Question Concerning Shelob
 

About the second or third time watching RotK in theaters I noticed something that has been puzzling me. When Shelob finally corners Frodo and stabs him, isn't Frodo wearing his mithril coat? How does Shelob get through it? (another thing, spiders don't "sting" people like bees, do they?) In case you're thinking that Shelob stabbed Frodo <I>above</I> the mithril, when Sam rescues Frodo, on the shoulder not sporting the wound from the morgul blade, there is a yellow-ish wound, which is from Shelob, that would clearly have been covered by the mithril, the wound being below the shoulder. So anyway, I was just wondering if anyone has an explanation or if I'm just hallucinating.

One of the worlds greatest mysteries to me aswell buddy. Maybe overlooked by JRR or someone.

Shelobs stinger is pointed right? so maybe it was small enough to get trhough the holes then just widen around it, or maybe it went through the hole where the cave troll left a little hole...

Nope. The cave troll "stabbed" Frodo on his other side, definitely not anywhere near his shoulder. I think that Shelob might have gotten some part of the stinger through the mithril. If you have a point that can fit partially through the chain mail, and if you apply enough pressure, you can cause a rather nasty-looking wound, possibly even like the one that Frodo had.<P>There's another thread on this subject, in this same Forum, called "Branded in the Tower of Cirith Ungol."<p>[ 10:05 AM January 20, 2004: Message edited by: Estelyn Telcontar ]