#ungoliant

legendarium-enthusiast:

It is told that even as Fëanor and Fingolfin stood before Manwë there came the mingling of the lights, when both Trees were shining, and the silent city of Valmar was filled with a radiance of silver and gold. And in that very hour Melkor and Ungoliant came hastening over the fields of Valinor, as the shadow of a black cloud upon the wind fleets over the sunlit earth; and they came before the green mound Ezellohar. 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. And still she thirsted, and going to the wells of Varda she drank them dry; but Ungoliant belched forth black vapours as she drank, and swelled to a shape so vast and hideous that Melkor was afraid.

–J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion, “Of the Darkening of Valinor”

(708):

I think she’s going to be dangerous to drink with, but I’m ready for the adventure.

Ungoliant is a primidorial being who took the shape of a great spider. What or where she came from is unknown, even to the valar. From The Book of Lost Tales 1: “Mayhap she was bred of mists and darkness on the confines of the shadowy seas, in that utter dark that came.”. Morgoth came to Ungoliant, knowing her lust to feed off of light and offered an alliance to attack the and obtain the light of the two trees. After Ungoliant had gorged on the sap of the tree’s and fled Valinor, She feasted on the gems that Morgoth had stolen. In turn she grew to a monstrous size, dark and terrible to behold. She saw that Morgoth kept in secret the silmarills that held the light of the trees and refused to give them to her. With appalling rage Ungoliant unleashed a storm of fearsome black webbing that came unseen through the inky void of the Unlight surrounding Her and she ensnared The Dark Lord Morgoth helplessly in a constricting stranglehold that he could never escape. In his helplessness Morgoth gave one last cry to what he thought to be his last breath. His cry echoed in the depths of his stronghold of Angbad and summoned his sevants of shadow and flame the balrog. With their whips of fire that bore unnatural strength from the furnaces of Udun, they tore the webbing and Freed their Lord. In her defeat Ungoliant fled to Nan Dungortheb and bred with great spiders, producing many of her kind. It is said that Ungoliant ultimately perished at her own hands when, in her utmost hunger, she devoured herself.

Legendarium  by AlvaroFernaG

1.  Morgoth 

2. Morgoth and Ungoliant

3. Gandalf the Grey (Mithrandir)

4. The Witch-king of Angmar

5. Gimli, son of Gloin

frotadealguidares:

MeetNemesia ungoliant, a lovely spider named after Ungoliant, from ‘The Silmarillion’. A friend of mine was part of the team that first described this species in 2007. *proud*

Now, this is reeeeally cool. =D

It is told that even as Fëanor and Fingolfin stood before Manwë there came the mingling of the lights, when both Trees were shining, and the silent city of Valmar was filled with a radiance of silver and gold. And in that very hour Melkor and Ungoliant came hastening over the fields of Valinor, as the shadow of a black cloud upon the wind fleets over the sunlit earth; and they came before the green mound Ezellohar. 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. And still she thirsted, and going to the wells of Varda she drank them dry; but Ungoliant belched forth black vapours as she drank, and swelled to a shape so vast and hideous that Melkor was afraid.

the silmarillion melkor and ungoliant by_rafa_oliveir4-d9wwttl

Into the Storm            by   tsrodriguez

But Ungoliant had grown great, and he less by the power that had gone out of him; and she rose against him, and her cloud closed about him, and she enmeshed him in a web of clinging thongs to strangle him. Then Morgoth sent forth a terrible cry, that echoed in the mountains.