Shelob
Quick Facts
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| Dates: | Uncertain. Probably originated in the First Age1, and known to have survived into the Fourth | ||||||||||||||
| Pronunciation: | Presumably 'shee'lob'2 | ||||||||||||||
| Meaning: | 'She-spider' ('lob' is an old English word for 'spider')2 | ||||||||||||||
| Titles: | The Great, Her Ladyship | ||||||||||||||
The great she-spider who haunted Cirith Ungol
A creature of spider-shape, of the spawn of Ungoliant, who dwelt in the mountains on the western borders of Mordor.
Footnotes
| 1 | The earliest definite date we have for Shelob is c.1000 (Second Age), because we know that she occupied Cirith Ungol before Sauron began construction of Barad-dûr. Various lines of evidence suggest that she arrived there after fleeing the climactic end to the First Age a thousand years earlier. The suggestion here is that she originally occupied Beleriand, and fled southwards to escape its destruction. |
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| 2 | If 'Shelob' were an Elvish name, the 'e' sound would be short, giving a pronunciation something like 'shehlob'. Her name, though, is a compound of two English words, 'She-lob', so we have assumed a standard English pronunciation. |
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