Arda Kompendium

Shelob

the great spider of the Ephel Dúath; the last child of Ungoliant

beastspidershelobungoliantthird age

Name and Lineage

Shelob is the great spider of the mountain-pass of Ephel Dúath — “the last child of Ungoliant”, whose kindred (the evil spiders) Tolkien’s lore traces back to the spawn of the First Age’s Great Spider. She was “born before Sauron”, “older than he”, dwelling in her lair beneath Cirith Ungol, fattening on whatever came her way — orc, Elf or man — while even the servants of the Dark dared not assail her.

Nature and Story

Her lair, the dark tangle of Shelob’s Lair (and the approach through the Morgul road), was a monster’s pantry: she was a thing of layered horror; Tolkien described her “unlight” as the darkness of Ungoliant’s ancient womb of night. She bound her prey in webs and drank them.

  • In the War of the Ring, her victim’s ring-bearer Frodo was stung and taken in her den; the great hobbit-sword Sting and the light of the phial (Eärendil’s star) drove her off, wounded, to her doom — her death ended the last of the ancient spiders’ reign in the mountains.

Significance

Shelob is the Third Age’s inheritor of the dark lineage that began with Ungoliant — the spider-godlessness and hunger that even Sauron’s servants feared — and, with the spiders of Mirkwood, the proof of Ungoliant’s long shadow in the later world.

Verknüpfte Seiten

UngoliantWerewolvesMirkwoodSauronThe Phial of GaladrielStingConcordance — A to ZSpiders of MirkwoodCirith UngolGorbagShagratSamwiseGollum
Werke: die Quellen sind seitenübergreifend die Bücher von J.R.R. und Christopher Tolkien (Silmarillion, Hobbit, Herr der Ringe, Unfinished Tales, History of Middle-earth, Nature of Middle-earth u. a.) — eigene Zusammenfassung. Siehe die Concordance und den README der Quelle für die Einzelbelege.
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