#tolkien #middleearth #fantasy
Q: Questions about Ungoliant and Morgoth’s Monsters
ANSWER: When people submit multiple unrelated questions at one time I may try to answer each one individually. But sometimes it’s just not possible to make that many articles. Or it may take too long to get back to the same request. I received these questions from a reader in August 2022:
Tolkien wrote that Morgoth bred monsters of many kinds. Did he ever change that? What in the world was Ungoliant? I don’t think Morgoth created her and what in the world fathered children with her? I can’t imagine it was anything wholesome unless she could change her shape. Do we know what happened in the North during the war in Gondor? I remember something about war coming to the North but I can’t remember where I heard it or read it. Finally, do you have a list of the Tolkien Gateway articles you’re mentioned in?
So, here are my answers in order of the questions received.
Did Tolkien Revise His Thoughts about Morgoth’s Monsters?
So far as I know, Tolkien never revised the idea that Melkor/Morgoth bred many types of monsters from the natural creatures of Arda. He may have bred some from corrupted Maiar (Umaiar), but there is no definitive, intended to be final in published form discourse from J.R.R. Tolkien I can point to.
The best source of information is The Silmarillion, which represents Christopher Tolkien’s synthesis of his father’s writings. I searched several books for comments on the development of the concept and didn’t find anything that indicates JRRT diverged from his original intentions.
Melkor is Tolkien’s “King of Hell” character, and Morgoth’s demons and monsters are central to the evils of the First Age, culminating in dragons like Glaurung and Smaug as well as the Watcher in the Water and the Balrog of Moria. So there’s really no way for Tolkien to have retrenched on the concept. He merely refined it, even if he became more vague in general.
What Was Ungoliant?
Oddly enough, I’ve never published an article directly answering this question, although I thought I had.
Of course, J.R.R. Tolkien wrote very little about Ungoliant. She is only significant in 2 stories: the tale of Melkor’s escape from Valinor and the origin of the giant spiders of Beleriand and Mirkwood (the latter descending from Shelob, “last child of Ungoliant”). Morgoth, of course, bred giant spiders with whom Ungoliant bred.
There is a note (published in The Nature of Middle-earth) from 1959 which may be J.R.R. Tolkien’s last thought on the nature of Ungoliant. In the final paragraph of the text, Tolkien wrote: “[Morgoth] became more and more incapable (like Ungoliantë!) of extricating himself and finding scape in the vastness of Eä, and became more and more physically involved in it.” This hastily written stream of thoughts seems to conclude with the implication that Ungoliant was indeed one of the Ainur who descended into Eä and, like Melkor, she became “lost” in it (spiritually and morally) so that she could no longer control her form or experience Eä in her Ainuric form.
But that’s something we’ll never be able to confirm, so far as I know. Even the Revised and Expanded Edition of The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien provides nothing new about her.
What Fathered Ungoliant’s Children?
There is a brief text that says she bred with the giant spiders Morgoth (or Sauron) had sent to haunt the hills and valleys of Dorthonion. So presumably her children were fathered by one of Morgoth’s monsters.
Tolkien Gateway Articles Mentioning Me
I do not know how many Tolkien Gateway articles mention me. Based on a Google search (site:tolkiengateway.net “michael martinez”) it appears I’m mentioned in nearly 300 articles there.
However, most if not all Wiki sites have a “What Links Here” function that returns a report of articles (internally) linking to any specific article. So you could browse the What Links Here (for Michael Martinez) report. It won’t include any unlinked mentions (if there are any) or any broken links (if there are any). That report returns 85 articles.
Sorry. That’s the best I can do.
See also
Where Do the Spiders of Mirkwood Come From?
What Is the Hithlum Passage And Why Is It So Important?
Short Questions and Answers, Vol. 7
Is There A Source for the Tale of the Two Trees?
What Are the Nameless Things Gandalf Refers to Below Khazad-dûm?
Was the Tale the “Aldudénië” Ever Told?
Are the Dragons Immortal Creatures?
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Have you read our other Tolkien and Middle-earth Questions and Answers articles?
I just want to use this moment to thank your for your regular contributions on the topic of Tolkien’s work and regarding this topic that you didn’t use a picture of a giant spider ready to bounce on me.
Much appreciated.
Have a good new year.
Hi all,
I feel Ungoliant is a being brought into existence through Morgoth’s Discord woven into the Song. I also believe she is an entity which is more than the sum of her parts. What I mean by that is, Morgoth’s power and the Discord he introduced, combined with the power of the Song created in Ungoliant a being Morgoth could not conceive of. I believe she could have destroyed him if he were alone. In my head-canon I believe she never gave up on her desire to gain a measure of revenge upon Morgoth. When Morgoth was placed beyond the Doors of Night and into the Abyss, the moment the Valar and Maiar turned their attention back to other matters, Ungoliant was near and watching his exile. At the last moment, before the Doors closed, she gave up her physical for to seep, as a form of black smoke and shadow, through the ever-diminishing opening to find her betrayer and expend her wrath upon him for all Eternity.
I’m a little puzzled by the widely held view that Ungoliant was created by Melkor’s discord of the Music of the Ainur. As I understand it, the music was simply music (or at least the Timeless Hall’s version of music). Eru chose to create a vision that was based on the music, and he allowed the Ainur to see some of it. Then he created Eä, where the Ainur could, if they wished, fulfil the vision they had been shown. They expected Eä to contain a realization of the music/vision, but it didn’t. So I guess I don’t see a direct connection between the music and anything existing in Eä. Maybe I’m missing something?
I agree that Ungoliant was probably originally without physical form, mainly because it’s really hard for me to imagine a giant spider living in the void or making the trip to Arda. But I don’t know if it necessarily follows that she was an Ainu. Tolkien makes reference to many different types of miscellaneous spirits without fully explaining their true nature. For example, Ents were apparently “spirits from afar” before they became housed in trees, and I would be very surprised if they turned out to be Ainur. I’m guessing that Melkor had met Ungoliant either just before or just after the First War when he was wandering around Eä. He might have enticed her to come with him to Arda because she was so unsuited to living there, and the horror of her alien-ness would be a type of power that he could use to his benefit.
The Silmarillion quotes Iluvatar, when he becomes irritated by Melkor’s disruption of the Music, as saying that ultimately everything has its being through him (Iluvatar), in other words there are no other actual creators in town. Melkor can, and does, corrupt: he can’t conjure up anything of his own. I infer from this that Iluvatar created Ungoliant (or at least her spirit) for some other purpose, and Melkor somehow twisted her, but in some way he goofed by making her very nearly as powerful as himself in some respects. Making the mighty Melkor scared of a big ugly spider wasn’t, in my view, Tolkien’s finest literary moment. Maybe if he had lived to revise the material things would have been clearer.