This chapter gave me literal nightmares when I was a kid. You know that feeling when you're down in a basement or something at night, turn the lights off as you go upstairs, and suddenly the space is filled with menace? Tolkien gave that menace a name. Even scarier than Shelob herself is the passage through her lair. The darkness, the heat, the stench, the closeness - I'm not prone to claustrophobia, but for this chapter I'm prepared to make an exception. <shudder>
This chapter also gives us lots more hints of the depth of Tolkien's worldbuilding. We get mentions of Ungoliant and Beleriand, of Turin and Tuor.
It's kind of funny, but I don't really have much to say on this chapter. It's been true of lots of the most iconic moments in LotR - I had almost nothing to say about the confrontation with the Balrog, for example. And yet I can go on and on about quiet moments like with Frodo and Sam at the end of the previous chapter. Christopher Tolkien would approve, I think. These books run deep.
And on a final note, apparently Tolkien knows the old joke about dogs having owners while cats have staff:
As for Sauron, he knew where she lurked … his cat he calls her, but she owns him not.
snerk
Next time, we can collectively question the life Choices of Master Samwise.