Vampires

Vampires in J.R.R. Tolkien's works were mysterious bat-like creatures in the service of Morgoth and Sauron.

History

LIttle is told of them. Tolkien names one, Thuringwethil, a messenger of Sauron in the First Age while he ruled from Tol-in-Gaurhoth. Sauron himself, capable of shape-shifting, also took the shape of a vampire on at least one occasion, during the travels of Beren and Lúthien.

Vampires do not appear in Arda's history after the First Age.

Ambiguity

Tolkien may have chosen the word "vampire" only for its modern connotations of bat-associated monsters. A similar instance is his use of the word "werewolf" to denote wolf-like creatures, otherwise possibly unrelated to traditional werewolves. However, in context of the word "Vampire," Sauron did assume the form of such a creature numerous times. Furthermore, the vampire Thuringwethil, as her name connotes, is described as a "woman" of shadow.^[1]

In adaptations

Video games

• The Games Workshop The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game supplement The Ruin of Arnor has a vampire in it - Gûlavhar, the Terror of Arnor. This is a non-canonical creature, designed by Mat Ward (writer of the Ruin of Arnor), Roberto Cirillo (concept artist) and Trish Morrison (sculptor).

• The Lord of the Rings Online has Carcharan, a vampire of Morgoth, in the forest of Mirkwood. It is a vampire in the form of a giant vampire bat.

Films

Large bat-like creatures appear in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, though it is unknown if they are intended to be vampires.

Translations

Foreign Language	Translated name
Afrikaans	Vampier
Albanian	Vampir
Amharic	ቫምፓየር
Arabic	مصاص دماء
Aromanian	Vurcolacu
Armenian	Վամպիր
Azerbaijani	Vampir
Basque	Banpiro
Belarusian Cyrillic	Вампір
Bengali	ভ্যাম্পায়ার
Bosnian	Vampir
Breton	Suner-gwad
Bulgarian Cyrillic	Вампир
Burmese	သွေးစုပ်ဖုတ်ကောင်
Cambodian	បិសាច​ជញ្ជក់ឈាម
Catalan	Vampir
Chinese (Hong Kong)	吸血鬼
Croatian	Vampir
Czech	Upír
Danish	Vampyr
Dari	وامپیره
Dutch	Vampier
Esperanto	Vampiro
Estonian	Vampiir
Filipino	Bampira
Finnish	Vampyyri
Galician	Vampiro
Georgian	ვამპირი
German	Vampir
Greek	Βρυκόλακας
Hebrew	ערפד
Hindi	पिशाच
Hungarian	Vámpír
Icelandic	Vampíra
Indonesian	Vampir
Irish Gaelic	Vaimpír
Italian	Vampiro
Japanese	吸血鬼
Kannada	ರಕ್ತಪಿಶಾಚಿ
Kashubian	Wieszczi
Kazakh Cyrillic	Вампіре
Korean	흡혈귀
Kurdish	ڤامپیره‌ (Arabic script) Vampîre (Latin)
Kyrgyz Cyrillic	Вампирэ
Laotian	ຜີດິບ
Latin	Vampyrus
Latvian	Vampīrs
Lithuanian	Vampyras
Luxembourgish	Vampir
Macedonian Cyrillic	Вампир
Malay	Vampir
Malayalam	രക്തരക്ഷസ്
Marathi	वम्पिरे
Mongolian Cyrillic	Вампире
Nāhuatl	Tlācatzinācantli
Nepalese	वम्पिरे
Norwegian	Vampyr
Occitan	Vampir
Persian	خون‌آشام
Polish	Wampir
Portuguese	Vampiro
Punjabi	ਪਿਸ਼ਾਚ
Romanian	Vampir
Russian	Вампир
Sanskrit	वेताल
Scottish Gaelic	Bhampair
Serbian	Вампир (Cyrillic) Vampir (Latin)
Sindhi	رت پيئندڙ جن
Sinhalese	පිසාචයින්
Slovak	Upír
Slovenian	Vampir
Spanish	Vampiro
Swedish	Vampyr
Tajik Cyrillic	Вампире
Tibetan	ཟེར་རོ།
Tagalog	Bampira
Tamil	வாம்பைர்
Telugu	రక్త పిశాచి
Thai	แวมไพร์
Turkish	Vampir
Turkmen	Wampir
Ukrainian Cyrillic	Упир
Urdu	خون آشام
Uzbek	Вампирлар (Cyrillic) Vampirlar (Latin)
Vietnamese	Ma cà rồng
Volapük	Vampir
Welsh	Fampir
Yoruba	Fanpaya
Yiddish	וואַמפּיר

References