I recommend reading this post curled up in a comfy chair with a warm blanket, the lights on, the doors locked, and a weapon close to hand. Because we are venturing into creepy territory here, my friends, where there be monsters …
Really, this post is going to be so much fun! Fantasy, legend, and mythology alike are populated with all sorts of incredible creatures and terrifying monsters. I’m planning a list on favorite fantasy creatures (of the less monstrous sort) from some favorite novels, so be looking forward to reading that one eventually—whenever I happen to get around to it, of course.
But in the meantime, this list is dedicated to my favorite fantasy creatures of a more unsavory nature.
Narrowing this list down from the horde of monsters and evil creatures that populate the pages of fantasy novels was no easy task. It is by no means complete, so I hope you’ll join the conversation and weigh in with some of your favorites at the end!
1. The Nazgul
Of course, I simply had to start with a Lord of the Rings reference. (You all know where my loyalties lie.) The Nazgul—Fell Riders of the Air, Black Riders, the Nine, Ringwraiths, really they have so many names—were absolutely terrifying to me when I first read the Lord of the Rings. Terrifying and fascinating, so of course, I turned to the Silmarillion to learn more about them.
Before they fell, they were kings, mighty men, sorcerers, and warriors who became ensnared by the very thing that gave them power.
And they became forever invisible, save to him that wore the Ruling Ring, and they entered into the realm of shadows. The Nazgul were they, the Ringwraiths, the Enemy’s most terrible servants; darkness went with them and they cried with the voices of death.”
One of the aspects of the Nazgul that didn’t really make it into the movies was the “Black Breath.” Instead of swooping down to destroy trebuchets and snatch people from the walls, like in the movies, the Nazgul’s attack in the book was much more subtle and deadly.
The Nazgul came again, and as their Dark Lord now grew and put forth his strength, so their voices, which uttered only his will and his malice, were filled with evil and horror. Ever they circled above the City, like vultures that expect their fill of doomed men’s flesh … At length, even the stout-hearted would fling themselves to the ground as the hidden menace passed over them, or they would stand, letting their weapons fall from nerveless hands while into their minds a blackness came, and they thought no more of war, but only of hiding and crawling, and of death.”
And those who suffered under the shadow of the Nazgul for long came down with an illness that the people of Gondor called the “Black Shadow,” and it often proved fatal. Faramir, Merry, and Eowyn all fell under the Black Shadow, offering Aragorn the opportunity to step in as Healer … and King of Gondor. (One of my many favorite chapters in The Return of the King.)
2. Dementors
These things. *shudder* The dementors from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series are creepy, hooded and cloaked, gliding, wraith-like creatures that like to suck away happiness. Delightful, right?
Side note: I will never understand why the Ministry of Magic thought that it would be a good idea to employ dementors to guard Azkaban … or to send them to Hogwarts (a school for kids) to hunt for Sirius Black?
Um … dangerous much?
Yeah, I’ll take my chances with the “murderous” wizard who escaped from the inescapable prison over the soul-draining monsters, thank you very much.
Dementors are among the foulest creatures that walk this earth. They infest the darkest, filthiest places, they glory in decay and despair, they drain peace, hope, and happiness out of the air around them. Even Muggles feel their presence, though they can’t see them. Get too near a Dementor and every good feeling, every happy memory will be sucked out of you.”
Don’t know about you, but that’s the stuff of nightmares right there.
3. The Raven Steed
Yes, I’m doing it again, throwing creatures from my own books into these lists. *grins* Well, it is a list of my favorites, so it stands to reason, right?
If you haven’t read Songkeeper yet, minor SPOILER alert, but the Takhran rides through the Pit on a steed that is half horse and half raven.
Sounds cool, right?
Flanked by a dozen Khelari, the Takhran was mounted on a massive black steed with the head, beak, and wings of a raven, and the muscled body of a horse, on the far edge of the flickering circle of light.”
The Takhran’s steed jerked its neck and snorted. Its beak clipped the air only inches from her head. Corded muscles stood out along its chest and deep-cut hindquarters, and an iron collar encircled its neck, visible through the feather-like strands of its mane.”
Also, slightly creepy …
Surrounded by the slain, the steed’s nature as a carrion beast revealed itself in its snuffling breath, rasping voice, and the taut lines in its outstretched neck. It took a little hop-skip toward the nearest corpse, but a harsh word from the Takhran bade it be still.”
Unfortunately, the raven steed only gets a little bit of page time, which makes me kind of sad. Because as creepy as it may be … I still think it is cool!
