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Evil spirit of Spider-form
Kip Rasmussen - Morgoth Ensnared by Ungoliant.jpg
"Morgoth Ensnared by Ungoliant" by Kip Rasmussen
Biographical Information
LocationAvathar (Year of the Trees)
Nan Dungortheb (early First Age)
Notable forDestroying the Two Trees
Physical Description
RaceEvil spirit of Spider-form
WeaponryUnlight, Webs of darkness
GalleryImages of Ungoliant

Ungoliant was an evil spirit in a form that greatly resembled a massive Spider. She once dwelt in Avathar prior to the First Age.


[edit] History



John Howe - The Killing of the Trees

In order to gain Ungoliant's assistance, Melkor had promised to reward her, "Yea, with both hands", and after their flight from Valinor, the Dark Lord indeed gave her many gems of the Ñoldor. However, he withheld the Silmarils in his right hand, having desired them too greatly to allow the Great Spider to devour them. The enraged Ungoliant wrapped Melkor in her webs, and poised to devour him as punishment for his perceived betrayal. Ungoliant had grown far larger and stronger than before by absorbing the light of the Two Trees, and Melkor in turn had exhausted himself from his previous efforts. Indeed, the Gloomweaver would have killed Melkor had not his cry of desperation been heard by his Balrogs, who took flight and saved their master.[1]

Overcome by the Balrogs' fiery whips, Ungoliant fled to the Ered Gorgoroth in Beleriand. There, she had many offspring, including Shelob, which spread throughout the Ered Gorgoroth and gave it a reputation as a place of horror. She also attempted to enter Doriath, the realm of Thingol, but was stayed by the power of the Maia Melian. Ungoliant herself eventually disappeared from history, but her final fate is not precisely known; it is said that she went into the forgotten south of the world shortly before the First Age, and some have said that she eventually let her ever growing hunger overcome her and devoured herself at last.[2]

[edit] Etymology


She is also called "gloomweaver," Virilomë [ˌviˈrilome]) (Wirilomë in Vanyarin) which becomes Gwerlum ([ɡʷerlum]) in Sindarin.

[edit] Genealogy

fl. Y.T. 1495
fl. T.A. 3019
Spiders of Nan Dungortheb
Spiders of Mirkwood

[edit] Other versions of the legendarium

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.


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, which Christopher Tolkien found surprising.[3] In the first sketch of the Silmarillion (1926) intended to "reboot" the Legendarium, Earendel slew Ungoliant.[4]

In the Later Silmarillion, as documented in Morgoth's Ring and War of the Jewels, Ungoliant is explicitly identified as one of Melkor's servants who abandoned him prior to settling in Avathar. She is also depicted as starving to the brink of death during her time in Avathar, cut off from the light of the Valar by her own webs of darkness. She is also shown to fear her master, and hides desperately from Melkor when she first sees him approaching her lair. She initially refuses to emerge (believing Melkor plans to murder her for deserting him) until he offers her an assortment of gems he had stolen from the Noldor. She then regains the strength needed to destroy the Two Trees, which she does alone while Melkor waits near Avathar.

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

[edit] Portrayal in adaptations

2012: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey:


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 Wraith discuss the Ungol spiders that infest Mordor.


  3. J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Book of Lost Tales Part Two, "V. The Tale of Eärendel"
  4. J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Shaping of Middle-earth, "II. The Earliest 'Silmarillion' (The 'Sketch of the Mythology')"