Middle-earth Mysteries - The Nameless Things

What are the Nameless Things? Why do they exist? Why is this video so disturbing?

Thumbnail art by Pablo Dominguez Montanya

[DavidMacDowellBlue]

There is also the theory they are the inevitable result of the discordance introduced into the Music of the Ainur by Melkor.

[TheRealRealMClovin]

I think the nameless things are the result of the corrupted version of the song of Eru Illuvatar orchestrated by Morgoth. What resulted is these twisted creatures.

The universe of Eä was created through a great music by Eru Illuvatar, and in this music Illuvatar taught all the ainur spiritrs different part of this theme. Melkor was one of the Ainur. He wanted to create his own music instead of following Illuvatars theme, so this created discords in the music of the ainur.
Like this quote.
"Out of the discords of the music - that is to say. Not directly out of either of the themes, Eru's or Melkor's, but of their dissonance with regard one to another - evil things started to appear in arda, which did not descend from any direct plan or vision of melkor: they were not 'his children'; and therefore, since all evil hates, they hated him too. The progeniture of things was corrupted"

so i think the nameless things are these evil things that the song mentions which was created because not by melkor but of the disharmony/discords of the song so they would hate morgoth even though he is evil.
This explains how they are older than sauron and why they are naturally evil while being twisted looking beings.

[LeHobbitFan]

What I can most definitely say about the Nameless Things is:
1) They are things;
2) They don't have names.

[rafaelgustavo]

There is a version in the History of Middle earth about nameless gods older than Melkor and the Valar. There is the dreadful valley in beleriand named Nan Dungortheb where Beren, sorely pressed by Sauron's forces, crossed from north to South. A place where - quote "(...) horror and madness walked". Well, that is the same land identified (in the history of middle earth) as Nan Dungorthin - the land of the dark idols - populated by men that worshipped mysterious nameless deities - quote:

"In Nan Dungorthin where nameless gods have shrouded shrines in shadow secret, more old than Morgoth or the Ancient lords the golden Gods of the guarded west".

And like Gandalf said: "nameless thing older than Sauron". It's possible that this nameless things are products of Music of the Ainur: "(...) and the music and the echoe of the Music went out into the Void, and it was not void". Or, the Void before the creation was an another dimension filled with lovecraftian gods/monsters older than Ainur.

[thylange]

Angband had a huge network of tunnels under Beleriand and Middle Earth.
Thats how the Balrog espaced the war of wrath and ended up beneath Caradhras.
It's possible that the nameless things created the tunnels for Morgoth.

[Levermonkey]

Pretty much all these creatures (including Bombadil) can be attributed to The Music of the Ainur. I do like the thought of Ungoliant scrabbling over the ramparts from the void - why shouldn't she be special.

[guille]

There's a theory that says that those creatures might be created from te discordant music of the ainur, as Eru said that the music is what shaped arda, but nor the Valar nor Melkor knew about those "unwanted products" created from the discordance of the music.
In my opinion thats the only convincing theory

[apstrike]

I see Tolkien as playing around with the genre of Lovecraftian horror and including this because it was cool to him. Concepts like nameless things too horrific to speak of are very Lovecraftian. There are some issues with chronology (Lovecraft himself died in 1947) but there are plenty of other writers in the genre, and I would say Tolkien was influenced by their work if not actively emulating them. We do have later evidence Tolkien read The Doom That Came To Sarnath because he commented on it.

[kristijan]

There is a possibility that Melkor created them when he caused the discord in Eru's music during the creation of Arda.

[tominiowa]

Since Tolkien expressed regret later at naming trolls William, Tom, and Bert, he likely did not want to assign names to these things. 😉

[goshlike]

I love this series.
I'll just go with the Discord theory. Since Melkor can't create but only corrupt, he could "create" them through the discord he produced in the Music of the Ainur.

[elliotcrossan]

I like the idea that Morgoth created them, was disappointed, and so buried them at the bottom of the world

[swehumorofficial]

When a master musician starts to tune their instrument, before the structure of the music itself, there are old, nameless sounds... unholy creaking of worn leather cases, disfigured and discoloured metal hinges, the unintentional scraping of finger over string. With an entire orchestra tuning, believe me, many nameless things are created, none intended to be part of the performance.

[michael]

I think they came from the disharmony in the music of the ainur by melkor

[hazbojangles]

I remember being fascinated about these after watching a Geekzone video and then I was casually playing Lotro one day and came to the Foundations of Stone and let’s just say I never went back. Not even for deeds.

[adamh]

I always thought of the Nameless things as creations of Melkor made through the discord of the music. Not things he intentionally created but manifestations of the discord he created.

[jonaszhaat]

The Nameless things were older than Sauron. We must ask a question if they were older than Melkor as well? One possible answer is yours, that they were created by him before Sauron came. But if they were older than Melkor that means that they were created during Ainulindalë when Melkor and all other Ainur were in Timeless Halls where time is no counted, that's why Nameless things may be older than all Ainur.

[tspoon]

That picture of ungoliant with the human arms all over her is proof that the Lord of the Rings can do horror just as well as any other

[michaelsavage]

Loved the video. I personally believe that the music of the Ainur. Was the cause of there creation. Morgoths music and Erus music combines to make them.

[hugoferreira]

There is a bigger reference to the nameless things in The Hobbit, during the chapter in which Bilbo is near Gollum's lake.