In the fictional world of
Middle-earth,
Ungoliant (from
ungwë liante: "gloomweaver") was an evil spirit in the form of a spider who helped
Melkor during the
Darkening of Valinor[?], and who fled with him to Middle-earth. She had many offspring, including various creatures infesting the
Ered Gorgoroth[?] as well as
Shelob. The dates of her existence are not precisely known; in
The Silmarillion,
Quenta Silmarillion, Chapter 9,
Of the Flight of the Noldor, we are told that she "went whither she would into the forgotten south of the world" shortly before the First Age, and that "some have said that she ended long ago, when in her uttermost famine she devoured herself at last."
- See also : Middle-earth