Ungoliant

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Ungoliant
Tolkien character
In-universe information
Book(s)The Silmarillion (1977)

Ungoliant (Sindarin pronunciation:

Melkor to destroy the Two Trees of Valinor
, darkening the world.

Her origins are unclear, as Tolkien's writings do not explicitly reveal her nature, other than that she is from "before the world"; this may mean she is a

Maia, an immortal spirit. Scholars have likened the story of Ungoliant and Melkor to John Milton's Paradise Lost, where Sin conceives a child, Death, by Satan: Sin and Death are always hungry. There are limited parallels in Norse myth: while there are female giants, they are not usually spiders, though the Devil appears as a spider in an early Icelandic tale, and a female giant in the Prose Edda is named Nótt
("Night"), she and her brood dwelling in and personifying darkness.

Etymology

Ungoliant means 'dark spider' in Tolkien's

Quenya
: Ungwë liantë [ˈuŋwɛ liˈantɛ]. She is also known as Gloomweaver (Sindarin: Gwerlum [ˈɡwɛrlʊm], Quenya: Wirilomë [wiˈrilɔmɛ]).

Internal history

Years of the Trees, Arda was lit by the Two Trees of Valinor. Melkor damaged the trees, and Ungoliant drained them of their sap[T 1]

Tolkien's original writings say that Ungoliant was a primeval spirit of night, named Móru,

Silmarils of Fëanor. Ungoliant helped Melkor evade the Valar by shrouding them both in the impenetrable darkness she produced.[T 1]

Melkor had promised Ungoliant to yield anything she wished in return for her aid, but betrayed this promise by withholding the Silmarils, and summoned the

Ered Gorgoroth in Beleriand. At some point she gave birth to the Giant Spiders, including the character Shelob of The Lord of the Rings. In The Silmarillion, it is stated that when she went into hiding her hunger was such that she would mate with other spiders only to devour them later, with her offspring used as food once fully grown. The Silmarillion hints that Ungoliant's unremitting hunger drove her to devour herself.[T 3]

Analysis

Further information: Tolkien's monsters
The story of Ungoliant and Morgoth has been likened to Milton's Paradise Lost, where Death is the ever-hungry child of Satan.[1] Painting of Satan, Sin, and Death by Henry Fuseli, 1800

According to the Tolkien scholar John Wm. Houghton, the story of Ungoliant and Morgoth is comparable to the account in John Milton's Paradise Lost in which Sin conceives a child, Death, by Satan. Both Sin and Death are always hungry; Satan says he will feed them, and leads them to the world.[1]

Joe Abbott, writing in

Maia, a spirit-being able to take on physical form.[2] He offers the parallel of Nott ("Night"), an Icelandic female giant in the "Gilfaginning" in the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson. Nott was dark, like all her kindred, just as Ungoliant and all her brood dwell in and "personify" darkness.[2]

Legacy

Ungoliant has been the subject of several

Silmaril was the subject of Blind Guardian's song "Into the Storm", from their 1998 album Nightfall in Middle-Earth. Austrian black metal band Summoning had a song called "Ungolianth" on their 1995 album Minas Morgul. On their 2006 album The Morrigan's Call, the Irish Celtic metal band Cruachan featured a song "Ungoliant" as well as one named after Shelob.[4]

Ungoliant is mentioned in the 2012 film

Radagast the Brown conjectures on the origin of malevolent giant spiders endemic to Mirkwood.[5]

References

Primary

  1. ^ a b Tolkien 1977, ch. 8 "Of the Darkening of Valinor"
  2. ^ a b Tolkien 1984, ch. 6 "The Theft of Melko"
  3. ^ a b Tolkien 1977, ch. 9 "Of the Flight of the Noldor"

Secondary

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-1-135-88033-0
    .
  2. ^ a b c d e Abbott 1989.
  3. ^ Boberg, Inger M. (1966). Motif-Index of Folk-Literature. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger. G303.3.3.4.2.
  4. ^ "The Morrigan's Call – Cruachan". AllMusic.
  5. ^ "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)". Movies Transcript. Retrieved 1 July 2020. Spiders, Gandalf. Giant ones. Some kind of spawn of Ungoliant, or I am not a Wizard. I followed their trail. They came from Dol Guldur.

Sources

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