Sting (Middle-earth)
Sting has the magical ability to detect orcs or goblins nearby, glowing blue in their presence, as it did when the Fellowship encountered orcs in the mines of Moria. Tolkien establishes this as a common property of First Age Elf blades, particularly those forged in Gondolin. Sting is also exceptionally sharp. Bilbo manages to thrust it without effort deep into a wooden beam at Rivendell. Frodo also wounds a troll in Moria, after Boromir notches his own sword with his attempt. Sam uses Sting to cut through the giant spider Shelob's strong webs with ease, and also wound the spider, driving it away from the paralyzed Frodo.
Cultural depictions of spiders
Spiders recur in themes for works by J. R. R. Tolkien. Tolkien included giant spiders in his 1937 book "The Hobbit" where they roamed Mirkwood attacking and sometimes capturing the main characters. The character of Ungoliant is featured as a spider-like entity, and as a personification of Night from his earliest writings. In "The Lord of the Rings", the creature’s daughter Shelob is encountered as Frodo and Sam move through the mountain pass of Cirith Ungol. Shelob was featured in the film adaption of the last book of the "Lord of the Rings" series. Although described as giant spiders, Tolkien gave them fictional attributes such as compound eyes, beaks and the spinning of black webs. He also resurrected the Old English words "cob" and "lob" for "spider".