If there are any wonderfully artistic people out there who would like to try their hand at recreating an image of the raven steed, I love fan art. *hint hint* If I had any artistic ability at all, I would love to create a picture of this creature. Sadly, my only artistic ability lies with words. But I have the highest respect (and envy) for those with skills in the visual arts.
4. The Fearsome Toothy Cows of Skree
No list of fantasy monsters would be complete without mention of these deadly beasts from Andrew Peterson’s Wingfeather Saga. They are, in fact, cows with gifted with a fearsome nature and hideous toothiness.
A crashing noise came from the forest, the sound of something large and moving fast. Leeli and Janner were too terrified to move. They saw through the knot of trees a dark creature the size of a horse—bounding directly toward Tink.”
That’s right. Toothy cows are highly ferocious beasts prone to chasing down prey, pouncing, and devouring them with excessive … toothiness.
He whipped his head around in time to see the fearsome cow bearing down on him, its long teeth bared, its girth trembling.”
But the best description comes from the footnotes—yes, the books have footnotes! How awesome is that?
In it, Bloge describes the cows as being ‘squarish in frame, with a moist snout and eyes that at first appear dull as a bowl of mud. But woe to that man who considers not the lethal potential in that bovinial thrump. In those yellowish sabers that protrude from its lippy mouth! How I wish my dear Molly had not spurned my warnings of the toothy cow’s cunning and thew, ere that thoothed brute devoured her!”
Yet another monster I will be endeavoring to avoid ….
Side note: There’s a fantastic short film based on the Wingfeather Saga that was just released! The artwork is beautiful, the music is simply gorgeous, and yes, they even included the footnotes. You can watch it FOR FREE here!
5. Ungoliant
In a ravine she lived, and took shape as a spider of monstrous form, weaving her black webs in a cleft of the mountains. There she sucked up all light she could find, and spun it forth again in dark nets of strangling gloom, until no light more could come to her abode; and she was famished.”
I’m guessing that Tolkien really wasn’t a fan of spiders, and honestly, who could blame him? I almost put Shelob on this list, but really, Ungoliant from the Silmarillion is about a hundred times worse! Even Melkor (about a hundred times worse than Sauron) was afraid of her, so you can bet she’s one monster that I wouldn’t want to tangle with.
Then the Unlight of Ungoliant rose up even to the roots of the Trees, and Melkor sprang upon the mound and with his black spear he smote each Tree to its core, wounded them deep, and their sap poured forth as it were their blood, and was spilled upon the ground. But Ungoliant sucked it up, and going then from Tree to Tree, she set her black beak to their wounds, till they were drained; and the poison of Death that was in her went into their tissues and withered them, root, branch, and leaf, and they dried.”
Consumed by a never ending desire for more, she devours all things beautiful and lovely and belches forth a hideous darkness. She destroyed the Two Trees of Valinor, enabling Melkor to break in and steal the Silmarils, and essentially launching the Noldor headfirst into all the horrors that followed: the Oath of Feanor and his sons, the Flight of the Noldor, the Kinslaying at Alqualonde.
Although no hero arises to defeat Ungoliant, the Silmarillion hints at her end. A fitting—if horrifying—end, really. It’s rumored that her unending hunger eventually led her to devour herself …
And the world heaved a sigh of relief. No tears shed for Ungoliant.
6. Chimera
Chimeras are mythical beasts that can be found in many a legend or fantasy tale, but this specific one is another Songkeeper monster. (Apparently, I went crazy on the monsters included in the second book of the Songkeeper Chronicles.)
Amos McElhenny is known—by himself and others—as the great Amos McElhenny, so of course, he needed a monster to fight that was worthy of standing face to face with a legend.
Enter the chimera. If you google “chimera,” you’ll most likely see that it’s a creature from Greek mythology that typically has the head of a lion at the end of its neck, the head of a goat sprouting on a second neck from its back, and a tail that ends in the head of a snake. Occasionally, you’ll see it with wings, or with all three heads sprouting from its chest.
That’s the version I decided to go with.
Out of the tunnel came a beast of nightmare. To be sure, it had stalked his dreams since that fateful night when he first braved the horrors of the tunnels, but night terrors were nothing compared to seeing such a monster again in the flesh. Three heads joined at the shoulders above a massive muscled chest. In the middle, it had the head of a lion, flanked by the head of a long-horned goat on one side and a fanged serpent on the other. Hunched back with knobs of spine jutting like blades. Long, strong forelimbs. Short, squat hindlimbs. Body covered in patches of scales, hides, and tufts of fur.”
