Great beasts
"Great beasts", "great monsters", or "great Southron monsters", was a vague term applied to various large animals used in the armies of Sauron during the War of the Ring. This term was applied several times to oliphaunts (also known as mûmakil to Haradrim and Gondorians)., The winged steed of the Witch-king was also called "the great beast" twice.,
History
Near the end of the Third Age, different great beasts were used as war-beasts, steeds or beasts of burden by Sauron's armies during the War of the Ring. Some great beasts (described as mûmakil) were sent on 14 March by the Witch-king to pull huge siege-towers and great engines of war to the City Wall of Minas Tirith. The most notable of these great beasts were ones specifically tasked with pulling the huge battering ram Grond to Minas Tirith's Great Gate to destroy it.
While the arrows shot from the swan-knights of Dol Amroth did little to halt Grond, occasionally some of the great beasts "would go mad and spread stamping ruin among the" many Orcs which guarded Grond. However the bodies of the tramped Orcs were cast aside and new Orcs replaced the fallen ones just as quickly.
Speculation
Whether the great beasts used to pull Grond were mûmakil or a different type of unknown animals from distant lands, is impossible to say for certain as we lack a more detailed description of the creatures.
Portrayal in adaptations
2003: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King:
The great beasts pulling Grond are depicted as rhinoceros-like creatures. In the Weta Workshop Return of The King documentary it is revealed they are based off of Brontotherium in appearance.
2006: The Battle for Middle-earth II:
In this video game the basic design of the great beasts from Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings is kept. However, a new idea is introduced: the creatures called "great beasts" were originally used by Dwarves in the Misty Mountains as underground draft animals (depicted as being much smaller than Sauron's beasts of burden). The Dwarves called them yurgs.
2015: The Lord of the Rings Online:
In the Mordor expansion pack, the great 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. According to Ingold, their meat was "rather good when cooked and seasoned".
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". 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.
Referencias
1. Esta ficha se ha importado inicialmente de TolkienGateway.net el día 26/05/2026.
