Summary
Melkor left Valinor for the lair of Ungoliant, a great spider-demon. He persuaded her to help him attack Valinor, promising her that if she still hungered after devouring all that she could in the Blessed Realm he would give her more, “with both hands.” With Ungoliant’s help, Melkor was able to scale the unguarded southern portion of the Pelóri, and move against Valinor from an unexpected direction.
Under the cover of Ungolaint’s light-absorbing darkness they reached the Two Trees. Melkor struck them both with his spear, wounding them gravely, and Ungoliant drank of their lifeblood leaving both withered and dead. She swelled and grew so vast from drinking of the Trees that Melkor grew afraid.
The dark cloud of Ungoliant, and the abrupt disappearance of the light of the Trees, threw the Elves, Valar, and Maiar into dismay. Manwë alone was able to see through Ungoliant’s unlight, and saw what had been done and by whom. Tulkas and Oromë left swiftly in pursuit of Melkor and Ungoliant, but it was too late - Melkor had his vengeance, and escaped.
Commentary
This is a short chapter, but it’s a doozy.
So, Ungoliant. Yes, Shelob is one of her children, and Ungolaint actually gets name-dropped in The Two Towers:
But none could rival her, Shelob the Great, last child of Ungoliant to trouble the unhappy world.
Beyond that, what is she, exactly? It’s unclear. The text of the Sil implies she’s one of the Maiar that Melkor corrupted, like the Balrogs or Sauron, but for various reasons that doesn’t really hold up. The (debatably) best explanation for her origin is what has been termed the “stray notes” theory, that there were stray notes of the Song of the Ainur that led to some of the less easily explicable things in the world - such as Ungoliant, Tom Bombadil, and the “nameless things” Gandalf talked about being deep beneath Moria. But all that’s just theorizing. What matters is that Ungoliant is strong, greedy, frightening, hates the light, and above all very, very hungry.
And so ends the bliss of Valinor. His destruction of the Lamps marked the end of the world as it was meant to be, and never would be again. Valinor was created as almost a preserve, a remnant of the world that might have been. Now that’s been irreparably marred as well. Melkor is literally why we can’t have nice things.
I don’t consider it much of a spoiler to say that there’s going to be a little bit of fallout from the deaths of Laurelin and Telperion. But that’ll be for next time, when we learn “Of the Flight of the Noldor.”
(Which obviously means they’ll be borrowing some of Manwë’s eagles, because words like “fly” or “flight” can only ever mean “literally soaring through the air”)
(Yes, I still really hate that moronic “‘Fly, you fools!’ meant ‘Take the Eagles’ theory”)
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