While we know much of the great elephant-like creatures known as the Mûmakil, it is not certain whether their lesser cousins that are still known today existed in Middle-earth. Gandalf does mention them in The Hobbit, so it is possible that they shared the wide burning plains of the Harad with their giant relatives.
Notes
1 |
All modern elephants belong to the family Elephantidae, but the wider grouping of Proboscidea also includes extinct species such as mammoths and mastodons. The gigantic Oliphaunts (or Mûmakil) would presumably have also fallen into the same broader classification. |
2 |
The archaic English spelling of the name was oliphaunt (or a variant such as olyfaunt). This is the source of Tolkien's name 'Oliphaunt' for the larger varieties of Middle-earth. |
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- Updated 12 January 2009
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