Ungoliant

[Pitchwife]

I've no problem with the armour - Morgoth could easily have created it as part of his fana, and as the attack on the Trees was an overt act of war against the Valar, it's not quite unfitting.
The apparent sword on Howe's painting puzzled me too, until I realized that it's actually meant to be a (somewhat shortish) spear - if you look closely, the blade is to the right, either partially obscured by Telperion or piercing its bark, and what looks like a hilt is rather a crossguard for parrying.
As for Ungoliant, I find Howe's representation acceptable, but I'd have preferred something more shadowy - a mass of darkness with disturbing suggestions of crawling legs and clusters of eyes. Monsters are always much more frightening if their precise anatomy is hinted at rather than shown in detail - cf Lovecraft's Cthulhu, who is an unnerving presence as long as he's offscreen but turns into a surrealistic pizza frutti di mare when his appearance is actually described.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Pitchwife

The apparent sword on Howe's painting puzzled me too, until I realized that it's actually meant to be a (somewhat shortish) spear - if you look closely, the blade is to the right, either partially obscured by Telperion or piercing its bark, and what looks like a hilt is rather a crossguard for parrying.

I didn't notice the tree on the far right, nor did I realise spears could have guards like that near the point. Speaking of points, it looks like ol' Melkor needs to sharpen that thing, if it's a spear.

[Pitchwife]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

I didn't notice the tree on the far right, nor did I realise spears could have guards like that near the point. Speaking of points, it looks like ol' Melkor needs to sharpen that thing, if it's a spear.

Several medieval types of spear had that kind of thing; some even had additional blades protruding at an angle below the main blade, approaching the form of a trident (see here and here).
Speaking of points, as I said, the tip of the blade is either hidden behind Telperion's bole or stuck in the bark; but I agree Mr Howe's treatment of this point is more than a little awkward, and you have to look twice to see what he meant.

[Gorthaur the Cruel]

Y'all have to wonder if Ungoliant could have destroyed the Girdle of Melian and Melian's physical form itself had not the Balrogs whiplashed her. We are told in the Silmarillion that she was stayed by the might of Melian, but then this was AFTER she got her eight-legged, gluttonous a$$ beaten by the Balrogs. If She was able to subdue Melkor (thanks to the powerful Trees' sap she drunk dry), I don't see why she couldn't single-handedly destroy Doriath, which was guarded by one Maia. Remember Tulkas and the rest of the Valar were entagled in her darkness during their pursuit, and the horn of Orome faltered. Great is her might, this Ungoliant.

[Raynor]

We are told in the Silmarillion that she was stayed by the might of Melian, but then this was AFTER she got her eight-legged, gluttonous a$$ beaten by the Balrogs. If She was able to subdue Melkor (thanks to the powerful Trees' sap she drunk dry), I don't see why she couldn't single-handedly destroy Doriath, which was guarded by one Maia. Remember Tulkas and the rest of the Valar were entagled in her darkness during their pursuit, and the horn of Orome faltered. Great is her might, this Ungoliant.

Well, we are only told that the balrogs pursued her, not that they actually fought her. Since she approached Doriath quite soon after that, her power was pretty much intact, yet still no match for Melian.