[Arvegil145]

What do you think of this passage from the chapter 'The Numenorean Catastrophe & End of "Physical" Aman' in the Nature of Middle-earth:

NB Melkor (inside Eä) only really becomes evil after the achievement of Eä in which he played a great and powerful part (and in its early stages in accord with the fundamental Design of Eru) . . . It was the matter of Arda (as a whole but particularly of Imbar) that he had corrupted. The Stars were not (or most of them were not) affected.

He became more and more incapable (like Ungoliantë!) of extricating himself and finding scape in the vastness of Eä, and became more and more physically involved in it.

Particularly the bolded parts - I find it curious that Tolkien brings up Ungoliant as a comparison to Melkor when talking about Melkor extricating himself and finding scape in the vastness of Eä.

And before that there is the reference to only the matter of Arda (Imbar especially) being corrupted by him, while the Stars were not (or most of them were not) affected. One must wonder why he felt that he needed to add the caveat of most of them not being affected, right before introducing Ungoliant out of the blue in the next paragraph.

Obviously what I'm getting at here is that I think Tolkien might have reimagined Ungoliant as being one of those 'alien' Ainur that Melkor managed to seduce at first - when he switched to the RW conception that is.

Others there were, countless to our thought though known each and numbered in the mind of Iluvatar, whose labour lay elsewhere and in other regions and histories of the Great Tale, amid stars remote and worlds beyond the reach of the furthest thought. But of these others we know nothing and cannot know, though the Valar of Arda, maybe, remember them all.

- MR, 'Myths Transformed', 'Text II', p. 378

Of course, that last sentence somewhat contradicts my idea, but Ungoliant's origins were always mysterious, even in-universe - so that neither Elves nor Men indeed knew anything about her origins. But the Valar (of Arda) might have.

And then there's this:

...and that Melkor was filled with new wrath at the rising of the Moon. Therefore for a while he left Ambar again and went out into the Outer Night, and gathered to him some of those spirits who would answer his call.

- MR, 'Myths Transformed', 'Text II', p. 383


Again, all of this stuff is from the late '50s, from Tolkien's reimagined legendarium where the Sun existed from the beginning, and Ea was the universe as we know it now (i.e. stars being alien suns, etc.) with Arda being the Solar system (Ambar/Imbar was Earth).