Ungoliant

Ungoliant 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 in the First Age. The name is pronounced /ʊŋˈgɒliənt/. 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. 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.

While 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 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 quotation 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 Quenya word for the Primeval Night^[1]. Combined with the above quote, this has led to speculation that Ungoliant is Night itself. This has also led to speculation that Ungoliant is actually the opposite of Eru Ilúvatar (though whether or not Tolkien would have even allowed this theory on theological grounds is unknown).
  • 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)

  In the book Morgoth's Ring, which is somewhat later in date than The Silmarillion, and which it expands on somewhat, Morgoth explicitly refers to Ungoliant as having abandoned him. This suggests that in the beginning she was one of Morgoth's early allies who abandoned him. Also she is clearly shown as being weak and desperate before Morgoth, until she devours the light of the two trees and grows greater, so she can not be some opposite of Ilúvatar, which would far outstrip Morgoth. Morgoth's Ring explicitly refers to her as a servant of Melkor who had abandoned him. Whether this means she was an Ainu or some creation of his work is not clear, but given her power she was probably a Maia, perhaps a Maia of Melkor's own native people given her lust for destruction, just as Sauron was of the Maiar of Aulë.

  The great spiders of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (including the spiders encountered by Bilbo Baggins in Mirkwood and Shelob) were descendants of Ungoliant. Assuming she is some form of Ainu, this makes her a rarity, as the only one known to have definitively had a child was Melian.

  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 Lord of the Rings.

  Parallels

  As a female accomplice to the prince of evil, Ungoliant appears to parallel Lilith in Jewish folklore, "Sin" in Milton's Paradise Lost and Jeh (the whore) in Zoroastrianism.

  References

  1. ^ J. R. R. Tolkien (1987), Christopher Tolkien, ed., The Lost Road and Other Writings, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, ISBN 0-395-45519-7

  
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