Great siege beasts

On March 14, the Witch-king had sent many great siege beasts alongside the mûmakil to pull huge siege-towers and great engines of warThe Chronology of The Lord of the Rings, pg. 72 to the City Wall of Minas Tirith.The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, Book Five, Ch. IV: "The Siege of Gondor", pgs. 101-2
==History==
Near the end of the Third Age, great siege beasts were used by Sauron's armies as beasts of burden during the War of the Ring. On the twenty-ninth day of the Siege of Gondor, These great beasts were required to pull many instruments of war for the siege. The most notable of these were the beasts 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 one or two of the great beasts "would go mad and spread stamping ruin among the" many Orcs which guarded Grond. Even as the bodies of the Orcs were thrown and tossed about by some of the rogue beasts, new Orcs replaced the fallen ones just as quickly.
==Speculation==
In the Days before days long before the First Age began, Melkor's interference in Eru's ordered world caused the appearance of monstrous beasts of "horn and ivory" that fought with other beasts and were forever marred by his evil influence.The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Chapter I: "Of the Beginning of Days" These creatures are a likely progenitor of the 'great siege beasts', but it is unknown.
==In adaptations==
===The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King===
In Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King the great siege beasts were depicted as gigantic rhinoceros-like or other prehistoric beasts-like creatures with horns protruding from their heads. The special features of the film's extended edition reveal that their design was modeled after the extinct Megacerops.
===The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II===
The great siege beasts were are as cattle by Mordor Orcs in Electronic Arts' The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II; they were descended from some smaller and fatter "great beasts" which were used by the Dwarves of the Misty Mountains as beasts of burden. They were given the name "yurgs" by the Dwarves.
===The Lord of the Rings: Conquest===
In The Lord of the Rings: Conquest, dead great siege beasts can be seen on the maps Weathertop and Pelennor Fields.
===The Lord of the Rings Online===
In the Mordor expansion pack of The Lord of the Rings Online, the great siege 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.Sulokil on lotro-wiki.com According to Ingold, their meat was "rather good when cooked and seasoned".Quest:Welcomed Provisions on lotro-wiki.com
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".Sûlok on lotro-wiki.com 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.Quest:Hunting Sûlokil on lotro-wiki.com
===Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor===
In the Lord of the Hunt DLC from Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, there is a memory about great beasts. Torvin describes how the great beasts were enormous quadrupeds that were capable of growing to a height of thirty-five feet. They were a "distant cousin to the Mûmakil" and were unrivaled as the Dark Lord's beasts of burden. They were strong enough that it was skeptical that even a Graug or a huge Caragor pack had any hope of taking one down.
==Translations==
Foreign Language 	Translated name
Afrikaans 	Groot dier
Albanian 	Bisha e madhe
Amharic 	ታላቁ አውሬ
Arabic 	الوحش العظيم
Armenian 	մեծ գազան
Azerbaijani 	Böyük heyvan
Basque 	Piztia handia
Belarusian Cyrillic	Вялікі звер
Bengali 	গ্রেট পশুর
Bosnian 	Velika zvijer
Bulgarian Cyrillic 	Страхотен звяр
Burmese 	ဂရိတ်သားရဲ၏
Cambodian 	ដែលមានទំហំធំសតវតិរច្ចាន
Catalan 	Gran bèstia
Cebuano 	Dakong nga mananap ?
Chinese 	伟大的野兽
Cornish 	best Meur
Croatian 	Velika zvijer
Czech 	Veliká bestie
Danish 	Store belejringsbæster
Esperanto 	Granda besto
Estonian 	Suur metsaline
Filipino 	Mahusay na hayop
Finnish 	Suuri peto
French 	Grande bête
Frisian 	Grut bist
Dutch 	Groots beest
Galician 	Gran besta
Georgian 	დიდი მხეცი
German 	Große Bestie
Greek 	Μεγάλο θηρίο
Gujarati 	ગ્રેટ પશુ
Haitian Creole 	Gwo bèt
Hausa 	Babban dabba
Hawaiian 	Nui na holoholona
Hebrew 	חיה גדולה
Hindi 	महान जानवर
Hungarian 	Nagy fenevad
Icelandic 	Mikill dýrið
Igbo 	Nnukwu anụ ọhịa
Indonesian 	Besar binatang
Italian 	Grande Bestia
Japanese 	偉大な獣
Kannada 	ಗ್ರೇಟ್ ಬೀಸ್ಟ್
Kazakh 	Ұлы жануар (Cyrillic) Ulı janwar (Latin)
Korean 	위대한 짐승
Kurdish 	Mezin teba (Kurmanji Kurdish)
Kyrgyz Cyrillic 	Улуу айбан
Latin 	Magna bestia
Laotian 	ສັດເດຍລະສານທີ່ຍິ່ງໃຫຍ່
Latvian 	Liels zvērs
Lithuanian 	Didelis žvėris
Macedonian Cyrillic	големиот ѕвер
Malagasy 	Biby lehibe
Malaysian 	Binatang yang besar
Marathi 	ग्रेट पशू
Maori 	Kararehe kararehe
Mongolian Cyrillic 	Их араатан
Nepalese 	ठूलो जनावर
Norwegian 	Store beist
Pashto 	لوی ځناور
Persian 	جانور بزرگ
Polish 	Wielkie Bestie
Portuguese 	Grande besta
Punjabi 	ਮਹਾਨ ਜਾਨਵਰ
Romanian 	Fiara mare
Romansh 	Granda ?
Russian 	Великие Звери
Scottish Gaelic 	Bhiast mhòr
Serbian 	Велика звер (Cyrillic) Velika zver (Latin)
Sicilian 	Gran armali
Sindhi 	وڏي حيوان
Sinhalese 	මහා මෘගයා
Slovak 	Skvelá bestie
Slovenian 	Velika zver
Spanish 	Gran Bestia
Sundanese 	Sato galak hébat
Swahili 	Mnyama mkubwa
Swedish 	Stor best
Tajik Cyrillic 	ҳайвони Бузург
Tamil 	பெரிய மிருகம்
Tatar 	Зур хайваннар
Telugu 	గ్రేట్ మృగం
Turkish 	Büyük Canavar
Turkmen 	Uly Haýwanlar
Ukrainian Cyrillic 	Великий звір
Urdu 	عظیم حیوان
Uzbek 	Буюк ҳайвон (Cyrillic) Buyuk hayvon (Latin)
Vietnamese 	Đại quái thú
Welsh 	Bwystfil mawr
Yiddish 	גרויס חיה
Yoruba 	Nla ẹhọnọn
==References==
de:Große Bestie
it:Grandi Bestie
pl:Wielkie Bestie
ru:Великие Звери
Category:Creatures
Category:Servants of Sauron