Ungoliant

Ungoliant (Quenya: Ungwë liantë, "dark spider"; Sindarin: Ungoliant or Delduthling, "dark terror spider"), also known as Gloomweaver (Quenya: Wirilomë; Sindarin: Gwerlum) is a fictional character in J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium.

Literature

In The Silmarillion, Ungoliant was an evil spirit in the form of a spider who dwelt in Avathar before the First Age. The name is pronounced /ʊŋˈɡɒliənt/. In the form Ungoliant the name is technically Sindarin, but is a direct loan from Quenya ungwë liantë: "dark spider"; the strictly Sindarin form being Delduthling, "dark terror spider."

Ungoliant aided Melkor (Morgoth) in his attack on the Two Trees of Valinor; she drained the Trees of their sap and poisoned them after Melkor wounded them. She drained dry the Wells of Varda, so that nothing remained of the Light that was before Sun or Moon, except in the Silmarils of Fëanor. She grew so large and powerful that Melkor himself was afraid. She and Melkor fled to Middle-earth to escape justice at the hands of the Valar by way of Helcaraxë, the ice bridge that linked Valinor to Beleriand.

After their flight from Valinor, Melkor gave her many gems of the Noldor, but withheld the Silmarils in his right hand. He refused to give them to the Great Spider to be devoured, for he desired them greatly. So great had Ungoliant's power grown through the consumption of the two trees and the Wells of Varda, that she had grown greater than Melkor and overpowered him.

Ungoliant might have either slain Melkor or encaged him in her darkness in the ensuing battle, but Melkor gave a great cry of fear that echoed over all of Beleriand, including the deep pits of Angband. Hearing his cry, the Balrogs came and saved their master, scourging the spider with their whips and causing Ungoliant to flee to the Ered Gorgoroth in Beleriand.

Whilst there, she gave birth to the lesser Giant Spiders, as well as various creatures infesting the Ered Gorgoroth, which came to be a place of horror. The dates of her existence are not precisely known; in The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Chapter 9, Of the Flight of the Noldor, we are told that she "went whither she would into the forgotten south of the world" shortly before the First Age, and that "some have said that she ended long ago, when in her uttermost famine she devoured herself at last." In contrast, a rough sketch of Eärendil's voyages by Tolkien suggests that he slew Ungoliant in the south.

Origin

Ungoliant's origin and nature is unclear. Within the Silmarillion, it is said she was an evil being from "Before the World" that took on the form of a spider. In the book Morgoth's Ring, which is somewhat later in date than The Silmarillion, and expands upon it somewhat, Ungoliant is explicitly referred to as a servant of Melkor who had abandoned him.^{[citation needed]}

The great spiders of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (including Shelob and the spiders encountered by Bilbo Baggins in Mirkwood) were descendants of Ungoliant.^[1]

References