Rats
From Tolkien Gateway
Rats were creatures often found in filthy and unfriendly places of Middle-earth.[1][2] A specific breed of rats seems to have been the "brown water-rat", mentioned in Hobbit poetry.[3]
"Rat" was also commonly used as a humiliating nickname.[4][5][6][7][1]
In Quenya, the word for "rat" is nyarro, and the Noldorin cognate of the same meaning is nâr.[8][9]
Portrayal in adaptations
1982-97: Middle-earth Role Playing:
- Rats can infect people with the plague through their fleas.[10]
1995-8: Middle-earth Collectible Card Game:
- "Morgul-rats" is a Hazard Creature, able to inflict 12 strikes. The breed is described as carrying "the stink of black sorcery in their bite". "Rats!" is a Hazard Event, forcing a player to discard a minor item of one of the characters, which also become wounded.
2000-: Lord of the Rings (board game):
- "Morgul Rats" is a card (with artwork by John Howe) supplied with the Friends & Foes Expansion (2002) for the Lord of the Rings boardgame.[11]
2007-: The Lord of the Rings Online:
- Rats are always aggressive. Breeds include Field-rats (found in the Barrow-downs), Harbour-rats (found around Falathlorn in Ered Luin), and Plague-rats.[12][13]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, "The Scouring of the Shire" (nickname: "Then you'll learn a thing or two, you little rat-folk.")
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, "Flotsam and Jetsam"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, "Flotsam and Jetsam" ("I saw him crawling up the steps like a draggled rat.")
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, "The Clouds Burst" ("What have you to say, you descendant of rats?")
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, "The Uruk-hai" ("I'd make you squeak, you miserable rat.")
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, "The Tower of Cirith Ungol" (nickname: "...that little frightened rat..."; "...those stinking Morgul-rats"; "You up there, you dunghill rat!")
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Lost Road and Other Writings, Part Three: "The Etymologies", p. 379 (root NYAD-
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, "Addenda and Corrigenda to the Etymologies — Part Two" (edited by Carl F. Hostetter and Patrick H. Wynne), in Vinyar Tengwar, Number 46, July 2004, p. 7
- ↑ Zachariah Woolf (1995), Lake-town (#2016), pp. 150, 162
- ↑ Morgul Rats at John-howe.com (accessed 14 March 2011)
- ↑ Category:Beast at Lorebook.lotro.com (accessed 13 March 2011)
- ↑ Rats at Lotro.wiki.com (accessed 13 March 2011)