The Great Evils of the Third Age

[Nikkolas]

So diverting this thread off a bit I was reading the Balrog vs. Witch-king topic and wanted to discuss something. I am guilty of liking to debate "power levels" in Tolkien and one character I was quite fond of when I first read TTT was Shelob.

She was kinda lame in the movie but the book says:
[i]"But Shelob was not as dragons are, no softer spot had she save only her eyes. Knobbed and pitted with corruption was her age-old hide, but ever thickened from within with layer on layer of evil growth. The blade scored it with a dreadful gash, but those hideous folds could not be pierced by any strength of men, not though Elf or Dwarf should forge the steel or the hand of Beren or of Túrin wield it"

That is some incredibly high praise for her strength. Short of saying frickin' Hurin could not harm her, I can't think of how else it could have been framed more impressively. What's more she is the child of Ungoliant, the monstrosity that nearly consumed Melkor.


I just wondered, since it specifically mentions she is unlike dragons, how do people reckon her power compared to Smaug, the other "last of his kind" of the First Age?