There’s a simply delicious fight scene that takes place after that … but I won’t give any more spoilers. Suffice it to say that scene was one of the most exciting, intense, (and fun) fight scenes I’ve written. I wrote it in one sitting, about three hours from start to finish, and that scene made it almost wholly unchanged into the finished product.
The goat head bleated. Amos would have died before admitting that the bleat of a goat could sound menacing, but the utter wrongness of the sound from such a beast made his hackles rise.”
Yeah. I’m with you Amos.
I actually have a funny (embarrassing?) story about being caught off-guard by an unexpected goat bleat once … if you’re dying to hear what it is, ask and I’ll share it in the comments. ;)
7. Koloss
Of course, this list simply had to include these monstrous creatures from The Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. Blue-skinned, red-eyed “humanoid” creatures that range from human sized with baggy skin, to massive monsters whose skin stretches and splits because of the size of their form.
One large creature—its skin revoltingly split and cracked by stretch marks—led a few medium-sized beasts, whose bleeding rips were only beginning to appear at the corners of their mouths and the edges of their eyes. A smattering of smaller creatures—their baggy skin loose and sagging beneath their eyes and arms—accompanied their betters.”
They were created by the Lord Ruler to help him conquer the world and can be “controlled” to a point by Allomancers. Of course, uncontrolled koloss—or ones controlled by an enemy—are destruction unleashed and prone to killing anything in their path.
She climbed it, retreating slightly as the creatures surrounded her again. They crawled over the corpses of their fallen brethren, rage frothing in their blood-drop eyes. Human soldiers would have given up, going to seek easier fights. The koloss, however, seemed to multiply as she fought the, others hearing the sounds of battle and coming to join them.”
As with most of Sanderson’s works, even what you “think” you know about the koloss is overturned and expanded as the series goes on, so I won’t say too much more, because SPOILERS. Suffice it to say, these are not the sort of creatures you’d like to casually run across, particularly not when they’re in a blood rage. Although they are pleasant conversationalists …
“We are not koloss,” the lead koloss suddenly said, turning to Elend as they walked.
Elend frowned. “Explain.”
“You think we are koloss,” it said through lips that stretched too tightly to work properly “We are humans. We will live in your city. We will kill you, and we will take all.”
Your Turn!
Of course, the list could continue on and on! Tolkien’s Uruk-Hai, particularly Ugluk, certainly belong in this list, also the Steel Inquisitors from the Final Empire Trilogy—yeah, talk about creepy!—and the Cauldron Born from The Prydain Chronicles, and about a dozen others, but in the interest of time, it’s probably best to stop there and turn the conversation over to y’all!
What are some of your favorite fantasy monsters?
Ooh, my favourite monster from a series is a scaln from R. J. Larson’s Books of the Infinite. They’re like mountain lions with fangs and claws that are poisonous, and you can smell them a mile away. Very dangerous. So what’s the goat story??
Ooh, those sound very monstrous and deadly. Poisonous claws and fangs. Definitely not a fan of those. Lol.
Okay, so … goat story.
I was ponying horses from pasture to pasture one day and had enlisted some help to walk a few of the older horses. It’s nearly 2/3 of a mile from one to the other, and there’s a section where the path leads through the woods beside a road. So I sent my helpers ahead of me, closed up the barn, hopped on my horse, and took the leads for the last three horses, and brought up the rear.
I had just made it to the edge of the woods when I heard this horrifying yell. It sounded like someone calling for help at the top of their lungs. Instantly, my mind jumped to the worst possibilities. Someone had been trampled by one of their horses and was lying in the woods seriously injured. Or one of the horses had gotten loose and been hit by a car and someone was yelling for help! Or there was a kid involved – yes, it sounded more like a kid – one of the kids who lived nearby must have beennhurt!
And the way whoever it was yelled, I was pretty sure they were dying.
So I reacted. I urged my horse into a lope, pulling the three other horses behind me, charged through the woods, hearing the cry again and again, and came around the final bend … and saw the folks who were helping still calmly leading their horses in front of me. Nobody was injured. But I got a few strange looks when I came barreling out of the woods with my four horses.
I pulled my horse back to a walk and calmed the other three. And only after my heart settled back to a normal pace did I remember that one of the families nearby had just gotten a goat. And apparently when you’re riding through the wounds and responsible for the safety of people and horses, it’s easy to imagine that a goat bleat sounds like a seriously injured human. LOL.
