# Shelob's sting



## Legolam (Dec 30, 2003)

Anti-geek Shaun (my long-suffering boyfriend) has a question for all you Tolkienites!

Why does Shelob have a sting? Don't spiders bite their victims and thereby paralyse them? Here's a snippet from the Encarta website:



> Almost all spiders use poison glands to kill or paralyze their prey or to defend themselves...When a spider catches prey it uses a pair of jointed appendages known as the chelicerae, located in front of the mouth opening. Chelicerae resemble tiny pocketknives. Each chelicera has a sharp fang that swings out of its resting position to stab into the victim. Near the tip of the fang is a duct opening that comes from a poison gland. The fang acts like a hypodermic needle—it ejects venom from the poison gland and delivers it into the prey


 So did Tolkien get his biology wrong?


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## Illuvatar (Dec 30, 2003)

If I'm not mistaken, in the book it doesn't specify this. Peter Jackson may have interpreted it wrong, but I don't think that Tolkein did. If I'm wrong, please correct me.


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## HLGStrider (Dec 30, 2003)

One thing to note about Shelob. She's not a spider. She's "Like a spider."


direct quote: Most like a spider she was, but huger than the great hunting beasts, and more terrible than they because of the evil purpose in her remorseless eyes.

Therefore, she has the right to have an extra stinger. She's not a spider. Just _like _one.

Earlier she is called an evil thing in spider-form. I don't know how exact forms have to be. 

Though, actually, I can't find a direct quote refering to a stinger.

Therefore my decision is, she could've had one, but I'm not sure if she did or not.


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## Lúthien Séregon (Dec 31, 2003)

I think I've noted before that Shelob is not exactly like a spider in terms of anatomy...her eye structure is different, for one thing. But Tolkien doesn't actually mention her having a sting on the end of her abdomen though, so that was Peter Jackson's interpretation - if anything, she injected venom probably with her fangs:



> Slowly he raised his head and saw her, only a few paces away, eyeing him, her beak drabbling a spittle of venom



That could imply that in terms of where the poison came from when she bit, Tolkien got it right...


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## Lantarion (Dec 31, 2003)

Good points, I haven't thought of it in such precise terms before..
But please poeple, let's stick to the subject of the sting in this thread, we already have two Shelob/Ungoliant threads floating around!


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