Shelob and Frodo

The attack of Shelob upon Frodo Baggins in the dark tunnel of Cirith Ungol is the single most direct physical confrontation between the Ring-bearer and a servant of the Dark Lord before the climax at Mount Doom, and it nearly ends the Quest in failure. The encounter is not a battle of wills or a test of resolve but a brutal, predatory assault that reduces Frodo to a helpless, bound corpse, saved only by the desperate intervention of Samwise Gamgee. The event crystallizes the peril of the path Gollum has chosen for them and reveals the ancient, monstrous power that lurks in the high passes of Mordor, a power that serves no master but its own hunger.

The Ambush in the Tunnel

After Gollum leads Frodo and Sam into the tunnel of Torech Ungol, the lair of Shelob, the hobbits are plunged into an utter and impenetrable darkness, a black vapour that brings blindness not only to the eyes but to the mind. The air is stagnant, heavy, and filled with a foul stench. As they grope forward, they sense a resistance thicker than the foul air, brushing against long tentacles or hanging growths. The tunnel forks, and Gollum, having fulfilled his treacherous purpose, abandons them. From behind comes a gurgling, bubbling noise and a long venomous hiss. Sam, remembering the Lady Galadriel's gift, cries out for Frodo to use the Phial. Frodo holds aloft the star-glass, and its silver flame, like a minute heart of dazzling light, causes the darkness to recede. The light reveals the menace: two great clusters of many-windowed eyes, monstrous and abominable, filled with a pale deadly fire and a hideous delight, gloating over their trapped prey. Frodo, holding the star aloft and the bright sword Sting advanced, walks steadily down to meet the eyes. The eyes waver and draw back, quailing before the star that has descended into the very earth. They turn away, and a great bulk heaves its huge shadow in between.

The Web and the Sting

Believing they have escaped, Frodo and Sam turn back towards the tunnel's end, only to find the outlet blocked by a vast web, each thread as thick as rope, dense and impervious. Sam's sword cannot cut it, but Sting, an elven-blade forged in the dark ravines of Beleriand, shears through the cords like a scythe through grass. A great rent is made, and the trap is broken. Wild joy fills Frodo's mind. He springs out, shouting, running heedlessly up the path towards the pass of Cirith Ungol. He is unaware of his peril. Shelob, who has many exits from her lair, has not been defeated. She issues from a black hole of shadow under the cliff, a loathly shape more horrible than any evil dream: a spider huger than the great hunting beasts, with a vast bloated bag of a body, legs with knobbed joints and steel-spine hairs, and a head with great horns and clustering, remorseless eyes. She moves with horrible speed, and she is between Sam and his master. She fixes all her intent upon Frodo, running heedless up the path. With hideous speed she comes behind him and with one swift stroke stings him in the neck. Frodo falls, bound in cords wound about him from ankle to shoulder, and the monster begins to drag him away.

Sam's Charge and the Phial's Power

Sam, having fought off Gollum's treacherous attack, rushes up to see his master lying face upward on the ground, bound, with the monster bending over him. He seizes Frodo's fallen sword, Sting, and charges. With a yell, he springs forward, and the shining sword bites upon Shelob's foot, shearing away a claw. He stabs at her clustered eyes, and one great eye goes dark. He slashes the elven-blade across her vast belly, scoring a dreadful gash, but her hide is too thick to be pierced by any strength of men. She heaves up her great bulk and drives herself down upon him. Sam, holding the elven-blade point upwards, is crushed slowly to the ground as Shelob, with the driving force of her own cruel will, thrusts herself upon a bitter spike. Deep, deep it pricks. No such anguish has Shelob ever known. Heaving up, she springs backwards in a convulsive leap. Sam, kneeling by Frodo's head, fumbles in his breast and finds the Phial of Galadriel. He cries out in a language he does not know, and the glass blazes like a white torch. The beams of it enter into her wounded head, scoring it with unbearable pain, and the dreadful infection of light spreads from eye to eye. Her sight blasted, her mind in agony, she rolls aside and begins to crawl, claw by claw, towards the opening in the dark cliff. Sam hews a last stroke at her dragging legs, and she is gone, shrunken in defeat, leaving a trail of green-yellow slime.

Aftermath and Consequences

Frodo lies pale and still, and Sam, finding no stir of life, believes him dead. Black despair comes down on him. He composes Frodo's body, takes the Ring and the Phial, and prepares to go on alone. It is only later, when he overhears the orc-captains Shagrat and Gorbag discussing the prisoner, that he learns the truth: Shelob does not eat dead meat, nor suck cold blood. When she binds with cords, she is after meat. Frodo is not dead, only paralyzed by her poison. This revelation transforms Sam's despair into a wild fury and a desperate resolve to rescue his master from the Tower of Cirith Ungol. The attack, therefore, while a moment of utter defeat, becomes the catalyst for Sam's greatest act of heroism and the final, desperate turn in the Quest.