Impressive Creatures
Oliphaunt
A herbivorous and remarkable mamal belonging to the order of the Proboscidea. His prominent characteristics are its seize, grey and thick skin, four big legs, huge ears, long nose and its prominent teeth called tusks.
Although people compare it to a à dragon concerning it’s seize we might conclude that it is smaller, because it lives in the forests of Far Harad in the far south. à Dragons usually live in free spaces or sleep in mountains and do not need to dodge trees, but a Oliphaunt eats trees and other plants – hence it would be unwise to knock over trees using its nose.
The Oliphaunts wondrous and tremendous nose is called a trunk that looks like a flexible and grey trunk and is used for breathing, drinking, trumpeting and grabbing. People say it talks like a trumpet and thus can be heard in far distance.
The average shoulder height is 8 feet (males) respectively 10 feet (females), meaning twice and trice as tall as a tall hobbit. Altough it is heavy as a house, it can swim.
Its ears look like huge, grey leaves and radiate heat. In this way it prevents overheating, because a jungle is a very hot and wet forest.
The Oliphaunt uses his two, curved tusks for several purposes: digging for water, excorticating trees, defending itself against enemies and impressing its mates.
The men of Far Harad ride Oliphaunts and use them as living weapons in war. The Oliphaunt attacks its opponent with its javelin-tusks, stomps or makes a storm by wagging its ears. Nonetheless it is actually a quiet peaceful and as unhasty as an ent.
Ravens of Ravenhill
Ravenhill, the home of those extraordinary birds, is a hill near Erebor and the Running River in the East. Those ravens of ancient breed are black, but they are larger and more cunning than the ravens of the Shire, they live longer (mostly in pairs within a flock) and have a good memory. They are also more polite than à crows and fearless even in the sight of dragons.
They eat everything. They had been friends of the dwarves of Erebor (who also eat almost everything). It is said that they can talk not only in bird-speech, but also in common-speech and thus had been the messengers of the dwarven kings. Their voices are described as raspy. They give themselve names. The most notable ravens are Carc and his son Roäc.
Spiders
We do not talk about little spiders which live in the garden or sneak into your house. We mean The Spiders which dwell in Mirkwood, a elven forest in the east of the Misty Mountains. It is said that they are the off-spring of a giant spider that lives in the North.
They, too, have eight legs which are pretty hairy, eight, pale, bulbous eyes and two fangs which they use to poison their prey (flies, butterflies and everything small enough to eat and carry).
They are huge, not as huge as a à Oliphaunt, but tall enough to capture hobbits and dwarves. Like the à Ravens of Ravenhill they, too, talk to each other in a creaking and hissing manner. They can laugh, too, but they get angry when you call them names (like attercop or tomnoddy) or when you call them fat, old and lazy.
Living in colonies they build spider-webs between the branches of trees. There they also hang up their tied up preys. The usually hunt in darkness.
