Bats : Flying creatures of the night,traditionally associated with the forces of Morgoth and of Sauron.They were most famous in Middle-earth for taking the part of the Goblins during the Battle of Five Armies.
Bears : Large and ferocious animals;the most famous were those under the command of Beorn the skin-changer in the Vales of Anduin.
Bees : Buzzing domestic insects kept for their ability to make honey.Particularly famous were those of Beorn, which reached an enormous size.
Boars : Aggressive tusked beasts common to woodland regions.The most famous of all the boars of Middle-earth was the great Boar of Everholt,that lived beneath the trees of the Firien Wood.This boar was hunted by King Folca of Rohan and though he eventually killed his quarry,the King was mortally wounded in the encounter.
Cats : The most famous cats in the histories of Middle-earth were the cats of Queen Ber�thiel,nine black and one white,belonging to the Queen of King Tarannon of Gondor.
Cows : Domestic beasts kept throughout Middle-earth.The most famous were the eastern variety known as the Kine of Araw.
Crebain : Large black birds of crow-kind,native to the lands that bordered the southern Misty Mountains, Dunland to the west and Fangorn to the east.They seemed to possess at least some level of intelligence and were apparently used as spies by Saruman during the War of the Ring.
Crows : Black carrion birds associated in Tolkien's work with the forces of darkness.The most feared variety in the Westlands of Middle-earth was the large type known as crebain.
Deer : Graceful creatures found throughout Middle-earth.Deer were traditionally dedicated to the Vala Nessa and were said to follow her as she travelled through the wild lands.
Dogs : Common domestic animals in Middle-earth.The greatest of them all was Huan,the Hound of Valinor.
Eagles : The great birds who were the friends of Elves and Men in Middle-earth;the mightiest of the Eagles was Thorondor,who dwelt in the Encircling Mountains;he and his kin carried spirits akin to the Maiar.
Elephants : While we know much of the great elephant-like creatures known as the M�makil,it is not certain whether their lesser cousins that are still known today existed in Middle-earth.Gandalf does mention them in The Hobbit,so it is possible that they shared the wide burning plains of the Harad with their giant relatives.
Fish : Gollum's favourite food.
Flies : Tiresome aerial insects:those in Mordor were marked with the sign of the Red Eye.
Foxes : Dog-like carnivores of woodland and farmland,distinctive for their red-orange coats and their eerie plaintive cries.The most famous of all the foxes in Middle-earth appears early in The Lord of the Rings,where a dog-fox is puzzled at finding Frodo,Sam and Pippin asleep in a fir-wood on the first night of their journey from Hobbiton.
Gnats : Small flying insects,related to flies.They are known to have existed in Middle-earth,as Sam refers to them on the borders of Mordor.
Gulls : A general name for various types of related sea-birds,found around the shores of Middle-earth and N�menor in the same abundance as today.The sound of a gull mewing was said to awaken the Sea-longing in the heart of an Elf.
Horses : Beasts of burden and transport used by Elves and Men through the ages.Famous among horses were Rochallor,the warhorse of Fingolfin,and Felar�f,the steed of Eorl the Young.The breeding and riding of horses were arts developed to their greatest height by the Rohirrim in the Third Age.
Hounds : Dogs bred for hunting.The greatest of all hounds in the histories of Middle-earth was Huan the Hound of Valinor,who defeated Sauron in single combat.
Kine of Araw : The oxen that lived on the lands around the Sea of Rh�n were hardier and wilder than any others in Middle-earth.Legends claimed that they were descended from the cattle of the Huntsman of the Valar,Orom� himself and so they were named the Kine of Araw (Araw being the Sindarin form of Orom�'s name).The Kine were famous as the quarry of Vorondil the Hunter,ancestor of the Ruling Stewards of Gondor.It was he who cut a horn from one of these beasts and fashioned a hunting-horn from it,which came to be carried by the eldest son of the Ruling Steward from Vorondil's time onward.The last heir to bear the horn was Boromir,who saw it broken in two in his battle with Orcs beneath Amon Hen.
Kirinki : One of the many species of birds found in N�menor and doubtless Aman,that were not known in Middle-earth.The kirinki were said to be smaller than wrens,with bright scarlet feathers and voices so high that they could hardly be heard by Men.
Mearas : In the old north of Middle-earth lived a proud race of wild horses,long-lived,wise and fleet of foot.The legends of Men said that their ancestors had been brought from the West by B�ma,their name for the Vala Orom�. One of these was captured as a foal by L�od of the �oth�od.It grew into a strong white horse but when L�od tried to mount it,it threw him and killed him.L�od's son Eorl took the horse himself,naming him Felar�f.Felar�f was one of the greatest horses to have ever lived and was said to understand the speech of Men.He carried Eorl when the �oth�od rode south to Rohan and there sired a race of horses nearly as great as himself.These were the Mearas,noble horses that lived as long as a Man and had extraordinary strength and intelligence.Throughout their history,they would only allow themselves to be ridden by the Lord of the Mark or his sons.This long tradition was broken by Gandalf,who managed to train the greatest of the Mearas of his time,Shadowfax and rode that mighty horse throughout the War of the Ring.The word Mearas comes from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning simply 'horses'.Its singular form would be mearh but no character in The Lord of the Rings ever uses that word.
