Shelob

The plan is foiled when Samwise Gamgee temporarily blinds Shelob with the Phial of Galadriel, and then severely wounds her with Frodo's Elvish sword, Sting.

Shelob is described in The Two Towers as an "evil thing in spider-form...[the] last child of Ungoliant to trouble the unhappy world",[T 1] living high in the Ephel Dúath mountains on the borders of Mordor.

Her hide is tough enough to resist sword-strokes, and the strings of her webs are likewise resilient to ordinary blades, though the magical Sting manages to cut them.

[1][T 1][T 2] She is introduced as both evil and ancient: "But still she was there, who was there before Sauron, and before the first stone of Barad-dûr; and she served none but herself, drinking the blood of Elves and Men, bloated and grown fat with endless brooding on her feasts, weaving webs of shadow; for all living things were her food, and her vomit darkness".

In the story, Gollum deliberately led Frodo and Sam into her lair, planning to recover the One Ring once she had consumed the hobbits.

Seeking to crush Sam, she instead impaled herself upon Sting; and, being evil, was nearly blinded by the Phial of Galadriel, containing pure light from the Silmarils; whereupon she fled.

[7] Chance stresses Shelob's "gluttony", one of the traditional seven deadly sins, consisting of an "insatiable appetite"; her laziness, since the Orcs bring her food; and her "lechery" with many bastard offspring.

Chance compares Shelob with the guardian of the gateway to Hell, noting that in John Milton's Paradise Lost, Satan mated with his daughter, Sin, their offspring being Death, constantly lustful for his mother:[7][8] but Tolkien in one place describes Shelob as Sauron's cat rather than his daughter.

"[5] Milbank states that Shelob symbolises "an ancient maternal power that swallows up masculine identity and autonomy", threatening a "castrating hold [which] is precisely what the sexual fetishist fears, and seeks to control".

[5] The Tolkien scholar Jane Chance mentions "Sam's penetration of her belly with his sword", noting that this may be an appropriate and symbolic way of ending her production of "bastards".

[10] The Tolkien scholar Brenda Partridge described the hobbits' protracted struggle with Shelob as rife with sexual symbolism.

[13] In Peter Jackson's film trilogy, Shelob's appearance is delayed until the third movie, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.