The Watcher in the Water was a horrifying and mysterious beast with many tentacles living in a stagnant pool near the Westgate of Moria in Middle-earth - a lake described by J.R.R. Tolkien as "... a dark, still lake" which was created by the damming of the Sirannon river. The water had crept deeper and deeper, closer and closer to The Doors of Durin leaving only a narrow walkway where once The High Road allowed traffic between Ost-in-Edhil and Khazad-dûm many years before during The Second Age. Some say it was the creature itself who created the dam over many decades.