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Middle-Earth Tours
Tour 1: The People of Middle-Earth
Spiders
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| Spiders figure prominently in each of Tolkien's three main works, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. One wonders whether the professor himself was arachnophobic (he was bitten by a tarantula as a child), or whether he just knew a good scare when he saw one. |
Mirkwood Spiders, by Alan Lee |
He had picked his way stealthily for some distance, when he noticed a place of dense black shadow ahead of him black even for that forest, like a patch of midnight that had never been cleared away. As he drew nearer he saw that it was made by spider-webs one behind and over and tangled with another. Suddenly he saw, too, that there were spiders huge and horrible sitting in the branches above him, and ring or no ring he trembled with fear lest they should discover him. Standing behind a tree he watched a group of them for some time, and then in the silence and stillness of the wood he realised that these loathesome creatures were speaking to one another....
With that one of the fat spiders ran along a rope, till it came to a dozen bundles hanging in a row from a high branch. Bilbo was horrified, now that he noticed them for the first time dangling in the shadows, to see a dwarfish foot sticking out of the bottoms of some of the bundles, or here and there the tip of a nose, or a bit of beard or of a hood. --The Hobbit, "Flies and Spiders" |
| Then the Unlight of Ungoliant rose up even to the roots of the Trees, and Melkor sprang upon the mound; and with his black spear he smote each Tree to its core, wounded them deep, and their sap poured forth as it were their blood, and was spilled upon the ground. But Ungoliant sucked it up, and going then from Tree to Tree she set her black beak to their wounds, till they were drained; and the poison of Death that was in her went into their tissues and withered them, root, branch and leaf; and they died. --The Silmarillion, "Of the Darkening of Valinor" |
Melkor and Ungoliant, by John Howe |
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Shelob, by Alan Lee |
Even as Frodo spoke he felt a great malice bent upon him, and a deadly regard considering him. Not far down the tunnel, between them and the opening where they had reeled and stumbled, he was aware of eyes growing visible, two great clusters of many-windowed eyes -- the coming menace was unmasked at last. The radiance of the star-glass was broken and thrown back from their thousand facets, but behind the glitter a pale deadly fire began steadily to glow within, a flame kindled in some deep pit of evil thought. Monstrous and abominable eyes they were, bestial and yet filled with purpose and with hideous delight, gloating over their prey trapped beyond all hope of escape. --TTT, "Shelob's Lair"
How Shelob came there, flying from ruin, no tale tells, for out of the Dark Years few tales have come. But still she was there, who was there before Sauron, and before the first stone of Barad-Dur; and she served none but herself, drinking the blood of Elves and Men, bloated and grown fat with endless brooding over her feasts, weaving webs of shadow; for all living things were her food, and her vomit darkness. --TTT, "Shelob's Lair"
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Shelob, by Ted Nasmith |
Shelob, by John Howe
image from a Decipher trading card |
Shelob, by Roger Garland |
Full-size versions of these pictures are on display at Rolozo Tolkien and the official LotR movie site
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