Ungoliant

Ungoliant is a character of the work of J.R.R. Tolkien. It is a large spider which one knows very few things.

History

Ungoliant appears in chapter 8 of the Quenta Silmarillion , where it is known as that the Eldar are unaware of its origin and its nature. In the shape of a gigantic spider, she lives in Avathar, in the south of Valinor, devouring all the light which passes to its range.

Melkor, perhaps its former Master, approach after having had to flee Valinor, its lies revealed and its up to date bored plans malefic. There, he promises all to him that she wishes if she accepts to help it in her intentions against the Valar. Initially apprehensive, Ungoliant accepts. Draped in a “coat of darkness”, they go on the hill of Ezellohar, in the middle of Valinor, and kill the Two Trees, the single source of light of the world:

Then the Black Light of Ungoliant extended until drowning the roots of the Trees and Melkor sprang on the hill. Of a blow of its lance of darkness, it wounded each tree to the heart of an open wound and the sap started to run like blood and was spread on the ground. Ungoliant then aspired the sap and stuck its black nozzle on the wounds until they were bloodless. Then the mortal poison which ran in its veins invaded the Trees and desiccated the roots, the branches and the sheets, and they died| Silmarillion

Melkor and Ungoliant move then towards Formenos, the fortress of Fëanor. All flee in front of them, except Finwë, the king of the Noldor, that Melkor keep silent. Both comparses divide the piled up jewels with Formenos, Ungoliant devouring them to satisfy its hunger and Melkor seizing the Silmarils. They carry on their road towards north, cross the strait of the Helcaraxë and arrive in the north of the Ground of the Medium. Occurs then the quarrel of the Robbers : Ungoliant, become much more powerful than Melkor, requires that it yields to him its share of the invaluable stones of Formenos, which it does with back-plate; but he refuses Silmarils to him. Absorbed by the cobwebs, Melkor pushes a terrible cry whose echo reaches the depths of Angband, one of its old fortresses. The Balrog S which are still grounds there, answering the call of their Master, are ruent with his help, making flee Ungoliant.

She elects residence in Ered Gorgoroth, which becomes a place of terror and desolation. There, it is coupled with other spiders to devour them then, giving rise to an infamous offspring. Its final destiny is unknown: “No account speaks about the fate of Ungoliant. Some say that it is there that it finished its days a long ago, when its inextinguishable hunger pushed it to devour itself. ” ( Silmarillion )

Mysteries of Ungoliant

Ungoliant is a mysterious creature as for its true nature, its origin, its capacity and its destiny.

Assumptions on the nature and the origin of Ungoliant

Among the various assumptions concerning its origin, most widespread are:

Ungoliant is Ainu

Being a being of before the creation of the world, it may be extremely that Ungoliant was actually a Ainu, servant of the people of Melkor; or that this last managed to corrupt by its unmatched music. However, contrary to the majority of the Maiar, it seems to be rebelled and to have threat dangerously Vala which it served (in this respect, a comparison is possible with Ossë, which tried a rebellion against Ulmo).

Ungoliant is the fruit of the discord of the Music of Ainur

It would then have incarnated the shade, the darkness, inextingible thirst, the vacuum of the night. That seems however not very probable that creature equipped with capacity however powerful has be created by Ainur, without agreement of Eru, unless it is not the latter which created it, at mysterious ends. Because if Valar launched out several times to the continuation of Melkor, never they did not undertake to pursue Ungoliant and to punish it for its misdeeds.

Ungoliant, a creation of Melkor

Another possibility which meets the same obstacle as previously, and which also poses the problem to see a creature of Melkor which would have finally dominated its Master (after being itself nourished sap of the trees).

The disappearance of Ungoliant

If the final disappearance of Ungoliant is evoked in laconic terms in Silmarillion , one can find indications on this subject in various volumes of the Histoire of the Earth of the Medium.

In the many outlines of the Tale of Eärendel , ever finalized, the spider, then called Ungweliantë (or Wirilómë), is mentioned like one of the many adventures of the voyages of Eärendel. The Esquisse of Mythology (written about 1926-1930) speaks about the important facts of Eärendel, and indicates that it “killed Ungoliant in the South” ( The Shaping off Middle-earth , p. 38) - the spider does not take refuge yet in Nan Dungortheb, as in the later versions. The idea of Eärendel killing Ungoliant disappears then: if it is still present in the Quenta Noldorinwa of 1930, it disappeared from the Quenta Silmarillion of 1937.

Importance of the descent of Ungoliant for the outcome

It is supposed that Ungoliant left a Ground descent of the Medium. In Bilbo the Hobbit, Bilbo must face giant spiders in the forest of Mirkwood, which one guesses the ascent. In the same way in the Lord of the Rings, one remembers passage of Cirith Ungol (Ungol-iant) where tapit terrible the Arachne (which was named Ungoliant in the first drafts of the Lord of the Rings) and which made freeze Gandalf fear when Faramir revealed to him that Gollum intended to make penetrate Frodo in Mordor by this passage. Indeed, if Faramir fears the place, Gandalf knows the creature to him, just as it knows to which refers the name of the tunnel, having been pilot in its young age of died of the trees.

In addition, it should be remembered that when Frodo entered the tunnel of Cirith Ungol, it managed to be protected effectively from Arachne thanks to the flask given by Galadriel. However this flask contained the light of Eärendil, which is not other than the light of the one of the three Silmarils which remains now with the firmament in the vessel of Eärendil, father of Elrond and Elros (ancestor of the kings and Aragorn)… Thus the circle is closed again, the light of the trees ultimement having ultimement contributed to the final destruction of the blacks intentions of Melkor.

To note however that it is probably thanks to the guard of Arachne (and thus in fine with the descent of Ungoliant) that Sauron did not make keep the passage of Cirith Ungol, and that Sam and Frodo managed to penetrate in Mordor and to destroy the ring.

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