Ungoliant

I'm gonna read the first stanza.

"Ah, the Trees of Light, Tall and shapely, gold and silver, More glorious than the Sun, Than the Moon more magical, Or the meads of the Gods, Their fragrant frith and flower-laden Gardens gleaming once gladly shone." "In death they are darkened, they drop their leaves from blackened branches bled by Morgoth and Ungoliant the grim, the gloom weaver.

In spider's form, despair and shadow, a shuddering fear in shapeless night she weaves in a web of winding venom that is black and breathless.

Their branches fail, the light and laughter of their leaves are quenched.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

It's also wild to find out that, like, Ungoliant's there at the very beginning.

Right there.

So then in the year of the trees, 1495, Melkor fucks all this up.

He recruits Ungoliant, a giant gloom spider.

Uh, I went, uh, I did a couple of episodes about her, one with, um, an American lass called Kaiake, where we discuss how, um, like evil, well, like how women are punished in, uh, Tolkien for, for doing anything that's a bit un-Christian while being like sexually out there.

Uh, we, we discovered a paper that like we, we discussed a paper about it, and it was really, really interesting.

Um, but anyway, this is, um, Shelob's mom, and it says that the Eldar don't know where, from where she came.

But the, the, the upshot of it is Melkor and Ungoliant stab the two trees, kill them, and then steal the Silmarils and escape to Middle-earth, and that is the, the, the main crux of what's happening over the sea.

So now we've got the enemy coming over, back over to Middle-earth.

So Morgoth and Ungoliant cross the Grinding Ice of the far north and come down into Lammoth, the coastal waste northwest of Beleriand, and there their, uh, their alliance falls apart because Ungoliant demands the treasures of Formenos, which is, uh, where Fëanor had been exiled to with his dad, and Finwë had been killed during this, uh, during the stealing of the Silmarils.

I was gonna say to the bad guys, but I feel like this character is an unknowable creature, so to the unknowable guys.

Uh, I would like to look, for, for my presentation, I would love, if you would allow me, to look at the vow made by Morgoth to Ungoliant.

Uh, because we're, uh, because this is a very short CliffNotes, I assume, uh, all of us know the story of the two trees, so I'm just...

We're gonna pless- press some fast-forward as we go through these.

We find a baddie, Melkor, heading south.

He has got a plan, but he needs, uh, a girl Friday to help him out.

And here we meet Ungoliant, and there's such a great quote to describe her.

"The Elder knew not when she came, but some have said that in ages long before, she descended from the darkness that lies about Arda." What? What does that even mean? That's amazing.

If that's what they're called.

The ones, um, that Beren had to go through, that, um, Ungoliant fled to and then started creating all the spider broods and that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, it ties into the cosmic horror of, um-

Yes

... yeah, of Ungoliant and, and everything going on with, with that, and the idea that this is something from the void.

This is something that is not supposed to be here in Arda.

The vats, Tilimpe and Calurin, gathered the dripping liquid light and would nourish the blessed realm.

The trees were slain by Melkor and the spider-shaped entity Ungoliant, and the vats were emptied by the swollen spirit in her insatiable hunger and greed.

The Stars of Varda Then Varda went forth from the council and she looked out from the height of Tani Quetel and beheld the darkness of Middle-earth beneath the innumerable stars, faint and far.

Then she began a great labour, greatest of all the works of the Valar since their coming into Arda.

As the light of the stars was the first thing the Elves saw when they finally awoke, they revered Varda above any other, naming her Elbereth.

The Sun and the Moon, Anar and Isil These things the Valar did, recalling in their twilight the darkness of the lands of Arda, and they resolved now to illumine Middle-earth, and with light to hinder the deeds of Melkor.

When Melkor and Ungoliant drained the life from the two trees, one silver flower from Telperion and one golden fruit from Laurelind, were coaxed from the remains.

Aulë and Varda worked together again to set these last outpourings of primeval radiance into celestial vessels, creating the Moon, steered by the Maia Tilion, and the Sun, steered by the Maia Arien, to illuminate all Middle-earth and hinder the dark deeds of Melkor.

He's kind of in his old age, but I still, even if he was younger, I don't think it would matter much.

Shelob is the descendant of Ungoliant, first of all.

Now, I don't like how in a lot of these matchup arguments people claim, um, a person's heritage or a beast's heritage as if that's the, the be all, end all, uh, 'cause I don't think it always matters that much.

Sometimes it does, and this is one of those times that it does matter.