"There you lie like a vole under the bank, Mablung
mockery of MablungThe Children of Húrin
XIVThe Journey of Morwen and Niënor
Small and timid burrowing rodents. The only reference we have to them in Tolkien's works is in Glaurung's words quoted above, though if Glaurung had heard of them in the depths of Angband, we must assume that they were fairly commonplace in Middle-earth. In context, Glaurung spoke these words after he discovered Mablung hiding under the banks of the river Narog before the Doors of Nargothrond, and so the specific reference seems to be to the Water Vole (or Water Rat), which makes its home in burrows under the banks of rivers.
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