Know Your LotRO Lore: Origins of the Watcher

In the first volume of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien describes a creature that lives in a dark lake, beneath the western walls of Moria. This lake was created when the river Sirannon was dammed "by someone, or something." His only name for this creature is Watcher in the Water, and his only description includes the fact that it is "tentacled". Even in Tolkien's earliest versions of The Fellowship of the Ring, the encounter with the Watcher is almost exactly how it is presented in the final product, so its existence must have been very important to him.

Beyond that, speculation runs rampant from researchers who have studied Tolkien's work. The Watcher has been called everything from a kraken, to a cold-drake to a giant squid, but Tolkien never specifically identified it in his works.

Essayist Allison Harl has created one of the most famous theories on the Watcher by identifying it as a kraken created and bred by Morgoth in Utumno. This was partial inspiration for Peter Jackson's version in his 2001 film Fellowship of the Ring, where the creature was depicted as a giant black squid-like monster with several rows of sharp teeth.