Fell Beasts

Also known as fell beast

creature

Huge winged steeds like great carrion birds; dark silhouettes with vast pinions; ridden by Nazgul; keen eyesight.

Category: creature
First appears: Book 2 · Ch. 14
Books: 2

The fell beasts first appear in The Two Towers as the Nazgûl’s aerial mounts, described as vast, carrion-bird silhouettes with keen eyesight. By The Return of the King they have grown in stature and menace, now portrayed as creatures larger than eagles whose despair-inducing cries can shatter the morale of entire armies. Their evolution from shadowy silhouettes to fully realized, terror-spreading monsters mirrors the escalating stakes of the War of the Ring and the Nazgûl’s increasingly overt assaults on the Free Peoples.

Evolution

BOOK 2The Two Towers
Huge winged steeds like great carrion birds; dark silhouettes with vast pinions; ridden by Nazgul; keen eyesight.
BOOK 3The Return of the King
Huge birdlike creatures greater than eagles, resembling horrible carrion-fowl, used as aerial mounts by the Nazgûl, capable of producing despair-inducing cries