In the time of the War of the Ring it is told how those undead spirits called the Nazgul were carried aloft by winged beasts. Swifter than the wind were these creatures that had the neck of a serpent, wings of a bat and bird like claws. It is said they were fed on orkish meats and grew beyond size of any other creature in the the Third age. They had been bred by Melkor in lurking shadows in the ages of the lamps, when Kraken and serpentcame from the pits of Utumno.
Yet ancient as they were, and though strong and fearsome in their service to Sauron in the War of the Ring, their time on Middle-Earth was brought to an end. One of the winged beasts was slain by Legolas, and the other was killed by Eowyn; those that remained were destroyed in the holocaust that consumed Mordor in the last year of the Third Age.
