LotR Readalong - TTT, Shelob's Lair

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

Here's the One Mike to Read Them All index.

Next time, we can collectively question the life Choices of Master Samwise.