Silmarillion - Chapter 08 - Of the Darkening of Valinor

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

Yes, Ungoliant does seem to be some how related to those beings that were around before Arda was. And she does seem neutral, serving only her own appetite, but the Ainur were the holy ones, and the offspring of Ilúvatar’s thought. Was Ungoliant the product of some darker mood as one of the Ainur, or was she perhaps something else? Could there have been other beings created that were of his thought, but not holy? Or did some exist independant of Ilúvatar’s thought altogether? I doubt the later.

Originally Posted by Of the Darkening of Valinor

In a ravine she lived, and took shape as a spider of monstrous form, weaving her black webs in a cleft of the mountains. There she sucked up all the light that she could find, and spun it forth again in dark nets of strangling gloom, until no light more could come to her abode; and she was famished.

Also….

A cloak of darkness she wove about them when Melkor and Ungoliant set forth: an Unlight, in which things seemed to be no more, and which eyes could not pierce, for it was void.

Ungoliant took the shape of a spider. We have previously been told that the Valar could take on a shape, or put on the raiment of the Earth. But this in itself is not solid evidence that she was not terrestrial, putting aside the elves speculation. After all, she could be a sort of primeval skin changer. What is more interesting to me is the talents that she has, they do seem supernatural. She seems a bit of an anti-Varda. And like a mirror of Varda and Manwe’s productive relationship, Ungoliant effectively aids Melkor, but for her own selfish reasons.

Interesting too, is how Tolkien chose to have her consume light, of all things. She perhaps can not destroy it, but swallows it up, concealing it, giving off her Unlight ‘in which things seem to be no more, and which eyes could not pierce, for it was void’. This seems somehow in opposition to Ilúvatar, a type of illusory uncreation. Notice the use of the word 'void' as well. It is a small ‘v’ here, and yet I suspect that Ungoliant knows ‘the Void’ very well. My guess is that she is a creature of it.