What was Shelob, and more importantly, what was Ungoliant?

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by zxcvbn

It shows that even the Creator ain't perfect. Or maybe that evil is meant to be a part of creation since the struggle between good and evil enhances its beauty.
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It depends on what you call 'perfect' and if that is a human concept. To explain that better, hopefully, Eru is beyond all that kind of thing, Eru simply 'is'. So Eru is light and darkness and he was capable of producing beings as different as Varda and Melkor, but good/evil do not come into it.

In many ways that would tie in very well indeed with Tolkien's own struggles to reconcile his own God who could on the one hand create everything but on the other could also set the boundary of Death. The latter sounds like a very bad thing but it is 'all part of God's plan' and all that. Just as Melkor and the possibility that Melkor might introduce discordancy by being given free will was all part of what Eru made.