the lord of the rings - What was the "Watcher in the water"?

In the Fellowship of the Ring, our heroes encounter a creature called "The Watcher in the water" which was guarding the Doors of Durin, the ancient and abandoned entrance to the Mines of Moria. What was it? It isn't revealed in the trilogy. Is it explained in any of Tolkien's notes?

Answer

It appears to be some kind of vaguely defined underground lake Kraken or similar dungeon lurker.

Outside of The Fellowship of the Ring it is only mentioned in The History of The Lord of the Rings which contains some of Tolkien's notes.

Dark scene of kraken
a slightly lighter more cartoony drawing of the kraken
From Watcher in the Water on Wikipedia:

Since Tolkien never explicitly stated what the creature is, others have felt free to speculate on its identity and origins. In A Tolkien Bestiary, David Day calls the Watcher a kraken; however, he also implies that there are some differences between the kraken of Scandinavian folklore and the Watcher in the Water. However, Tolkien never called the Watcher a kraken nor described the presence of krakens in Middle-earth. In The Complete Tolkien Companion, J. E. A. Tyler postulates the Watcher was a cold-drake: "...these dragons rely on their strength and speed alone (the creature that attacked the Ring-bearer near the Lake of Moria may have been one of these)." Another writer compared it to squids.

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