The Attack of Shelob

The Attack of Shelob occurs at the climax of the hobbits' passage through the Ephel Dúath, the Mountains of Shadow, as they approach the pass of Cirith Ungol. It is the moment when Gollum's long-nurtured plot to recover the Ring by sacrificing his companions reaches its crisis, and when Samwise Gamgee, the Ring-bearer's servant, is thrust into a role he never sought: the sole guardian of the Quest.

Background and Gollum's Treachery

Gollum had led Frodo and Sam through the Morgul Vale and up the perilous Stairs of Cirith Ungol, all the while nursing a secret compact with the monstrous spider that dwelt in the tunnel ahead. The narrative reveals that Gollum had worshipped Shelob in past days, promising to bring her food, and that he now intended to deliver the hobbits to her. In the dark of the tunnel, after Frodo and Sam become separated, Gollum springs on Sam from behind, clamping a hand over his mouth and wrapping a leg about him, hissing: "She'll get the other. O yes, Shelob will get him, not Sméagol: he promised; he won't hurt Master at all." Sam fights free, breaking his staff over Gollum's arm, and the creature flees back into the darkness. But the delay is fatal: by the time Sam rushes out of the tunnel, Frodo is already in Shelob's grip.

The Assault and Frodo's Fall

Emerging from the tunnel's upper exit, Frodo runs heedlessly up the path toward the pass, his heart lifted by the sudden hope of escape. Shelob, however, has anticipated this. She issues from a black hole under the cliff, a creature "more loathly than any he had ever beheld, horrible beyond the horror of an evil dream": a vast spider-shaped body, bloated and luminous beneath, with clustering eyes and legs armed with steel-like spines. She moves with horrible speed, and before Frodo can react she stings him in the neck with her venom. He falls face-upward on the ground, bound in cords wound from ankle to shoulder, and Shelob begins to drag him away.

Sam, arriving too late, sees his master lying helpless and the monster bending over him. He seizes Frodo's fallen sword, Sting, and charges. In a desperate onslaught he stabs Shelob's foot, shearing away a claw, and then thrusts upward into her clustered eyes, blinding one. Shelob heaves her vast belly above him, but Sam holds Sting point-upward, and as she drives down upon him the elven-blade pierces deep into her flesh. No such anguish has Shelob ever known. She recoils, writhing, and Sam, nearly swooning, draws out the Phial of Galadriel. Its white torch-blaze sears her wounded head, and she crawls away into her lair, defeated for the moment.

Sam's Choice and the Taking of the Ring

Sam crawls back to Frodo and finds him pale, cold, and apparently dead. No breath stirs, no heartbeat can be felt. In black despair Sam composes his master's body, laying his own sword beside him and wrapping the elven-cloak about him. Then he faces the terrible choice: to stay and die with Frodo, or to take up the Ring and continue the Quest alone. He remembers his own words at the start of the journey—"I have something to do before the end"—and the Council's charge that the errand must not fail. "What? Me, alone, go to the Crack of Doom and all?" he asks himself, but the answer comes: "The errand must not fail." He undoes the clasp at Frodo's neck, kisses his cold forehead, and draws the chain over his head. The weight of the Ring bows him to the ground, but he rises, takes Sting and the Phial, and stumbles on into the growing dark.

Consequences and Narrative Significance

The attack has three immediate consequences. First, Frodo is left for dead in the hands of the orcs of Cirith Ungol, who carry his body into the tower—a development that will lead to Sam's desperate rescue mission. Second, Sam becomes the Ring-bearer, however briefly, and must bear the burden alone through the land of Mordor. Third, Gollum's treachery is fully exposed, yet his role is not yet played out: the Ring's destruction will ultimately depend on his final, desperate act. The scene also deepens the horror of Mordor's defenses, revealing that Sauron's realm is guarded not only by orcs and fortresses but by ancient, pre-Sauronic evils like Shelob, "last child of Ungoliant to trouble the unhappy world." Sam's solitary stand against the spider—armed only with an elven-blade, a phial of light, and an indomitable will—marks his transformation from a gardener's assistant into a figure of heroic endurance, a change that will sustain him through the trials to come.