. Alas, not me: "Foul" and "Vile" in The Book of Lost Tales

07 November 2025

"Foul" and "Vile" in The Book of Lost Tales

The Book of Lost Tales uses the words "foul" and "vile" in pretty much the way you'd expect.

"Foul" describes the following beings or things associated with them:

  • Orcs: LT II 14, 159, 193, 232
  • Karkaras (Carcharoth): LT II 34, 38, 239
  • Melkor: LT I 55; LT II 37, 42 
  • Glaurung (Glorund): LT II 85, 86 (3 times), 98
  • Thingol, reproached by Tinúviel for Beren's "foul captivity" by Melkor: LT II 37 
  • Brandir (Tamar), his "foul speech" that Nienor committed suicide, as described by Túrin: LT II 111
  • Ungoliant (Wirilómë): 152
  • Water, as polluted by blood or evil: LT II 38, 287

"Vile" describes the following beings or things associated with them:

  • Glaurung: LT II 106, 107
  • The dragon's hoard is Thingol's "vile reward": LT  II 135

"Foul" occurs more often in direct or indirect connection with the dragon than with anyone or anything else. So, too, of course, it occurs most often in "Of Turambar and the Foalókë," seven out of a total of sixteen times in both volumes of The Book of Lost Tales. Túrin and Morwen both address Glaurung with this word, calling him "foul worm," and "foul beast" (LT II.86, 98). It appears four times in a single page when he first enters the tale and meets Túrin (LT II 85-86). "Vile" is twice applied to Glaurung, again in "Of Turambar and the Foalókë," and once in a deleted passage by Húrin when he scornfully gives him Glaurung's hoard from Nargothrond as his "vile reward" for what he wrongly thinks is Thingol's failure to care for Húrin's family (LT 135).

There is one final passage to look at, in which both words occur in the same sentence. Here, Túrin, having killed Glaurung, learned that his wife is actually his sister and that she has killed herself, and then killed the man who gave him the news, asks his sword to kill him:

"Thee only have I now—slay me therefore and be swift, for life is a curse, and all my days are creeping foul, and all my deeds are vile, and all I love is dead.”

(LT II.112).

Given the usage of these two words in The Book of Lost Tales, one might conclude that Túrin feels he has become as evil as Glaurung himself.

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I noticed not long before finishing this post that the second half of Túrin's words to his sword can be read as two lines of iambic pentameter:

and all my days are creeping foul, and all
my deeds are vile, and all I love is dead.

(The first half of the sentence is not far off either)

 

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