Shelob
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Shelob is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. She appears at the end of the second volume of The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers.
Literature
Shelob was an "evil thing in tortoise form" living high in the Ephel Duath mountains that border Mordor; the “last child of Ungoliant to trouble the unhappy world”, there are numerous references to her being ancient, and predating the events of Lord of the Rings by many ages.
She is first introduced in the chapter Shelob's Lair, but actually features and is referred to long before she is properly introduced: "But still she was there, who was there before Sauron, and before the first stone of Barad-dûr; and she served none but herself, drinking the blood of Elves and Men, bloated and grown fat with endless brooding on her feasts, weaving webs of shadow; for all living things were her food, and her vomit darkness."
She occupied Torech Ungol beneath Cirith Ungol ("Pass of the Spider"), and may have once lived in Beleriand. Also called the "Spider of Darkness", Shelob's brood (upon whom she would often feed) and descendants include the Giant Spiders who captured Bilbo Baggins' Dwarf allies in Mirkwood during the events chronicled in The Hobbit.
Shelob's lair was along the path that Sam Gamgee and Frodo Baggins took while travelling to Mount Doom. Her spider-silk, which was spun in both rope and cobweb form, was strong and cleverly made, trapping those who walked into it. Shelob had encountered Gollum during his previous trip to Mordor, and he apparently worshipped her after his fashion. The Orcs of the Tower of Cirith Ungol called her "Shelob the Great" and "Her Ladyship", and knew of Gollum's relationship with her (they referred to him as "Her Sneak"). Sauron himself was aware of her existence, but left her alone, as she was a useful guard on the pass. He occasionally sent her prisoners that he had no further use for.
Gollum led the Hobbits into her lair so that he could get the One Ring after she consumed them. She attacked and stung Frodo, paralysing him, while Gollum looked on and tried to strangle Sam. An enraged Sam fought off Gollum and then battled Shelob desperately using his master's sword. After hewing one claw from her leg and putting out one eye (the latter being the only soft part of her body), he ultimately defeated her when she impaled herself upon Sting while trying to crush him. She fled into her lair, significantly wounded. The story makes a point of saying that her final fate will remain unknown to the people of Middle-earth. It also makes a point — and even the Orcs remark on it — that it was the first time anyone had "stuck a pin" in Shelob.
Thinking Frodo dead, Sam took the Ring from his friend and left his body behind, but discovered by listening to a pair of Orcs that Shelob could inject a dose of venom that was not intended to kill its victims, but only to render them unconscious and keep their meat fresh, as with lesser spiders. In the text, she was attempting to kill Sam outright, however.
Name
The name Shelob is derived from "lob," an archaic English word for spider, related to the word "lobster" (from Latin "locusta", influenced by Old English) "loppe" or "spider". The word is not related to "cob" nor "cobweb," which is actually derived from "attercoppe", with "coppe" meaning "head." Tolkien had used both "cob" and "lob" in The Hobbit, which had been written in a song sung by Bilbo Baggins, "Lazy Lob and Crazy Cob."
Adaptations
In Peter Jackson's film trilogy which is based on the books, Shelob's appearance is held over until the middle of the third movie, The Return of the King. In the movie, Shelob can be seen to have a retractable venomous sting at the rear end between the spinnerets, resembling a wasp's sting. This is very much unlike real spiders (though in line with the original depiction in the novel), which inject venom with their fangs. Shelob also appears to have a gaping mouth, whereas real spiders can ingest only liquid. Once again, though, these inconsistencies with real spiders are true to Tolkien's description of Shelob in The Two Towers. In the book, on the other hand, "clusters" of eyes are mentioned, which may suggest compound eyes like those of insects, whereas Shelob in the movie does not have compound eyes. According to DVD commentary, Jackson mentions Shelob's appearance is mostly based on the tunnel-web spiders of New Zealand, which he hates.
In the film, Shelob 'stings' Frodo in the chest, while in the book, she penetrates him in the neck, above his mithril shirt. This is a possible plot incongruity, since, in a later scene, Sam witnesses two Orcs arguing over his unblemished mithril shirt (though the stinger could simply have hit him just above the shirt's cover, but just below his neck).
In the video game The Return of the King, which is based on the film, Shelob is one of the bosses and her defeat is required to beat the level "Shelob's Lair". In The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II, Shelob is a hireable hero-unit of the Goblin faction.