LOTR: Tolkien May Have Started The Fandom Of Vampires And Werewolves

gamerant.com:

One of the most popular and sought-after tropes in modern culture is books and movies about vampires and werewolves. From early renditions of the fight between these two powerful creatures including Buffy the Vampire Slayer in 1997, and Underworld in 2003, to the infamous Twilight Saga, spawning shows like Teen Wolf, The Vampire Diaries, and Shadowhunters. Interestingly, many fans are unaware that the portrayals of these unnatural creatures as we know them in popular culture are often attributed to Tolkien’s works.

Of course, there are works written previously to that of Tolkien who helped to invent, or even brushed briefly upon these strange beings, the most obvious being novels like Bram Stoker’s Dracula, William Polidori’s The Vampyre, and Le Fanu’s Carmilla for vampires, and tales such as Wagner the Wehr-Wolf by George Reynolds, and the sorts of wolves who often appear in the woodlands of 18th century fairytales. But many people believe that Tolkien was one of the earliest writers to include these creatures as canonical beings in existence within the arc of a wider story, rather than the story being focused on the humans within the story finding out that these beings were real, and the story revolving around that premise.

Arwen's Fate Was Never More Strongly Tied To The One Ring

For example, in The Silmarillion, the most famous tale is probably that of Beren and Luthien, the long-ago lovers who are the counterparts of Aragorn and Arwen’s romance, and her decision to give up her mortality for him. Those who know the tale will recall that Beren loses a hand when it is bitten off by a wolf after he manages to claim a Silmaril from the crown of the evil Morgoth. The wolf that bit his hand off is supposedly descended from