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- "There came great beasts, like moving houses in the red and fitful light, the mûmakil of the Harad dragging through the lanes amid the fires huge towers and engines."
- —The Return of the King, "The Siege of Gondor"
On March 14, the Witch-king had sent many great siege beasts alongside the mûmakil to pull huge siege-towers and great engines of war[1] to the City Wall of Minas Tirith.[2]
History[]
Near the end of the Third Age, great siege beasts were used by Sauron's armies as beasts of burden during the War of the Ring. On the twenty-ninth day[1] of the Siege of Gondor, These great beasts were required to pull many instruments of war for the siege. The most notable of these were the beasts specifically tasked with pulling the huge battering ram Grond to Minas Tirith's Great Gate to destroy it.[2]
While the arrows shot from the swan-knights of Dol Amroth did little to halt Grond, occasionally one or two of the great beasts "would go mad and spread stamping ruin among the" many Orcs which guarded Grond. Even as the bodies of the Orcs were thrown and tossed about by some of the rogue beasts, new Orcs replaced the fallen ones just as quickly.[2]
Speculation[]
In the Days before days long before the First Age began, Melkor's interference in Eru's ordered world caused the appearance of monstrous beasts of "horn and ivory" that fought with other beasts and were forever marred by his evil influence[3]. These creatures are a likely progenitor of the 'great siege beasts', but it is unknown.
In adaptations[]
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King[]
In Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King the great siege beasts were depicted as gigantic rhinoceros-like or other prehistoric beasts-like creatures with horns protruding from their heads. The special features of the film's extended edition reveal that their design was modeled after the extinct Megacerops.
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II[]
The great siege beasts were are as cattle by Mordor Orcs in Electronic Arts' The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II; they were descended from some smaller and fatter "great beasts" which were used by the Dwarves of the Misty Mountains as beasts of burden. They were given the name "yurgs" by the Dwarves.
The Lord of the Rings: Conquest[]
In The Lord of the Rings: Conquest, dead great siege beasts can be seen on the maps Weathertop and Pelennor Fields.
The Lord of the Rings Online[]
In the Mordor expansion pack of The Lord of the Rings Online, the great siege beasts were given the name Sulokil. They were depicted as being horned, stony-skinned beasts that were a local subspecies of Aurochs. Despite living in the "Dor Amarth" region of Plateau of Gorgoroth and being used as beasts of burden by Sauron, the Sulokil were docile unless provoked.[4] According to Ingold, their meat was "rather good when cooked and seasoned".[5]
In Minas Morgul expansion, it is revealed that in the late Second Age, their ancestors, the Sûlokil, wandered the Plateau of Gorgoroth, then named "Mordor Besieged".[6] During the Siege of Barad-dûr by the Great Alliance, the Sûlokil were hunted for food since they provided the nourishment that smaller animals did not provide.[7]
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor[]
In the Lord of the Hunt DLC from Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, there is a memory about great beasts. Torvin describes how the great beasts were enormous quadrupeds that were capable of growing to a height of thirty-five feet. They were a "distant cousin to the Mûmakil" and were unrivaled as the Dark Lord's beasts of burden. They were strong enough that it was skeptical that even a Graug or a huge Caragor pack had any hope of taking one down.
Translations[]
Foreign Language | Translated name |
Afrikaans | Groot dier |
Albanian | Bisha e madhe |
Amharic | ታላቁ አውሬ |
Arabic | الوحش العظيم |
Armenian | մեծ գազան |
Azerbaijani | Böyük heyvan |
Basque | Piztia handia |
Belarusian Cyrillic | Вялікі звер |
Bengali | গ্রেট পশুর |
Bosnian | Velika zvijer |
Bulgarian Cyrillic | Страхотен звяр |
Burmese | ဂရိတ်သားရဲ၏ |
Cambodian | ដែលមានទំហំធំសតវតិរច្ចាន |
Catalan | Gran bèstia |
Cebuano | Dakong nga mananap ? |
Chinese | 伟大的野兽 |
Cornish | best Meur |
Croatian | Velika zvijer |
Czech | Veliká bestie |
Danish | Store belejringsbæster |
Esperanto | Granda besto |
Estonian | Suur metsaline |
Filipino | Mahusay na hayop |
Finnish | Suuri peto |
French | Grande bête |
Frisian | Grut bist |
Dutch | Groots beest |
Galician | Gran besta |
Georgian | დიდი მხეცი |
German | Große Bestie |
Greek | Μεγάλο θηρίο |
Gujarati | ગ્રેટ પશુ |
Haitian Creole | Gwo bèt |
Hausa | Babban dabba |
Hawaiian | Nui na holoholona |
Hebrew | חיה גדולה |
Hindi | महान जानवर |
Hungarian | Nagy fenevad |
Icelandic | Mikill dýrið |
Igbo | Nnukwu anụ ọhịa |
Indonesian | Besar binatang |
Italian | Grande Bestia |
Japanese | |
Kannada | ಗ್ರೇಟ್ ಬೀಸ್ಟ್ |
Kazakh | Ұлы жануар (Cyrillic) Ulı janwar (Latin) |
Korean | 위대한 짐승 |
Kurdish | Mezin teba (Kurmanji Kurdish) |
Kyrgyz Cyrillic | Улуу айбан |
Latin | Magna bestia |
Laotian | ສັດເດຍລະສານທີ່ຍິ່ງໃຫຍ່ |
Latvian | Liels zvērs |
Lithuanian | Didelis žvėris |
Macedonian Cyrillic | големиот ѕвер |
Malagasy | Biby lehibe |
Malay | Binatang yang besar |
Marathi | ग्रेट पशू |
Maori | Kararehe kararehe |
Mongolian Cyrillic | Их араатан |
Nepalese | ठूलो जनावर |
Norwegian | Store beist |
Pashto | لوی ځناور |
Persian | جانور بزرگ |
Polish | Wielkie Bestie |
Portuguese | Grande besta |
Punjabi | ਮਹਾਨ ਜਾਨਵਰ |
Romanian | Fiara mare |
Romansh | Granda ? |
Russian | Великие Звери |
Scottish Gaelic | Bhiast mhòr |
Serbian | Велика звер (Cyrillic) Velika zver (Latin) |
Sesotho | Phoofolo e khōlō |
Sicilian | Gran armali |
Sindhi | وڏي حيوان |
Sinhalese | මහා මෘගයා |
Slovak | Skvelá bestie |
Slovenian | Velika zver |
Spanish | Gran Bestia |
Sundanese | Sato galak hébat |
Swahili | Mnyama mkubwa |
Swedish | Stor best |
Tajik Cyrillic | ҳайвони Бузург |
Tamil | பெரிய மிருகம் |
Telugu | గ్రేట్ మృగం |
Turkish | Büyük canavar |
Ukrainian Cyrillic | Великий звір |
Urdu | عظیم حیوان |
Uzbek | Буюк ҳайвон (Cyrillic) Buyuk hayvon (Latin) |
Vietnamese | Đại quái thú |
Welsh | Bwystfil mawr |
Yiddish | גרויס חיה |
Yoruba | Nla ẹhọnọn |
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Chronology of The Lord of the Rings, pg. 72
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, Book Five, Ch. IV: "The Siege of Gondor", pgs. 101-2
- ↑ The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Chapter I: "Of the Beginning of Days"
- ↑ Sulokil on lotro-wiki.com
- ↑ Quest:Welcomed Provisions on lotro-wiki.com
- ↑ Sûlok on lotro-wiki.com
- ↑ Quest:Hunting Sûlokil on lotro-wiki.com