okay,so fianlly i am presenting an article about spiders. i hate it to work under pressure
also i hope, that the size is okay ( for 2 newsletter pages). of course i didn´t pay attention to the size when writing, so in the end i had to cut it down again. now it´s still more, so if if it´s still too much, just cut the parts that are underlined.
i am sure, the text needs a lot of editing. i am sorry for you, joe, since obviously you have to do this unpleasant work. feel free to change whatever seems to be in need of changing.
Arachnomania in Middle-earth
I am starting with a column, that wants to give you some insight into Tolkien´s life and his works, given the topic is not totally alien to our beloved card game.
There are many spiders in the middle-earth tales, some of them quite prominent. Ungoliant is the one, who is incited by Morgoth to destroy the trees of Valinor, that gave light to the world. In The Hobbit there are the Great Spiders of Mirkwood, that brought Bilbo and the dwarves into a dangerous situation. Then there is Shelob in The Lord of the Rings, who lies in wait for Frodo and Sam at Cirith Ungol. She is also known as a descendant of Ungoliant and as the ancestress of the Mirkwood spiders; thus she is the genealogical link between the very first spider Ungoliant down to the lesser creatures we all know. Finally also the tale of Roverandom is not devoid of spiders: masses of them are living on the moon, where they are chasing the moon beams and devour everything that encounters them.
So one might think of a love for spiders of Tolkien as a writer, since his use of those creatures extends beyond having some scary monsters in a thrilling tale.
Spiders in Mythologie
All over the world spiders take an important role in the myths of various cultures. Best known to us is probably the tale of the girl Arachne, who has dares to challenge Athene for a duel at the loom. After the woman has won, the godess became enraged in such a manner, that she transformed her into a spider, so she is able to pursue her artistic skill for all eternity.
The Myths of the Hopi Indians know a spider woman called Kogyangwuti. She servant to the earth creating sound, motion and life on it and also filling it with meaning and purpose.
There are other indian tales telling of a spider, who brought fire to the world, or who gives shape to all things and holds them together with her net.
Dream catchers have become very common during the last years in our sleeping rooms. They are rooted in an indian legend, where a man, who is haunted by evil powers in his sleep, is instructed by a spider to built a dream catcher, which will watch over his sleep letting the good dreams pass through only.
In the mythology of India the spider´s web is a symbol for Maya, the divine power that both sets up and shapes the world. One presupposes the other continually. Thus in the middle of the web there is a spider, stylized to a horizontal eight, a symbol for infinity. The radial-symmetric designed web corresponds with the cosmic order, in the middle of which the spider as a weaver keeps alive this order and cares for its onward renewal.
In the norse (northern germanic) mythology there are the Norns: three females, who are weaving the fates of all livings. Urd is responsible for starting the thread of life (reflecting the past), while Werdandi weaves the individual pattern of life into the thread (the presence), and finally Skuld cuts it in due time (the future).
There is another spider woman in the myth of Atlantis. After the downfall of the continent it is her task to lead the inhabitants to a new home.
Finally there are oceanic legends speaking of a god Nareau, who appears in two different manifestations: on the one hand as an old spider, who creates, and on the other hand as a young spider who shapes.
So far this rather rough overview over some myths, which shows, that the spider as a mytholocial figure is know to a very large extent among all sorts of cultures. Some recurring motifs are eyecatching, such as the spider being a woman with creative power.
Of course there are two sides of every coin. Especially during the middle ages the spider becomes demonized as a sort of witch animal. One might think that a female creative power does not fit Christian patterns. The superstitious belief in central europe tells of women, who are able to change into spiders carrying off virgins used for ritual sacrifices. Also the Anglo-Saxons know of impish spiders.
In the japanese mythology there is a gigantic spider demon, who is defeated by the fabled hero Kintaro.
This negative picture of spiders is also used in modern psychanalysis. Thus Sigmund Freud takes the spider as a symbol for the devouring womanliness, that lures and excites, but then prevents thriving. The very same idea was used before by Friedrich Nietzsche, calling god a spider.
Spiders in Middle-earth
We may assume with a safe conscience, that Tolkien was aware of most of those traditions about spiders in mythology. Also his idea of creating a sort of modern myth was fundamentally based on transforming conceptions of reality, that have been reflected in myth and legend, from the past into the presence.
However, having a first glance at spiders in Middle-earth, it is hard to find any parallels between them and any mytholgical ideas as described above. Of course noone expects Tolkien just to copy or plagiarize. On a second glance we will find, that his idea of spiders is a true mythological one, mixing characteristics and habits of real spiders with qualities and attributes ascribed to them in various legends.
