Watcher in The Water - Concept and Creation

Concept and Creation

An early version of the Fellowship's encounter with the Watcher is found in The Return of the Shadow, part of The History of Middle-earth series, wherein the textual development of Tolkien's Middle-earth-related fantasy is discussed and analyzed by his son and literary executor, Christopher Tolkien. This particular volume focuses upon The Lord of the Rings.

The episode is found in the chapter "The Mines of Moria", equivalent to "A Journey in the Dark" in The Fellowship of the Ring. Tolkien's account of the creature at this stage is practically the same as in the final published version, except for the names of other characters. However, its emergence, physical appearance, abilities, attack on the Fellowship, and rupture of the Moria Gate are already present in his initial writings.

Since Tolkien never explicitly stated what the creature is, others have felt free to speculate on its identity and origins. In A Tolkien Bestiary, David Day calls the Watcher a kraken; however, he also implies that there are some differences between the kraken of Scandinavian folklore and the Watcher in the Water. However, Tolkien never called the Watcher a kraken nor described the presence of krakens in Middle-earth. In The Complete Tolkien Companion, J. E. A. Tyler postulates the Watcher was a cold-drake: "...these dragons rely on their strength and speed alone (the creature that attacked the Ring-bearer near the Lake of Moria may have been one of these)." Another writer compared it to squids.

Essayist Allison Harl speculates that the Watcher may be a kraken created and bred by Morgoth in Utumno. Harl also believes that Watcher in the Water represents itself as gatekeeper whose goal, in the context of the archetypal journey, is to guard the Doors of Durin keeping the heroes from entering into new territory, psychologically or spiritually. This "guardian theory" has also been theorised by other writers such as Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers.