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Originally Posted by Celebuial
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Originally Posted by Bęthberry
Tolkien seems to have suggested that the spider goddess created an early form of the world before Eru and he decided to represent this as evil and disgusting.
May I enquire as to where Tolkien suggests this?
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This possibility is an interpretation of the story of Ungoliant in The Silm, where Ungoliant apparently inhabits the void which existed prior to Eru's thought/singing and outside His creation.
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a sound arose of endless interchanging melodies woven in harmony that passed beyond hearing into the depths and into the heights, and the places of the dwelling of Iluvatar were filled to overflowing, and the music and the echo of the music went out into the Void, and it was not void. ... 'Therefore I say: Ea! Let these things Be! And I will sent forth into the Void the Flame Imperishable, and it shall be at the heart of the World, and the World shall Be; and those of you that will may go down into it.' ...
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It is true that when the Valar descended into the World, they found it dark, but there is also something beyond the confines of the world. Then, later, Ungoliant is described thusly:
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The Eldar know not whence she [Ungoliant] came; but some have said that in ages long before she descended from the darkness that lies about Arda, when Melkor first looked down in envy upon the Kingdom of Manwe, and that in the beginning she was one of those that he corrupted to his service. But she had disowned her Master, desiring to be mistree of her own lust, taking all things to herself to feed her emptiness...
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I suppose one could be pedantic and argue that void and emptiness are opposites of creation, are a form of not-being, but nonethess the possibility exists that she is something from outside Iluvatar's creation.