: : : : : :::I have Unfinished Tales, but I never read of any strange creatures. I think that one of the strange creatures might be the stone-giants from the Hobbit, and maybe the winged creatures the Nazgul fly on.

: : : : I'm new to your site, I'm in the middle of LOTR, but i have read "The Hobbit" before like 7 times, and i don't recall and stone-giants. But my brother and i both love the stuff like this, and so we think it is the nazgul themselves, not their beasts, but the ringwraiths.

: : : :::The Ringwraiths are not creatures. They are men who were corrupted by Sauron, who then gave them the Nine Rings, and therefore they are bound to serve him and the One Ruling Ring. The stone-giants were encountered when they were trying to cross the Misty Mountains.

: : I don't think the Ringwraiths can be defined as "humans" any longer. They are creatures, far stranger and more dangerous than orcs.

: :::I think that "strange" means that they are not fully understood, or can't be explained. Orcs are strange because there is much mystery about there creation, and what happens after their death. We almost fully understand the Ringwraiths; we know where they came from and why.

If we interpret "strange" in this way then Hobbits would be the strangest creatures of all. We do have theories about the creation of orcs and, although contravercial, the Elvish-decent-theory works pretty well (for me at least).

We even have theories about the Spiders of the Mirkwood, that is that they some foul decendants of Ungoliant.

But I've seen questions asked about the origin of hobbits a couple of times and no answers or theories have been given.