silmarils instead. Scary things, anyway. (But again, very fascinating...)

Now depends what definition of "scary" we use. Most of what I wrote meant simply "causing horror, as when watching a horror movie" (although even horror movies have their kinds... lots of them may be just disgusting, and that's not what I call "scary")... my replies were "what causes fear in you" or such. And the fear does not come to me like that...

Originally Posted by Nogrod

Or just Fëanor and all he represents and where it leads to. The pride, the relentless pursuit of honour and right, the uncompromising souls... That is something that really scares me.

I mean you can come up with monsters of any sort but Fëanor and his tribe are really scary! Not the least because you can admire them at the same time. Maybe it's indeed just because of that?

...because, well, I understand well what you mean here, it's more or less the thing that when you say "scary", people don't usually imagine the scary things which come up from attitudes, thoughts, or even from people as themselves, but usually something alien, or at least alien people (now thinking about all kinds of scary stories from the ancient times about "behind river X, there live horrible people who eat their children and will come and eat our children too" and such. Even when you think about the description of let's say Haradrim in LotR, especially the one on the Pelennor fields... okay, that's maybe for another topic... although maybe not).
But, in any case, even in RL, I think these things don't make me afraid... they make me... well, wary, or something like angry at most, or how should I best describe this feeling. But not really afraid, no, that's not it (I am inclined to believe however, that had I let's say gone personally through the rise of Hitler or whatever, it might be different).

As for labeling "scary" all Galadriels, Gandalfs or whatever, I think that's going along the same lines as when Gandalf tells Gimil that Fangorn is dangerous as much as Gandalf or Gimli himself are dangerous. But there are just things a person usually does not feel as "scary", or at least won't tell you that f.ex. Galadriel is what he would imagine under the word "scary" in the first place. I think at least for me, it's the similar reason for why I don't consider the Ring scary, or the Silmarils or whatever. It's also why, I think, basically it's unusual for people to imagine something like Galadriel as evil (now I'm intentionally recalling on the episode with her and the Ring in the chapter Mirror of Galadriel). And hey, speaking of that, I even think Tolkien mentions something like that himself in the essay "On Fairy-stories", saying something like that in a story, a castle of an evil ogre is nasty&such, while a beautiful place is hard to imagine as "evil", and yet it may be so - I would have to look up for the particular part in there. But, well, I think I at least outlined what I wanted to.

EDIT (x-ed with Lal's post):

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

I might have to revise my list, there's so many things that I'd left off it...

...like the inhabitants of the Paths of the Dead, especially when I read in a copy of Vinyar Tengwar about what they did to Baldor:

Huh, indeed! Now how could I have forgotten them - the Paths of the Dead themselves, even just the way they are described in LotR, are pretty scary.

Hmm, going along these lines, what about the Pukel-Men? Or Ghan-buri-ghan and his folks just like that? Although this may be just one of the cases of "xenophobia" (cf. above in this post my point about children-eating people), because why should they be more scary than let's say Rohirrim - I mean, had the story been made from the perspective of Ghan-buri-ghan, surely the Gondorians and their stone cities would have been the thing described as "scary". Anyway, not that I would consider Ghan worth taking post in my top 10 ladder, but just mentioning it as it may be worth some attention.

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

It's also why, I think, basically it's unusual for people to imagine something like Galadriel as evil (now I'm intentionally recalling on the episode with her and the Ring in the chapter Mirror of Galadriel). And hey, speaking of that, I even think Tolkien mentions something like that himself in the essay "On Fairy-stories", saying something like that in a story, a castle of an evil ogre is nasty&such, while a beautiful place is hard to imagine as "evil", and yet it may be so - I would have to look up for the particular part in there. But, well, I think I at least outlined what I wanted to.

An O/T Ramble follows: Yes, a Utopian ideal often turns out to be a Dystopia (in fact I think Thomas More's original Utopia was never meant to be something that could actually happen?), beauty often hides ugliness. Tolkien uses it himself in regard to characters - Sauron was beautiful but was at heart wicked, and vice versa, Aragorn was a scruff but was in fact a King. He never seemed to use it for places though - can you think of any beautful places that were in some way 'dystopian'. You've got me pondering there...

...anyway...

Originally Posted by Legate

Hmm, going along these lines, what about the Pukel-Men? Or Ghan-buri-ghan and his folks just like that? Although this may be just one of the cases of "xenophobia" (cf. above in this post my point about children-eating people), because why should they be more scary than let's say Rohirrim - I mean, had the story been made from the perspective of Ghan-buri-ghan, surely the Gondorians and their stone cities would have been the thing described as "scary". Anyway, not that I would consider Ghan worth taking post in my top 10 ladder, but just mentioning it as it may be worth some attention.

[/QUOTE]

Oh I don't find the Pukel-men or the Woses scary, just fascinating!

But the idea that Men were going into the Paths of the Dead to enact some kind of sinister rituals is really quite frightening. It's not clear if they were dead or alive when they got Baldor, but either way, that bit is probably the second most frightening episode in the whole of Tolkien's work for me.

[Eönwë]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

Oh I don't find the Pukel-men or the Woses scary, just fascinating!

I must agree here. I think I feel the same way about the Drúedain as Legate feels about Mirkwood.

[Durelin]

Originally Posted by Folwren

I think the Nazgul are the scariest thing in all Tolkien's creation ever in my opinion. They're the only thing that kept me up at night while I was reading the book.

Definitely have to agree. I remember being quite terrified, reading about the first Nazgul encounter late at night... I remember it described as if they crawled, which really freaked me out, perhaps because of a connection with creepy-crawly things like bugs...but I think the last time I went back to try and find such a description I couldn't find it, so I might have created the image myself.

I also agree that spiders are just horrifying. I hate, hate, hate them. Hate.

For example, this:

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

There was one in our house last week, sitting above the cot. I'm not scared of spiders, in fact I think they're quite cool, but it was so big I had to go and fetch a jug to catch it in and it just fell off the wall and nonchalantly scuttled away under the bed, where it remains. I swear it was like a shaved tarantula....

would make me want to burn down my house (after I run screaming from it). That room would at least be quarantined for a good while, all cracks around the door taped over...even after I sent in one of my many personal spider-killers.

Also the Silent Watchers, as Lommy mentioned. How they and the effect they had on Frodo were described was extremely freaky...

Of course I say all of this noting that I have not read The Lord of the Rings in quite a while...

[Folwren]

Originally Posted by Durelin

I also agree that spiders are just horrifying. I hate, hate, hate them. Hate.

We must be much alike, Durelin. I, too, hate spiders. Today, I was clambering up a ledge by the river to jump in to the water, and I almost put my hand on a gigantic spider...it was all brownish-grey, so it blended in with the rock, and when I saw it, I jerked back my hand and screamed... it was HUGE! Probably a lot like Lal's spider.

[Morthoron]

Other than envisioning naked Hobbits cavorting about the Barrow Downs, the most indelible images of horror I can recall are...

1) The Nazgul in the Prancing Pony stabbing the beds of the Hobbits.

2) The Nazgul at the Ford crying “Come back! Come back! To Mordor we will take you!” As Frodo weakly fought them alone. It is a chilling scene, and one of the most irritating omissions of the movie.

3) The bloated faces in the Dead Marshes (scared the begeezes out of me as a kid).

4) The thought of Helm Hammerhand frozen to death where he stood in the snow (the same creepy feeling as seeing Jack Nicholson frozen to death at the end of The Shining).

5) As Lalwende said, the death of Baldor in the Paths of the Dead (the sheer madness brought on by the apparitions before the actual death is what is gruesome).