Shelob was a monstrous spider of the Third Age, the greatest offspring of the primordial Ungoliant, who made her lair in the passes of Cirith Ungol on the borders of Mordor. For long ages she preyed on any creature that wandered into her webs, and Sauron tolerated her presence as an incidental guard of the mountain pass, even referring to her as his “cat.”
During the War of the Ring the treacherous Gollum led Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee into her lair; she paralyzed Frodo with her sting before Sam drove her off, wounding her grievously with the sword Sting and the light of the Phial of Galadriel. She appears in Peter Jackson's The Return of the King and, menacing a young Isildur, in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
Key events in the life and history of Shelob.
Key people, factions, places, and events connected to Shelob.
Related entities surfaced from across the OLN network.
Where Shelob appears across works and media.
Discussion, insights, and theories from contributors.
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