The Encyclopedia of Arda - Spiders (original) (raw)

ALPHABETICAL RACES PLACES MISCELLANEOUS REFERENCE INTERACTIVE SHARE User guide Latest entries FAQ and e-mail Disclaimer and bibliography Awards Old and rare words Lexicon of names Excyclopedia of Arda Movie-goer's Guides: • The Fellowship of the Ring • The Two Towers • The Return of the King The Hobbit Viewer's Companions: • An Unexpected Journey • The Desolation of Smaug • The Battle of the Five Armies Tolkien links Book news Latest Chronicle Calendar Old and rare words Lexicon of names Links Random
Species Many species of the order _Araneae_1 Meaning From the Old English word spiðra, ultimately coming from spinnan, meaning 'spin' Other names Bilbo uses several old words for a 'spider' in The Hobbit, including attercop,2 _cob_3 and lob_4 Indexes: Alphabetical: S Animals and Plants About this entry: Updated 2 May 2003 This entry is complete Eight-legged spinners of webs "Yet even the most subtle spiders may leave a weak thread." Words of GandalfThe Fellowship of the Ring II 2_The Council of Elrond These small eight-legged creatures, known for capturing their prey in intricate webs, were evidently as common in Middle-earth as they are today. Characters in The Lord of the Rings often refer to them descriptively, whether it be Gandalf discussing his capture by Saruman (quoted above), Sam climbing ropes across the Silverlode, or Gollum clambering down a rock wall. There was a more sinister side to the spiders of Middle-earth, though, that entered it with the monstrous Ungoliant in the years before the first rising of the Sun. A gigantic creature of spider-shape, it was she who destroyed the Two Trees of Valinor, and escaped with Melkor into the lands of Middle-earth. Though Ungoliant herself disappeared into the far south, she left the northern lands infested with her offspring. During the later First Age, the mountains of Ered Gorgoroth were infested with these monsters, and became a place of dread. The most famous of Ungoliant's children, though, lived far to the south and east of Ered Gorgoroth, on the borders of the land of Mordor. This was Shelob, who haunted a network of tunnels watching the pass of Cirith Ungol, eking a living on the hapless Orcs of Sauron. She had offspring of her own, too, smaller than she but with a cruel intelligence, that spread throughout Ephel Dúath and north into Mirkwood. It was creatures like these that Bilbo encountered in The Hobbit, and through fighting them that his sword acquired its name Sting. Notes 1 There are about twenty thousand different species of spider in the modern world, so presumably there was a similar variety in Middle-earth, too. Most of those described by Tolkien, though, had a supernatural element to their make-up. 2 Attercop literally means 'poison-head', and was actually a word used for a variety of poisonous creatures. 3 Cob is probably a shortened version of attercop, and survives to modern times in the word cobweb. 4 Lob most famously appears in Shelob, the name of the great female spider that haunted the mountain borders of Mordor. See also... Avathar, Black Emperor, Bridge of Esgalduin, Cirith Dúath, Cloud of Ungoliant, Clue-finder, Darkening of Valinor, Dimbar, Eärendil, Elu Thingol, Emyn Duir, Gollum, Green Mound, Guarded Realm, High Pass, [See the full list...]Invisible Baggins, Mewlips, Mountains of Terror, Nori, Pass of Light, River Mindeb, Shelob, Sting, Stinging Fly, The Great, The Watcher, Three Jewels, Torech Ungol, Unchaining of Melkor, Undergate, Ungoliant, Valley of Dreadful Death, Valmar, Wasps, Web-cutter, Wells of Varda Indexes: Alphabetical: S Animals and Plants About this entry: Updated 2 May 2003 This entry is complete For acknowledgements and references, see the Disclaimer & Bibliography page. Original content © copyright Mark Fisher 1998, 2000, 2002-2003. All rights reserved. For conditions of reuse, see the Site FAQ. Website services kindly sponsored by Discus from Axiom Software Ltd.Discus reports contain unrivalled DISC interpretations, including in-depth graphical and textual analysis in natural language.