Let´s have a first look on his biography, which is also often taken as a proof of Tolkien´s attitude towards spiders. It is known, that he was bitten by a tarantula, when he was still a baby in South Africa. For Michael Coren, a biographer of Tolkien, this was the very reason for his arachnophobia, which is reflected in his works. This argument is rather weak, especially since we have a letter from Tolkien to W.H. Auden, where he states, that his remembrance of this event is existing only because of other people telling him about it. He even likes those little creatures, and whenever he finds one in the bathroom, he helps it to find a way out into freedom. Also for Tolkien as an author it was very important to create stories totally disengaged from his personal situation and interests.
Of course the subconscious is not to be neglected, and it may have had some influence to a certain degree. Still it´s much more reasonable to assume, that Tolkien as an expert in myths of all sorts wanted to create his own mythological spider figure. It had to be decided, if his spider would play a postive or negative role. I couldn´t find any explanation, but obviously he accepted the prevailing opinion of his time and surrounding: spiders are loathsome, evil and causing horror. Especially for The Hobbit these attributes came in handy and he used them on full purpose.
Above all it is Ungoliant, who embodies many aspects of a mythological spider appropriately, while as such she meets the requirements of the story. Her gluttony is insatiable, when she consumed the light of Laurelin and Telperion. Her deadly venom is capable of poisoning the trees incurably, after all a creation of Yavanna, not the least among the Valie. There are not many besides her that have been able to imbue Morgoth with fear. Besides the Dark Enemy it is mainly her who brings sorrow to the world. She is known for leading a life in solitude, because she prefers her own company above all creatures in the world. Since we know about her offspring, there had to be some male partner once. But speaking of spiders the idea of having devoured the male after mating is close at hand. It may have been similar with Shelob (though never mentioned in the books).
Many spiders are active at night preferring the darkness. This characteristic was suitable, since destroying light the predominant feature of Ungoliant and the moon spiders in Roverandom. On the other hand light, especially when having its origin in the prime light of the Two Trees, is their worst enemy: it is neither Sams heroic vigour nor the blade of Sting, but the Phial of Galadriel, filled with the light of Earendil, that made Shelob give way and thus vulnerable. Another convenient characteristic of Shelob is infiltrating her victims with a poison of a special qualitiy, that makes them seemingly dead. Ideal for Tolkien to create some climax in the storyline.
Names and their meaning
Tolkien was a true master of inventing names. Creating a new word for something has to meet many requirements. Of course there has to be a meaning of the word. The sound of the word has to match the meaning of it. While the word has to be alive within the larger context of a language, it may not be just a synonym. While the invented name tells you something of what it names, it should also hide something and thus make the reader curious to learn more about it. Ideal is a mixture of both the languages of reality and the languages of the created fiction. Finally the invented word must follow to a certain degree the grammar of the language.
We know the names of two spiders: Ungoliant ans Shelob.
To find a translation of Ungoliant is rather difficult. “Ungol” means “spider” in Sindarin . But there is also a Quenya word “ungwe”, that describes shadow, darkness. Thanks to an older sript we know, that the name “Ungoliant” is a development of “Ungweliant” or “Ungwe Liante”. Now it is interesting, that “Liante” means spider in Quenya. The exact translation into Sindarin would be “Delduthling”. So it is most likely, that “ungol” was never a genuine Sindarin name for spider, but that the Quenya “Ungweliant” was taken as a loanword. However, the name of Ungoliant reflects “spider” and “darkness”.
From the beginning Ungoliant was also called “Gwerlum” or “Wirilome” (“Gloomweaver”), which is very fitting, since the english word “gloom” reflects both dimness as well as sadness. And though there is no philological proof, the sound of –lum and lome reminds of the english word loom. That leaves gwe- and wiri- as a first syllabe, and both have a significant similarity of sound to the scotish “weird” or the german “werden”. So Ungoliant also becomes a weaver of fate filled with sorrow and gloom.
To decipher the name of Shelob is much easier. Tolkien himself explained it in one of his letters to his son Christopher: “Do you think Shelob is a good name for a monstrous spider creature? It is of course only “she+lob” (=spider) , but written as one, it seems to be quite noisome.” Tolkien quite liked the german translation Kankra, which reminds of the english and latin word “cancer” with the typical female suffix –a.
Finally even The Hobbit is not devoid of Tolkien´s love for etymologies. When Bilbo sings his taunting verses on the spiders, he calls them “lazy lob”, “attercop” and “tomnoddy”. No need to explain the first. Both “attercop” and “tomnoddy” are oldenglish names for spider as well as for a foolish person. Finally “edderkopp” means spider in Norwegian.