Of Spiders

When J.R.R. Tolkien was a boy he was bitten by a Tarantula which was I am sure a very frightening as well as painful experience for him and must have turned him into a lifelong Arachnophobe along with millions of others including I am sure J.K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame who seems to have an affinity for including Spiders as forms of terror and evil in her books as well. The two main great spiders in Tolliens tales are Ungoliant and Shelob. Ungoliant was an evil creature that took the form of a giant spider who was continuously ravenous in her appetite. She was recruited by Melkor ,one of the ,if not the greatest of the Valar to aid him in his revenge against the other Valar for there imprrisonment of him. She surrounded the both of them in a great darkness she wove around them and made their way to the undying lands the home of the Valar where she assaulted the two great trees of light and using her great beak she drained the two trees dry killing them in the process she then accompanied Melkor to the home of Finwe where Melkor slew him and took the treasures of his home including the three Silmarils they then made their escape in the cloud of darkness back to Middle Earth. Now Melkor had promised to give her what she asked to feed upon with both hands and she demanded her payment so he fed her many wondrous jewels he had brought from Finwes home but when she demanded that Melkor feed her the Silmarils he refused and she attacked him, Melkor called for assistance from his Balrogs who came and saved their master and Ungoliant escaped. It was later said that because of her great hunger she finally devoured her ownself. She had mated with and then devoured other lesser creatures of Spider form and one of her descendants was Shelob who guarded the back entrance to Surons realm in a place called Cirith Ungol ( Spiders Lair  ). Sauron was aware of her presence but did not harm her as he looked upon her as a sort of watch dog and if she dined on an Orc of his every now and then it was of no great matter to him. Like most spiders she would attack her prey and sting them which injected her poison and the victim would lay as still as death and  offer no resistance when it came time for her to feed on them.She was wounded by Samwise Gamgee, a hobbit, who had gone to the rescue of his master Frodo, the Ring Bearer. I din't believe he killed her as when he puts on the Great Ring he can hear Shelob weeping over the wound he gave her.Maybe she is their still.