On Ungoliant's ropes of spidersilk they climbed,
The Vala and the Spider,
Reaching for the top of a towering cliff
Searching out the Two Trees of Valinor on the other side
So they might destroy them.
With grim purpose they climbed
Swiftly stalking up the cliff
Then suddenly a rope snapped!
It did not break
For nothing could break the webs of Ungoliant.
Nothing but the might of Aulë or Manwë or Eru Ilúvatar himself --
Or Ungoliant's own will.
The line snapped like a harpstring against the rocks
Sending them spinning and reeling,
Crashing far off to the side, out of control.
Ungoliant curled tight like the spider she was
Melkor's limbs curled about him like a spider himself
Each clinging tightly to his or her own safety,
Thinking nothing of the other.
They stabilized, caught themselves,
Swinging slowly back into place below the anchor that Ungoliant had set:
Her cord flung and tangled to the distant rocks above before they climbed.
They looked at each other,
Each realizing the other was still necessary to their plan.
Melkor nodded his black, fair, fearful head.
Ungoliant's eyes gleamed with a sheen of darkness and hungry greed.
Spurred on by their deadly intent, they climbed:
The Vala and the Spider.
She was darkness itself, and spewed out darkness as she went;
Melkor was darker still.
For Ungoliant had been hatched as darkness out of darkness
In a time beyond time.
But he who climbed with her
Once fair beyond telling, still breathlessly fair even now --
He had chosen darkness amidst his own beauty
Before Time itself began.
This one towering range of stone lay between them and their goal
Impassable to mortals or Elves,
And daunting even to Valar,
But it was no true barrier to their rage and strength.
They reached the top and peered over
Breaking suddenly into the light of the Two Trees.
The brilliant mingled radiance beat upon their shrinking faces
Yet never did it make them flinch.
They shared a single aim, these two:
To put out that light
And cover all the world with their own darkness.
And thus did they do.
Except for the light of the Silmarils,
Eärendil's star,
The same light in Frodo's Phial of Galadriel...
And the light of Eru Ilúvatar in Elanor Gamgee's eyes.