M�makil : A name for the great elephantine beasts of the Harad and especially those that the Haradrim brought to war in the late Third Age.
Nightingales : Small brown birds of thrush kind,famous for their clear singing and the fact that they will sing during the night as well as the day (hence their name).The Sindarin word for 'nightingale' was tin�viel,the name Beren gave to L�thien when he first saw her.
Oliphaunt : A word for the southern monsters also known as M�makil,evidently gigantic cousins of the modern elephant.Oliphaunt is a real word from ancient English.
Ponies : Common beasts of burden in Middle-earth,especially used by Hobbits and Dwarves,whose small stature made the riding of horses difficult.
Rabbits : Long-eared,furry animals,also called 'coneys',that were as common in Middle-earth as they are today.A favourite dish of the Hobbits.
Rats : Verminous creatures at least as common in Middle-earth as they are today.
Ravens : Large black birds,often associated with ill news.The ravens that lived near Erebor,though,were friendly with the Dwarves and some could even speak the Common Tongue.
Serpents : Creatures of Morgoth;Sauron took the form of one during his battle with Huan.
Sheep : Woolly grazing animals,especially common in the N�men�rean region of Emeri� and (in Middle-earth) on the Barrow-downs and in the Vales of Anduin.
Snails : Shell-bearing gastropod molluscs.Those of Erebor were particularly noted for their large size.
Snakes : Reptilian creatures that are universally associated in Tolkien with the forces of darkness and especially with Morgoth,the first Dark Lord.
Spiders : These small eight-legged creatures,known for capturing their prey in intricate webs,were evidently as common in Middle-earth as they are today.Characters in The Lord of the Rings often refer to them descriptively, whether it be Gandalf discussing his capture by Saruman,Sam climbing ropes across the Silverlode or Gollum clambering down a rock wall.There was a more sinister side to the spiders of Middle-earth,though,that entered it with the monstrous Ungoliant in the years before the First Age.A gigantic creature of spider-shape,it was she who destroyed the Two Trees of Valinor and escaped with Melkor into the lands of Middle-earth.Though Ungoliant herself disappeared into the far south,she left the northern lands infested with her offspring.During the First Age, the mountains of the Ered Gorgoroth were infested with these monsters and became a place of dread.The most famous of Ungoliant's children,though,lived far to the south and east of the Ered Gorgoroth,on the borders of the land of Mordor.This was Shelob,who haunted a network of tunnels watching the pass of Cirith Ungol,eking a living on the hapless Orcs of Sauron.She had offspring of her own,too,smaller than she but with a cruel intelligence,that spread throughout the Ephel D�ath and north into Mirkwood.It was creatures like these that Bilbo encountered in The Hobbit and through fighting them that his sword acquired its name Sting.
Squirrels : Nut-eating rodents often found in trees.Most would have been red or grey but in Mirkwood,the squirrels were said to be black in colour.
Swans : An important bird in the tales of the Elder Days.The Teleri seem to have especially revered swans,naming their city Alqualond� (the Swanhaven) and building their ships in swan-form.
Thrushes : Large speckled brown birds with a special fondness for snails,whose shells they remove by breaking them against stones.A thrush of Erebor was instrumental in the downfall of Smaug.
Wargs : The ferocious and intelligent race of wolves that lived in the northern Vales of Anduin and probably elsewhere in the north of Middle-earth.
White Wolves : A type of wolf native to the frozen lands in the north of Middle-earth.They were not normally seen in Eriador but seem to have remained among the snows of the Forodwaith and perhaps beyond.In the year III 2911,one of the harshest winters in Middle-earth's history descended,the so-called Fell Winter.The ice and snow of the north came at least as far south as the Shire.With them came the White Wolves,invading Eriador and roaming as far as the Shire.The frozen Brandywine River meant that they were even able to cross into the Eastfarthing.This was the last time the Horn-call of Buckland was used before the War of the Ring,one hundred and seven years later.
Winged Creatures : Fetid black creatures raised by Sauron as flying mounts for his Ringwraiths.The steed of the Lord of the Nazg�l at the Battle of the Pelennor was described as naked and featherless,with wings of hide like a bat, and a long,sinuous neck.In Ithilien,though,Frodo compared these beasts to giant carrion birds,a comparison that doesn't appear to match the other more detailed description.Perhaps he was describing their wheeling, watchful flight,rather than the appearance of the Creatures themselves.Whatever the nature of the Winged Creatures,it seems that those used by the Nazg�l were the last of their kind in Middle-earth and had been grown to an unnatural size by Sauron.Despite their size,they were not supernatural beings but living creatures and they could be hurt and slain:Legolas shot one with an arrow on the River Anduin and �owyn slew another on the Pelennor Fields.The last of the Winged Creatures perished in Mordor,where they were caught with their masters in the erupting fires of Mount Doom.
Wolves : Wolves were of old allied with the Dark Lord;Morgoth bred the two greatest of their kind,Draugluin and Carcharoth and Sauron was wont to take the form of a great Wolf.The lesser kinds were sometimes used as steeds by the Orcs.