This is a great post!
It reminded me once again that I have to read the Wingfeather Saga! I cracked up at the Toothy Cows :)
Did you know that Tolkien hated spiders because once a poisonous spider bit him when he was a boy in Africa?
I’m so glad you mentioned the Nazgul’s true powers. I realize that it would have been hard to communicate all of that in the movie, but it’s a huge part of what makes them so creepy! Especially that one scene (I think in The Two Towers) where they’re going across the Dead Marshes, and suddenly a shadow passes over them in the night sky and Frodo almost faints because it’s so terrifying.
Also, good mention of the koloss. They’re frightening, frustrating, and kind of funny, somehow. Not so with the Steel Inquisitors, though *shudder*
And please tell the goat story :D
Oh, yes, you should totally read the Wingfeather Saga. I feel like you would love it!
I did not know that. I want to read up on Tolkien’s life a bit. I spent so much time as a kid reading up on the history of Middle Earth but I didn’t ever do a ton of reading on the author, other than the basics. I think it’d be really fascinating.
The koloss are funny … and a little sad too. Especially Human.
Goat story in my reply to Janice … :)
I’m happy you mentioned those Toothy Cows , they really are seriously creepy if one takes a moment to sit back and think about it. When my siblings and I were younger we used to joke around about ‘werecows’, instead of werewolves (particularly when we had a feral cow wandering around the neighborhood for a while. Oops). So when I read the Wingfeather Saga and the Toothy Cows I thought “Werecows are real!” A truly terrifying thought.
And I don’t know if these could be considered monsters on the soul-shattering level of Nazgul or Dementors and the like, but I wasn’t a big fan of the Creepers from Emily Rodda’s Rowan of Rin books. Oh. And the Sleepers from Whane Thomas Batson’s Door Within Trilogy. Those were unpleasant, too.
There’re also the Shaydes, from my own stories. They were bad news for anyone who met one, but I seriously enjoyed writing them. Maybe a little too much . . .
Sorry for the long comment!
Werecows! I love it! They really would be terrifying creatures, if you think about it.
I haven’t read Emily Rodda’s series, but yes, the Sleepers from Wayne Thomas Batson’s Door Within Trilogy totally deserve mentioning. Sooo creepy.
Ooh, your Shaydes sound interesting. Haha, yes, don’t you feel a little guilty when you enjoy writing the villains/creepy beasties? But they add so much to the story!
I really like Smaug. Well, I don’t like him, but I think he’s a pretty good fantasy monster.
Also along the lines of dragons, Jormungand from James Stoddard’s Evenmere series is mention-able. I especially like when he speaks with the Master of Evenmere, such as this gem: “I could be mistaken for Father Christmas, except I consumed him in the sixteenth century. The elves were the hors d’oeuvres. Don’t tell your children. Mustn’t upset the little ones.”
Also, the shadir from Jill Williamson’s Kinsman Chronicles, though they seem more mischievous than monstrous, except for Gozan and some of the other greats. He’s definitely a character I wouldn’t want to run into.
And finally, not so much monsters, but more along the lines of the Nazgul, are the dwimors from Patrick W. Carr’s Darkwater Saga. I think they’re probably one of the more chilling beings in recent fantasy that I’ve read. I won’t say too much about them here, because spoilers. But I’ll stick this here: ‘”The irises are clear, like glass, but what does it mean?”
“It’s a dwimor,” Pellin said. “A person whose mind has been completely erased, or nearly so.”‘
Those are all good ones! I haven’t read the Evenmere series, but it sounds like it has a fantastic sense of humor. The shadir, yes! I do have to say though that having hordes of invisible spying creatures is such an unfair advantage!
And the dwimors sound fascinating. I haven’t had a chance to pick up the Darkwater Saga yet, but I’ve been wanting to read it!
Hey, it’s a perfect time to pick up the Darkwater Saga. The 3rd book comes out this spring!
And yes, there is some good humor in the Evenmere series, primarily revolving around the interactions mentioned above.
You mentioned the toothy cows! Not the sort of animal you’d want for 4H.
One of the creepiest creatures I’ve come across would have to be Yukka from Draven’s Light. *shudders*
(I used to raise goats, and I can agree that some of the sounds they could make were a bit unsettling.)
Haha, definitely not! Ooh, Draven’s Light! I haven’t read that one yet, but I really want to.
Right? Especially when it’s unexpected and out of context.