Ungoliant

2025-10-23T19:37:51Z

Grev: corrected grammar mistake

{{Sources}}
{{infobox character
| name=Ungoliant
| image=Olanda Fong-Surdenas - Ungoliant and Melkor.png
| caption="Ungoliant and Melkor" by [[:Category:Images by Olanda Fong-Surdenas|Olanda Fong-Surdenas]]
| pronun=
| othernames=Gloomweaver
| titles=
| position=
| location=[[Avathar]] [[Ered Gorgoroth]] "forgotten south of the [[Arda|world]]"
| affiliation=[[Melkor]] (formerly)
| language=
| birth=
| birthlocation=
| rule=
| death=
| deathlocation="forgotten south of the [[Arda|world]]"
| age=
| notablefor=Destroying the [[Two Trees of Valinor]]
| parentage=
| siblings=
| spouse="other foul creatures of spider form"
| children=[[Spiders]] of [[Nan Dungortheb]] (including [[Shelob]])
| people=Unknown (possibly a [[Spirits|spirit]] in a [[Spiders|spider]]-form)
| gender=Female
| height=
| hair=
| eyes=
| clothing=
| weapons=[[Unlight]]
| steed=
}}
'''Ungoliant''' was a [[Spirits|spirit]] who took on the form of a monstrous [[Spiders|Spider]]. She was the destroyer of the [[Two Trees of Valinor]].

== History ==
The origins of Ungoliant are shrouded in mystery. It was believed by some of the [[Eldar]] that she may have been among the [[Ainur]] whom [[Morgoth|Melkor]] had corrupted long ago in the [[Music of the Ainur|beginning]], yet she was not listed among the known Ainur.<ref name=Darkening>{{S|8}}</ref> It was later perceived by the [[Valar]] that she had come from "beyond [[Arda]]'"<ref name=Lammoth>{{S|9}}</ref> in the "[[Eä|darkness]] that" lay around it when Melkor first gazed upon the [[Kingdom of Manwë]] in envy.<ref name=Darkening/>

During the [[Years of the Trees]], Ungoliant had disowned Melkor as her Master to become the "mistress of her own lust". She desired to take everything she could in order to "feed her emptiness". Upon fleeing to the south, Ungoliant had coincidentally escaped "the [[Battle of the Powers|assaults]] of the [[Valar]] and the hunters of [[Oromë]]", as their vigilance ignored the south. Later, she made her way slowly towards [[Aman]], desiring the light and hating it.<ref name=Darkening/>

Upon reaching the Blessed Realm, Ungoliant settled down secretly in a ravine within [[Avathar]], taking on the shape of "a spider of monstrous form". As she spun "her black webs in a cleft of the mountains", she sucked up all the light in the region, before spinning the light into "[[Unlight|dark nets of strangling gloom]]". Eventually, no more light was able to enter her abode. As a result, she grew famished.<ref name=Darkening/>

After Melkor fled [[Valinor]], he came to Avathar in "the form that he had worn as the tyrant of [[Utumno]]", and plotted his revenge with Ungoliant. However, upon understanding Melkor's true purpose of destroying the [[Two Trees of Valinor]], a great fear overcame her as she was unwilling to risk the power of the Valar and come out of hiding. It was only when Melkor had personally vowed to use both of his hands to satisfy her lust with whatever she demanded, that Ungoliant agreed to aid him.<ref name=Darkening/>

Upon shrouding both herself and Melkor in a cloak of [[Unlight]], she spun her webs as she slowly climbed upwards until they reached the summit of [[Hyarmentir]], overlooking [[Valinor]]. She then created a ladder of woven ropes, which Melkor used to climb up the mountain to enter Valinor.<ref name=Darkening/>

It was during a [[high feast]] when Ungoliant and Melkor came upon the [[Ezellohar]]. Ungoliant cast her Unlight against the roots of the Two Trees as while Melkor came onto the mound, slaying the Two Trees with his black spear. The sap of the Two Trees poured like blood upon Ezellohar where Ungoliant sucked it up. After which, she drained each tree from their wounds, withering them. Yet the thirst of Ungoliant was not satisfied and she drained the [[Wells of Varda]] as well, belching black vapours as she drank, growing to a vast and hideous shape which terrified Melkor.<ref name=Darkening/>

After this terrible act, Ungoliant and Melkor fled [[Aman]] through [[Araman]] and [[Oiomúrë]], eventually crossing over the [[Helcaraxë]] to escape justice at the hands of the Valar.<ref name=Lammoth/>

[[File:John Howe - The Killing of the Trees.jpg|thumb|left|''The Killing of the Trees'' by [[John Howe]].]]

