Carcharoth
the Red Maw; the wolf-warden of Angband
Name and Nature
Carcharoth — “the Red Maw” — is the mightiest of the wolves bred by Melkor in Angband, the lord-wolf appointed warden of the gates of the Enemy. The Quenta: — he was — he was “fed… upon the flesh of Elves and Men” — he was “the war-captive of the dark fortress”, in whose belly the age’s doom was at last sealed.
The Swallowing of the Silmaril
In the tale of the Great Quest: when Beren, under the spell of Lúthien, cut a Silmaril from the Iron Crown of Morgoth, and the wolf Carcharoth, waking too soon from the enchantment, came upon him — Carcharoth bit off Beren’s hand (with the Silmaril clenched in it) and swallowed it. The light of the holy jewel inside him burned his belly with torment, and he fled in madness out of the north — he became a frantic ruin, breaking through the lands.
The Death in Doriath
- The breaking of the Girdle: The Red Maw, maddened and girded with the stolen light, burst through the Girdle of Melian into Doriath (no evil thing had ever passed it before).
- The war and the death: The hunt was raised; Beren and Huan, with the hunters of the realm, followed him “through the woods”; and in the pursuit, at the edge of the land, Huan came up with the wolf and slew him in a great fight — and died of his wounds (his doom fulfilled). From the slain wolf’s belly they drew forth the Silmaril; and Beren, in the wolf’s last spasm, was taken and; the hunt ended with the crowning scene — the recovery of the jewel and the passing of Beren.
Significance
Carcharoth is the walking doom of the age’s central jewel: the wolf that takes the light into itself and is consumed, the instrument by which the Silmaril’s fate (and Beren’s hand, and Huan’s death) are woven — the emblem of the greed that devours what it cannot bear.