LOTR: Did Sauron Know About Shelob, the Giant Spider?

Fans of The Lord of the Rings and arachnophobes everywhere will likely never forget their first time seeing Shelob, the giant spider who attacks Frodo and Sam on their journey in The Return of the King film. This disgusting creature is one of the most fearsome beasts the hobbits must overcome, as she’s made her home in the dark tunnel which leads into Mordor. Considering that this over-sized tarantula dwells on the doorstep of the most dangerous place in Middle-Earth, it begs the question: does Sauron know of her existence?

Sauron is the Dark Lord of Mordor, and has dominion and borderline omnipotent knowledge of nearly all the going-ons in that region. This is exactly what makes the hobbits’ journey into Mordor so dangerous, since nowhere in that dark realm could ever be considered truly safe. Because Sauron is so powerful, it seems odd that he would allow a massive spider creature to live on his borders, especially when she dines on unlucky Orcs. While Peter Jackson’s films don’t give too many answers on this front, the original Lord of the Rings novels provide significantly more information.

Where Does Shelob Come From?

Like all the best monsters in Middle-Earth, Shelob’s origins can be traced back to far before the events of LOTR. In the early days of Tolkien’s mythology, there was another massive spider-creature who dwelt within Middle-Earth: Ungoliant. It’s unclear how exactly this terrible beast came to be, but she made her home in the depths of a dark ravine and spun black webs that devoured any light they came across. It was here that she was discovered by Morgoth, the original Dark Lord and Sauron’s master. Morgoth desired to destroy the land of the god-like Valar (of which he was a disgraced member), and he recruited Ungoliant to his cause with the promise of a feast that would finally sate her great hunger.

Under the cover of Ungoliant’s dark webs, Morgoth and his new ally snuck into Valinor, the home of the Valar. There, they destroyed the Two Trees, which had brought peace and prosperity to the entire realm with their heavenly glow. Ungoliant herself sucked the light from the very roots of the Trees, growing even more monstrous as their power filled her insatiable belly. With the dark deed completed, she and Morgoth fled back to Middle-Earth.

Feeding on the Two Trees had indeed made Ungoliant more powerful, but her hunger for light remained all the same. She soon desired to consume the three Silmarils which Morgoth had also stolen from Valinor. When he refused, she trapped him in her webs and prepared to devour him and the jewels. The Dark Lord was saved by his Balrogs, and Ungoliant took up a dwelling in a mountain range which would later be named Ereb Gorgoroth: the Mountains of Terror. Here, she bred a terrible offspring of spiders, whose kind would later wreak havoc on the world. Among these was most likely Shelob, who, at some point in the many thousands of years between the reign of Ungoliant and LOTR, made her way into the mountains near Mordor.

Shelob in The Lord of the Rings

In The Lord of the Rings, Shelob is encountered by Frodo and Sam on their quest into Mordor. In the original novels, this occurs at the end of The Two Towers, though in the films it happens smack-dab in the middle of The Return of the King. The giant spider is first discovered, however, by another character entirely: Gollum. Sixty years before Frodo embarks on his journey, Gollum ventures out of his cave in search of the One Ring which Bilbo stole from him. For years, he wanders throughout Middle-Earth on the hunt for his precious. Before long, his journey takes him too close to Mordor, and it is here he is captured and brought before Sauron.

Sauron tortures Gollum, and upon learning the names “Baggins” and “Shire,” he releases him back into the wild. It is on this journey home that Gollum discovers Shelob’s cave and the secret entrance into Mordor, but not before coming face to face with the monster who guards it. Shelob, however, is uninterested in Gollum due to his small size, and she allows him to live as long as he promises to bring better meals for her to feast on. When Gollum finally leaves her spider-hole, he still remembers his promise, and so he decides to lure Sam and Frodo into her trap.

Gollum guides the two hobbits into Shelob’s tunnel, promising them that it is the only safe way into Mordor. By the time they are aware of his treachery, it’s too late. Shelob awakens and attacks Frodo, but he fends her off with the light of the Phial of Galadriel. Unfortunately, he is again attacked outside the cave, leaving him paralyzed. Thankfully, Sam arrives in the nick of time and fights off the great spider, mortally wounding her and sending her slinking back into the darkness. Gollum escapes, and while Sam initially believes Frodo to be dead, he soon learns that his master is still alive and in the captivity of Orcs.

Does Sauron Know About Shelob?

In The Lord of the Rings books, Tolkien makes it clear that not only does Sauron know of Shelob’s existence within his realm, he actually prefers that she stays there. As Tolkien writes in the chapter entitled “Shelob’s Lair” in The Two Towers:

… [Sauron] knew where she lurked. It pleased him that [Shelob] should dwell there hungry but unabated in malice, a more sure watch upon that ancient path into his land than any other that his skill could have devised… If now and again Shelob caught [Orcs] to stay her appetite, she was welcome: he could spare them.

Shelob might be a primordial evil who’s dwelt within Middle-Earth almost as long as Sauron himself, but the two have very different ambitions of evil. For Shelob, much like her mother, desires only to eat and grow fatter, and has no notion of lordship or warfare. Because of this, Sauron welcomes her presence in his land, even going so far as to refer to her as “his cat.”

The Orcs of Mordor seem to be equally aware of the giant spider, since the ones who take Frodo to the Tower of Cirith Ungol demonstrate a strong understanding of Shelob’s eating and hunting habits, as well as a few of their comrades who were stupid enough to wander into her webs. Until Sam and Frodo, it’s unlikely that Shelob had ever been truly challenged, since the slowness and dullness of Orcs probably made them very easy to catch. Because of this, Sauron was negligent in his watch over her cave, believing that no one would ever dare to enter his realm via that path. This ignorance, however, proved to be his downfall, as well as Shelob’s, since two little hobbits were ready to risk everything they had in order to transport the One Ring to Mount Doom.