Upon arriving in [[Middle-earth]], Ungoliant perceived that Melkor was hoping to escape from her to the ruins of [[Angband]]. As a consequence, she forced Melkor to halt in his tracks, and demanded that he fulfill his vow to satisfy her hunger with both of his hands. Inevitably, the Dark Lord indeed surrendered to her the many gems that the [[Noldor]] had at [[Formenos]].<ref name=Lammoth/> However, as Ungoliant devoured them and grew larger and darker, she noticed that Melkor was only using his left hand to feed her. When she demanded that he open his right hand, Melkor refused, claiming that he named the [[Silmarils|objects in his right hand]] onto himself, and that he no longer needed her aid.<ref name=Lammoth/>

As a consequence, Ungoliant moved against Melkor, overpowering him and wrapping him in a "web of clinging throngs" in an effort to strangle him. The attempt on his own life caused Melkor to release an echoing cry of desperation through the mountains. The cry was so great and dreadful that the very land it was uttered in became known as [[Lammoth]] ever after. Unfortunately for Ungoliant, Melkor's cry of desperation had been heard by the [[Balrogs]] beneath Angband. As tempests of fire, the Balrogs came swiftly to Lammoth to save the return of their lord. The webs of Ungoliant were smote asunder by their whips of flame, and she fled in fear from them, covering herself with the black vapours which she belched.<ref name=Lammoth/>

Upon fleeing south from Lammoth, Ungoliant came to [[Beleriand]].<ref name=Lammoth/> Under a "terror of darkness", she tried to enter the [[Forest of Neldoreth]] in the [[Doriath|realm]] of [[Thingol]], but was thwarted by the power of the [[Maiar|Maia]] [[Melian]]. Yet she made a dwelling in the mountains south of [[Dorthonion]], and no Elf went there, naming those mountains the [[Ered Gorgoroth]].<ref name=Doriath>{{S|10}}</ref> There, Ungoliant met, mated, and eventually devoured the "other foul creatures of spider form" who had dwelt there since Angband was first delved. She had many [[Spiders|offspring]] with them, including [[Shelob]], before she eventually departed from that place.<ref name=Lammoth/>

Ungoliant eventually went into the forgotten south of the world shortly before the rising of the [[Sun]], where she would disappear from history.<ref name=Lammoth/>

== Legacy ==
While the fate of Ungoliant is not told in any tale, some have said that she eventually let her ever growing hunger overcome her and, "in her uttermost famine", devoured herself at last.<ref name=Lammoth/>

The offspring that Ungoliant had beneath Ered Gorgoroth eventually spread throughout the dark valley, giving it a reputation as a place of horror, as well as the name of [[Nan Dungortheb]].<ref name=Lammoth/>

At an unknown time after the [[Darkening of Valinor]], a [[Vanyar]]in [[Elves|Elf]] named [[Elemmírë (Elf)|Elemmírë]] wrote the [[Aldudénië]], which told of the role of Ungoliant's Unlight in the death of the Two Trees.<ref name=Darkening/>

== Etymology ==
The name is pronounced {{IPA|[uŋˈɡoljant]}}. In the form ''Ungoliant'' the name is technically [[Sindarin]], but is a direct loan from [[Quenya]] '''Ungweliantë''' (''[[ungwë]]'' + ''liantë'': "dark spider"; pron. {{IPA|[uŋʷˌɡʷeliˈante]}}); the strictly Sindarin form being '''Delduthling''' "Horror Night Spider".

== Genealogy ==
{{familytree/start}}
{{familytree| | | UNG |y| OTH | |UNG='''UNGOLIANT''' ''fl. {{YT|1495}}''|OTH=''other foul creatures of spider form''}}
{{familytree| | | |,|-|^|-|.| | |}}
{{familytree| | | NAN | | SHE |y| MIS | | | |NAN=''[[Spiders]] of [[Nan Dungortheb]]''|SHE=[[Shelob]] ''fl. {{TA|3019}}''|MIS=''"[[Spiders|miserable mates]]"''}}
{{familytree| | | | | | | | | |!| | |}}
{{familytree| | | | | | | | | LES| | |LES=''[[Spiders|lesser broods]] (including the spiders of [[Mirkwood]])''}}
{{familytree/end}}

== Other versions of the legendarium ==
Ungoliant's name was changed at various points in the legendarium's development, being called '''''Gwerlum''''' and '''''Ungoliante''''' at various points.

