There are many evil and cruel races of beings in J.R.R Tolkien’s world, from orcs to goblins to Uruk-hai, who are all creatures of darkness that take pleasure in the suffering and misfortune of others. There are also the Maiar and the Valar, like Sauron and Morgoth, who have the potential for great power and great evil. But the worst villains in Tolkien’s stories are actually the humans. In fact, his stories are all about human nature in some way or another, and about the great evil that exists inside of everyone.
There are those who are strong enough and noble enough to resist even the greatest temptation, like Aragorn, and then there are those who fall prey to greed and desire, like Denethor. But of all the many characters in his works, who is the evilest human of all? Strangely, there are only a few evil characters who have actually managed to remain human once the throngs of wickedness grasp hold of them. For example, some of the most hideous and awful characters in theLord of the Ringsstarted out as humans long ago, but are technically not anymore.
RELATED:Could There Have Been A Dark Lord After Sauron Even Though The Ring Was Destroyed?
This includes characters like the Witch-king of Angmar, the Ring-Wraiths, and the Barrow-wights. The Witch-king is definitely one of the evilest characters to have ever inhabited any of Tolkien’s stories, and his influence brought ruin to several major peoples in Middle Earth, including some of the strongest Numenorean kingdoms of old, including Weathertop. Likewise with the Nazgul, who all started out as great kings of men, but were taken over by Sauron’s malice once they accepted the 9 rings from him and were at the mercy of his malice forever more.
One in particular, known as Khamul the Easterling is likely to feature inRings of Powerseason 2, as he was an influential king in thelands of Rhun, so terrible that even Sauron was said to be afraid of him, before he accepted one of the 9 rings and fell prey o Sauron’s control. Although none of these characters are technically human anymore, they all committed their fair share of heinousness when they were.
In terms of characters who remain human but are distinctly servants of Sauron and the enemies of the free peoples of Middle Earth, there are a few notable mentions. The first is PharAzon, the right-hand man and council of Tar-Miriel, depicted in the recentRings of Powerseries. PharAzon, who was around in the Second Age of Middle Earth, had great influence over Numenor, and was a cunning and crafty man. He had eyes on the throne, and even worse, he had eyes on immortality because he believed it unfair that humans would be denied entry to theUndying Lands without the gift of the Valar.
He was known for being a cruel leader, and brought about much suffering and hardship for his people, because he was too proud and easily corrupted, especially when Sauron began whispering in his ear and reminding him of his own mortality, which spurred him into action. He is the character whobrought about Numenor’s downfall, by sailing a fleet of ships and armies to Valinor to demand eternal life from the Valar. They were so enraged by this that they set a huge tidal wave to drown his ships, and the water was so strong that it washed all of Numenor away too.
By comparison, characters like Denethor look far less sadistic. The Steward of Gondor was a cruel man in his way, especially becausehe detests Faramir so much,his own son, and definitely favored Boromir to the point of neglect and heartlessness, but in terms of his rule and his people, he was never specifically malicious, more inept. He never committed great acts of evil, he was simply a lowly and bitter old man, who had become paranoid by looking in the Palantir. There were severalreal-world causes for Denethor’s madness, but he was more a character to be pitied than feared, as he created his own undoing in such a futile and needless way.
The same can be said for Borormir, who many label as a villain because he tried to take the ring from Frodo, but he was never actually a bad person, simply a weak-willed man who succumbed to the lust of the most powerful weapon ever created in Middle Earth.Boromir was the most compassionate member of the fellowshipand was sadly led astray by the ring, as many before him were. The most notable of whom, of course, was Isildur, the character who very first failed to destroy the ring in the first place. Isildur also started out as a nobleman, a king of men who was loved and revered by all, but the one ring soon got inside his heart and mind, and betrayed him to his death. Despite that, he himself wasn’t necessarily evil, he simply allowed great evil to endure.
However, many fans feel that the evilest human in Middle Earth is, without a doubt,the Mouth of Sauron. The negotiator at the Black Gates, the voice that brings Sauron’s terms forward into the world is described in the books as a twisted but mortal man, who has been in the service of the dark lord so long that he has forgotten his own name. He is one of very few beings in Sauron’s fold that is still tied to a human body, and is depicted inthe Peter Jackson versionsas having a grotesquely large mouth whose lips crack each time they spill forth the evil of their master. He appears only briefly in both the books and the films, but there have been countless evils that he has orchestrated throughout the ages of the world, which definitely makes him one of the strongest contenders for the worst human character in any of Tolkien’s stories.
