Ungoliant
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In the fictional world of Middle-earth, Ungoliant was an evil spirit in the form of a spider who dwelt in Avathar in the First Age. The name is pronounced [uŋˈgɔ.li.ant]. 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." She is also called "gloomweaver," Wirilomë in Quenya, Gwerlum in Sindarin.
Ungoliant aided Melkor in his attack on the Two Trees of Valinor; she drained the Trees of their sap and poisoned them after Melkor wounded them, and 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 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.
Melkor had promised to reward her, "Yea, with both hands", and after their flight from Valinor, the Dark Lord indeed gave her many gems of the Ñoldor, 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.
Ungoliant might have either slain Melkor (if such a thing was possible) or encaged him in her darkness in the ensuing battle, had not the Balrogs come and saved their master, scourging the spider with their whips and causing Ungoliant to flee to the Ered Gorgoroth in Beleriand.
While there, she had many offspring, 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 not exactly clear. Within the Silmarillion, it is said she was an evil being from "Before the World" that took on the form of a spider. This quote has led to much speculation, somewhat similar to the Tom Bombadil debate:
- Ainu: A common thought is that she may have been one of the lesser Ainur whom Melkor corrupted long ago, and entered Eä with the Dark Lord, only to grow independent later.
- Incarnation of darkness: In early writings, Ungoliant's name was Múru, a Qenya word for the Primeval Night}
- Discord in the Music of the Ainur: similar to the previous theory.
- A nature spirit (similar if not identical to the incarnation of darkness theory)
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.
The name Ungoliant is partly derived from the root ungol ("spider"), which also occurs in Cirith Ungol, where Shelob resided in the Third Age. Shelob herself was called Ungoliant in early drafts of the LOTR.
References
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