What are the Fell Beasts?

[morgoth145]

the beasts on which the nazgul travelled in the sky are described as bird like creatures, so are they some kind of giant eagles? or are they indeed dragons as seen in the film?
any answers are welcome

 

[RangerStryder]

the beasts on which the nazgul travelled in the sky are described as bird like creatures, so are they some kind of giant eagles? or are they indeed dragons as seen in the film?
any answers are welcome

The book described it like having a great beak and they flew like a bird but these creatures are huge and their wings are made of its own hide stretched between its long bony fingers (same as bats), and its missing its feathers. They shrieked and they smell very foul.

So, looking like an Eagle is out of the equation but more like a pre-historic pterodactyl which you can put a harness and ride it like a steed.

The scaly dragon look-a-like in the movie adaptation is PJ's version of it and it look very nice imo.



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[morgoth145]

The book described it like having a great beak and they flew like a bird but these creatures are huge and their wings are made of its own hide stretched between its long bony fingers (same as bats), and its missing its feathers. They shrieked and they smell very foul.

So, looking like an Eagle is out of the equation but more like a pre-historic pterodactyl which you can put a harness and ride it like a steed.

The scaly dragon look-a-like in the movie adaptation is PJ's version of it and it look very nice imo.



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thanks for the answer i also think that PJ's version is nice. :*)

 

[Starbrow]

it look very nice imo.

Nice is probably not a word I would have chosen to describe the beasts the Nazgul rode.:*)

 

[Bucky]

The truth about whether the Nazgul's 'winged steeds' are pterodactyls.....

The Letters of JRR Tolkien #211

Pterodactyl. Yes & no. (typical Tolkien, lol)
I did not intend the steed of the Witch-King to be what is now called a 'pterodactyl', and often drawn (with rather less shadowy evidence than lies behind many monsters of the new & fascinating semi-scientific mythology of the 'Prehistoric' {ROTFLMAO -added}). But obviously, it is pterodactylic and owes much to the new mythology, and it's description even provides a sort of way in which it could be a last survivor of older geological eras.

 

[Black Captain]

I believe this is as good portrayal of a fellbeast as any.

 

[Eljorahir]

Tolkien himself drew us a picture.
--crocodile (or pterodactyl) head
--tiny legs
--swallowtail
--massive wingspan (here depicted in the swept-back position for high-speed flight mode)