In ''[[The Book of Lost Tales]]'', Ungoliant's history is even more mysterious than what is implied in the published edition of ''The Silmarillion''. Here, even the Valar did not know of her origins, and she was portrayed as a primeval spirit of night, and believed to be a creature bred of the darkness of the Void.

Also, Melkor and his companions encounter Ungoliant in her lair (here, known as Arvalin) by coincidence while fleeing from the Valar.

Melkor and Ungoliant are shown to be on much friendlier terms with each other than what is shown in later versions of ''The Silmarillion'', as Melkor willingly offers the jewels that were stolen from the Elves, apart from the Silmarils (the Theft of the Silmarils occurring ''before'' the Darkening of Valinor, in this version).

She is wounded after the poisoning of the Golden Tree by a lone Elf named [[Daurin]], whose sword is poisoned by her blood. While Ungoliant is recovering from her wound, Melkor kills Daurin and uses his sword to mortally wound the Silver Tree. After the Darkening of Valinor, instead of fleeing with Melkor, Ungoliant immediately flees southwards towards her lair, and successfully eludes the Valar.

In an early sketch of the voyages of [[Eärendel]] in the ''Lost Tales'', Tolkien considered to have Eärendel meet her (as Wirilomë) in his travels. In outline C the encounter is placed on a the western voyage which Christopher Tolkien found surprising.<ref>{{LT2|V}}</ref> In the first sketch of the ''Silmarillion'' ([[1926]]) intended to "reboot" the legendarium, Earendel slew Ungoliant.<ref>{{SM|2}}</ref>

In the Later Silmarillion, as documented in ''[[Morgoth's Ring]]'' and ''[[Battles of Beleriand|War of the Jewels]]'', Ungoliant is shown to fear her master, and hides desperately from Melkor when she first sees him approaching her lair. She initially refuses to emerge, believing that Melkor planed to murder her for deserting him, until he threatens to bury her within her lair, whilst enticing her with an assortment of gems he had stolen from the Noldor. She accepts his offer, and regains the strength needed to destroy the Two Trees, which she does alone while Melkor brings ruin elsewhere in Aman. Here she likewise drank dry the [[Wells of Varda]] and grew massive in power and hideous in form, and even Melkor was aghast to see her. Though he had planned to forsake his servant, she is able to find him and the two escape, her darkness setting the pursuing Valar into confusion and dismay. It is unclear in this version of events if Ungoliant ever turned on Melkor herself.<ref>{{MR|P3II6}}</ref>

In the [[Fall of Gondolin]], it is stated that Ungoliant devours herself in hunger after she goes south in the First Age.

== Portrayal in adaptations ==
Ungoliant has not appeared in any adaptation of Middle earth works so far, and is mentioned only in the following adaptations:

'''2012: ''[[The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey]]'':'''
:While discussing the darkness that has fallen over [[Mirkwood]], [[Radagast]] describes the spiders there as "some kind of spawn of Ungoliant".

'''2014: ''[[Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor]]'':'''
:Ungoliant is mentioned twice: The first time is in a memory attached to the "Crushed Ungol Egg" artifact, during which Sauron's servant addresses Shelob as the "last daughter of Ungoliant". She is mentioned again when [[Talion]] and the [[Celebrimbor|Wraith]] discuss the Ungol spiders that infest Mordor.

{{references}}

[[Category:Characters in The Book of Lost Tales]]
[[Category:Characters in The Silmarillion]]
[[Category:Enigmas]]
[[Category:Evil]]
[[Category:First Age characters]]
[[Category:Servants of Melkor]]
[[Category:Sindarin names]]
[[Category:Spiders]]
[[Category:Spirits]]

[[de:Ungoliant]]
[[fr:encyclo/personnages/animaux/araignees/ungoliant]]
[[fi:Ungoliant]]

Tolkien Gateway - User contributions [en]

Ungoliant