Ungoliant: The Darkness That Devoured Light Itself

Ungoliant stands as Tolkien's most enigmatic villain—a primordial darkness whose origins remained unknown even to the Valar. Unlike clearly defined threats like Sauron or the Balrogs, she exists at the edges of knowability, embodying cosmic horror in Middle-earth. Her unique power was Unlight—not mere absence of illumination but active annihilation that could pierce the eye, invade the mind, and strangle the will itself. Driven by ontological hunger, she dwelt in Avathar for ages, consuming all available light to feed an emptiness that could never be filled. When Melkor sought her aid to destroy the Two Trees of Valinor, she agreed, devouring their sacred light and growing so powerful that she later overpowered Morgoth himself at Lammoth, nearly strangling him before Balrogs rescued their master. Her probable fate—devouring herself in uttermost famine—reveals evil's autocannibalistic nature, while her seeming substantiality tests Tolkien's Catholic theology of evil as privation rather than independent force.