Great Spiders

Ungoliant

At the root of every great spider in the legendarium is Ungoliant. The Eldar did not know what she was. She was not a beast, and she was not a Vala; they said that she came out of the darkness that lies about Arda, and that Melkor had corrupted her long before, in the days of his first power. But she served no master. She took the form of a monstrous spider and dwelt in Avathar, the narrow land of shadow south of Valinor, where she spun webs of Unlight and drank all light she could reach, hungering always and growing always. When Melkor sought an ally for his assault on the Two Trees he went to her, and she wove her darkness about them both so that they came unseen to Ezellohar. She sucked the sap from the wounded Trees and drained the Wells of Varda, and swollen to a horror even Melkor feared, she pursued him across the Ice into Middle-earth to claim the jewels of Formenos. At Lammoth she netted him and would have had the Silmarils, but his cry brought the Balrogs, and she fled from their whips.

The brood of Nan Dungortheb

Ungoliant went into Beleriand and came to the shadowed valley below the Ered Gorgoroth, the Mountains of Terror on the southern face of Dorthonion. There she dwelt for a time, and other spider-creatures that had lurked in those mountains since the delving of Angband mated with her and were devoured by her. Their offspring remained after she went south, and the valley took the name Nan Dungortheb, the Valley of Dreadful Death. The Girdle of Melian held them out of Doriath, but the land between was a place no Elf would cross. Beren did cross it, and the tale of that passage was one he never fully told; Aredhel of Gondolin passed it too and lost her escort in it.

Ungoliant's own end is unknown. She went into the far South and passed out of all tales, and some said that she devoured herself at last in her hunger.

Shelob

The greatest of Ungoliant's descendants was Shelob, who in a form like her ancestor's dwelt in the tunnels of Cirith Ungol, the high pass over the Ephel Dúath into Mordor. She was there before Sauron, before the first stone of Barad-dûr was laid, and she served no one. She fed on whatever came into her webs, Elves and Men in the Second Age when the mountains were peopled, Orcs and the occasional prisoner in the Third, and when there was nothing else she fed on her own young. Sauron knew of her and let her be, valuing her as a guard on his western pass. Her lesser children, bred from her own brood, had long since spread from the Ephel Dúath eastward and northward.

Gollum found her in the years of his wandering and worshipped her in his way, and in T.A. 3019 he led Frodo and Sam into her lair. She stung Frodo and would have carried him off; Sam, with Sting and the Phial of Galadriel, put out one of her eyes and drove her onto his own blade, and she crawled away wounded into the dark. Whether she healed and lived on is not told.

The spiders of Mirkwood

The great spiders that Bilbo fought in Mirkwood were of the same descent, lesser than Shelob but many. They had multiplied in the forest after Dol Guldur was built and the shadow fell on Greenwood, and they hunted in packs, spinning webs across the paths and dragging their prey to colonies of nests in the trees. They spoke a language Bilbo could understand, and they were cowardly when hurt. Bilbo killed one alone in the dark, the first deed that made him feel like a warrior, and then, wearing the Ring and taunting them with a song, drew them away from the dwarves whom they had trussed up to eat, and cut his companions free. The Elves of Thranduil fought the spiders continually and kept them from the northern parts of the wood.

Nature

The texts describe the spiders as evil beyond any ordinary beast, and the reason lies in their origin: they descend from a being of darkness that predates Arda's shaping, not from any creature of Yavanna. Their venom does not kill at once but paralyses, so that the prey may be kept alive for later; their webs are stronger than rope and dark to look on; their eyes are many and their hatred of light is absolute. Shelob's hide could turn any blade, and only a stroke from beneath, driven by her own weight, could pierce it.

Fate

Shelob is last seen crawling wounded into her lair. The spiders of Mirkwood are last seen in the year 2941; when Thranduil and Celeborn cleansed the forest after the War of the Ring it is reasonable to suppose the colonies were burned out, but the texts do not say so.

Ungoliant grew from a shadow to a mountainous thing after drinking the Trees, and in her last form was so vast that Melkor was helpless in her webs. Shelob was bloated and black, with a swollen body, clusters of eyes, horns, legs with great knees and clawed feet, and a hide too thick for any blade. Her stench filled the pass. The spiders of Mirkwood were smaller, though large enough to overpower a Dwarf, with fat bodies, hairy legs and bulging eyes.

The spiders of Mirkwood lived in colonies, hunted together and talked among themselves in thin, creaking voices. Shelob and Ungoliant were solitary, jealous even of their own offspring, and served no lord; Shelob tolerated Gollum as a bringer of food, and Sauron tolerated Shelob as a gatekeeper.

Ungoliant came from the darkness outside the world and was corrupted by Melkor before the Elves awoke. Her offspring in Nan Dungortheb were bred with the spider-creatures already lurking in the Ered Gorgoroth. Shelob descended from that brood and came to Cirith Ungol in the dark years before Sauron built his tower; the spiders of Mirkwood were her lesser children spread north and east.

Ungoliant passed into the South and out of knowledge. Shelob crawled away wounded and is not heard of again. The spiders of Mirkwood are not mentioned after the cleansing of the forest.