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Originally Posted by Formendacil
Given that Eärendil bore a Silmaril, if I had to speculate, the obvious answer would seem to be that the Jem of Fëanor probably played a role--and the "white light" might be connected thereto. Exactly how Eärendil used the Silmaril is another question--but we do know that the touch of the Holy Jewels is painful to evil. As the greatest of all dragons, with the cognomen of "the Black", it seems reasonable to speculate that Ancalagon might have found the touch of the Silmaril especially painful.
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I imagine it would be a bit like Sam vs. Shelob in Cirith Ungol, except that he could fly (by the boat) and the silmaril was much more deadly to evil.
Just look at what happened with Sam:
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Originally Posted by TT, The choices of master Samwise
As if his indomitable spirit had set its potency in motion, the glass blazed suddenly like a white torch in his hand. It flamed like a star that leaping from the firmament sears the dark air with intolerable light. No such terror out of heaven had ever burned in Shelob's face before. The beams of it entered into her wounded head and scored it with unbearable pain, and the dreadful infection of light spread from eye to eye. She fell back beating the air with her forelegs, her sight blasted by inner lightnings, her mind in agony. Then turning her maimed head away, she rolled aside and began to crawl, claw by claw, towards the opening in the dark cliff behind.
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Just think: If that's what the power of a little of the trapped light of Ëarendil's star does, imagine what the real thing does, imagine what the Silmaril, the source of its light can do.
Standard dark-creature-slaying, I think.
Also, when Ungoliant is mentioned, she "weaves webs of darkness" or something to that effect, and you can see that se is thea sort of primeval spirit of darkness. And as Ancalagon (also associated with Morgoth) was called "the Black" this certainly suggest that not just his colour is black, but the very essence of his being.
And I'm sure however much more powerful Ancalagon was to Shelob, the Silmaril, the source of the light of which only a tiny, tiny fraction could do such a thing to Shelob would still have a similar, if not much worse effect on him.