Along Came A Spider by

This seems to be a very interesting story.

Aside from the ugliness of Ungoliat (as I hate spiders from early childhood), I am currently sympathetic to her in everything: her wonderment in the beginning, her crave to be "accepted" among the "good fellows"  and her intelligence as to the manipulates of Melkor.

I hope to see the next chapter soon.

Aeärwen, I am absolutely delighted to see this on the SWG and that you perservered when wrestling with a new archive format.  As one who has been privileged to read the drafts of Along Came a Spider on the Lizard Council, I will tell other readers that they are in for a story of remarkable depth and one which will challenge previously held concepts.

Your treatment of the Ainulindalë is marvelous.  I love the imagery here, and one can see the influence of your own musical expertise in the passages.  Ungoliantë's voice is so well-rendered as is Melkor's.  Although the latter is strong, you do not allow him to truly dominate her, and that is oh, so satisfying for she is the primordial darkness.  His arguments put forth to her ring with plausibility, too, and given her role -- and her loneliness in it -- it's entirely believable that she would seek his company and listen to him.

I also love the way you have portrayed sensuality between Ainu and Aini.  It's subtly erotic, yet the sense of disembodiment is apparent.  It's strange, "other" and yet...human.  Again, very subtle.

The philosophical concepts put forth are fantastic, e.g., from Eru Iluvatar:

To you, child of my Intent, is given a different, more difficult task.  Even as it was necessary to destroy the perfection of the Void to allow this new World to come into being, each act of Creation will necessarily require some act of Destruction to precede it.  Were this not so, the Void itself would fill eventually with all that is to come until Creation itself becomes All There Is.

As I have said to you before, this is such a beautiful metaphor for the matter, energy, creation and annihilation in the universe: dark matter vs. galaxies, black holes vs. the gas clouds that give birth to stars, the orchestration of genes and proteins to form an embryo vs. the senescence of death, electron vs. positron.  it's all about balance, and with Along Came a Spider, you give us an intriguing balanced view of a  character so often reviled.  And female character at that!

I've posted this elsewhere but for others who might read my review of your work, I'll repost it.  Have a look at The Long Defeat: Tolkien's Lilith by Jason Tondro.  An excerpt:

In all of Tolkien’s novels, in his work on the Silmarillion and its unpublished relations, there are only three wicked women – and two of them are giant spiders.

Aeärwen, your story goes a long way in remediating the party line of metaphysical dualism so often toued in Tolkienian fandom (although less so here on the SWG, i would like to think).  Furthermore, it complicates (in a most wonderful way) the archetype of the devouring mother that Tolkien himself put forth.

In short, brava!  And welcome. :^) 

An interesting and thought-provoking story!

Well written.

I have a bit of a problem with the end, but it is an emotional one, not a literary one, and it does not detract from the quality of the story. Maybe it is even not unintentional? I do find myself really, really resenting Iluvatar in that last scene...

(I am planning to rec your story at the current Silm Re-read fanworks chapter but, as it has gone very quiet over there just now, I don't know whether it will have any noticeable effect.)