Evil Maia
 

Who do you think was more evil-Ungoliant or Thuringwethil?

I'm moving this thread to join the opinion topics on the Novices and Newcomers forum - please read and post there.

Ungoliant nearly overcame Melkor, if it wasn't for the help of the Balrogs she might have. She also consumed many of the great jewels of Feanors kindred as well as sucking out the life of the two trees which is probably one of the most evil things done in the first age. what did Thuringwethil do that was as evil as these things?

Hey people,

I0ve always thought about this as beyond good and evil. There are ays to be good or to be evil. In case of Sauron: he is evil and fights the 'good'. Eomer, Aragorn, Gandalf etc.: They are the good guys and fight evil.
Yet there is Ungoliant and I deem him more evil than any other for he fights both good and evil, just like Shelob, his offspring!! In this case his counterpart would be the one that doesn't fight either good or evil and I think that would be best personified by Bombadil!

That's my view on things.
greetings,
lathspell

Just to let you know lathspell, Ungoliant is female

Thuringwethil was just a gofer. She carried messages for Sauron, unquestioningly loyal to him. I seriously doubt she did anything evil worth noting, and that was done was by Sauron's orders. In fact, she even did some good (inadvertantly).

Ungoliant, however, was her own boss. Not only that, she was a machine of destruction. She consumed the Two Trees and the gems of the Noldor, causing the Noldor to revolt. Without her, Ea would be a much happier place.

Yes, indeed Castamir! It would just a figure of speech but you are right, of course!

In my eyes, Ungoliant was one of the most evil - when not the most evil - creature that ever walked on Middle-Earth. As written above, Thuringwethil was but a messenger. I do not think one can compare her to the lust and malice of Ungoliant, who definitely serves no one but herself (this is notable, because in Valaquenta, Tolkien ranks Sauron inferior to Melkor, because the former in a first time was only a servant to the latter and did not pursue aims of his own). Killing herself represents IMHO a supreme evilness, and I wonder if Ungoliant should not be ranked first among the evil creatures of Tolkien's world.
Greetings,