Character Bios
Ungoliant
Meaning: Ancient Spider
Other Names: Wirilome or Gloomweaver (Lost Tales)
Location(s): Avathar, Nan Dungortheb
Race/Species: Beasts & Monsters
Type/Kind: N/A
Dates: After the creation of Arda - ?*
Parents: N/A
Siblings: N/A
Spouse: 'foul creatures of spider form'
Children: many, among them Shelob
Description:
"Some have said that in ages long before she descended from the darkness that lies about Arda... and that in the beginning she was one of those that [Melkor] corrupted to his service. But she had disowned her Master, desiring to be mistress of her own lust, taking all things to herself to feed her emptiness."
"In a ravine she lived, and took shape as a spider of monstrous form, weaving her black webs in a cleft of the mountains. There she sucked up all light that she could find, and spun it forth again in dark nets of strangling gloom."
(The Silmarillion, QS, Ch. 8 - Of the Darkening of Valinor)
*"Of the fate of Ungoliant no tale tells. Yet some have said that she ended long ago, when in her uttermost famine she devoured herself at last." (QS, Ch. 9 - Of the Flight of the Noldor)
According to an early version of the mythology, she was slain by Earendil. (First mentioned in The Book of Lost Tales II, HoMe 2)
Contributors:
Finch, 01.12.03