The Encyclopedia of Arda - an interactive guide to the world of J.R.R. Tolkien

ALPHABETICAL RACES PLACES MISCELLANEOUS REFERENCE INTERACTIVE

SHARE User guide Latest entries FAQ and e-mail Disclaimer and bibliography Awards Old and rare words Lexicon of names Excyclopedia of Arda Movie-goer's Guides: • The Fellowship of the Ring • The Two Towers • The Return of the King The Hobbit Viewer's Companions: • An Unexpected Journey • The Desolation of Smaug • The Battle of the Five Armies Tolkien links Book news Latest Chronicle Calendar Old and rare words Lexicon of names Links Random

Species Many species of the order _Araneae_1 Meaning From the Old English word spiðra, ultimately coming from spinnan, meaning 'spin' Other names Bilbo uses several old words for a 'spider' in The Hobbit, including attercop,2 _cob_3 and lob_4 Indexes: Alphabetical: S Animals and Plants About this entry: Updated 2 May 2003 This entry is complete Eight-legged spinners of webs "Yet even the most subtle spiders may leave a weak thread." Words of GandalfThe Fellowship of the Ring II 2_The Council of Elrond These small eight-legged creatures, known for capturing their prey in intricate webs, were evidently as common in Middle-earth as they are today. Characters in The Lord of the Rings often refer to them descriptively, whether it be Gandalf discussing his capture by Saruman (quoted above), Sam climbing ropes across the Silverlode, or Gollum clambering down a rock wall. There was a more sinister side to the spiders of Middle-earth, though, that entered it with the monstrous Ungoliant in the years before the first rising of the Sun. A gigantic creature of spider-shape, it was she who destroyed the Two Trees of Valinor, and escaped with Melkor into the lands of Middle-earth. Though Ungoliant herself disappeared into the far south, she left the northern lands infested with her offspring. During the later First Age, the mountains of Ered Gorgoroth were infested with these monsters, and became a place of dread. The most famous of Ungoliant's children, though, lived far to the south and east of Ered Gorgoroth, on the borders of the land of Mordor. This was Shelob, who haunted a network of tunnels watching the pass of Cirith Ungol, eking a living on the hapless Orcs of Sauron. She had offspring of her own, too, smaller than she but with a cruel intelligence, that spread throughout Ephel Dúath and north into Mirkwood. It was creatures like these that Bilbo encountered in The Hobbit, and through fighting them that his sword acquired its name Sting. Notes 1 There are about twenty thousand different species of spider in the modern world, so presumably there was a similar variety in Middle-earth, too. Most of those described by Tolkien, though, had a supernatural element to their make-up. 2 Attercop literally means 'poison-head', and was actually a word used for a variety of poisonous creatures. 3 Cob is probably a shortened version of attercop, and survives to modern times in the word cobweb. 4 Lob most famously appears in Shelob, the name of the great female spider that haunted the mountain borders of Mordor. See also... Avathar, Black Emperor, Bridge of Esgalduin, Cirith Dúath, Cloud of Ungoliant, Clue-finder, Darkening of Valinor, Dimbar, Eärendil, Elu Thingol, Emyn Duir, Gollum, Green Mound, Guarded Realm, High Pass, [See the full list...]Invisible Baggins, Mewlips, Mountains of Terror, Nori, Pass of Light, River Mindeb, Shelob, Sting, Stinging Fly, The Great, The Watcher, Three Jewels, Torech Ungol, Unchaining of Melkor, Undergate, Ungoliant, Valley of Dreadful Death, Valmar, Wasps, Web-cutter, Wells of Varda Indexes: Alphabetical: S Animals and Plants About this entry: Updated 2 May 2003 This entry is complete For acknowledgements and references, see the Disclaimer & Bibliography page. Original content © copyright Mark Fisher 1998, 2000, 2002-2003. All rights reserved. For conditions of reuse, see the Site FAQ. Website services kindly sponsored by Discus from Axiom Software Ltd.Discus reports contain unrivalled DISC interpretations, including in-depth graphical and textual analysis in natural language.