Notes on TTT: Shelob's Lair
'It may indeed have been daytime now, as Gollum said, but the hobbits could see little difference, unless, perhaps, the heavy sky above was less utterly black, more like a great roof of smoke.' If it is day, there is no way to ascertain whether it is March 11, the day that according to the Tale of Years Gollum 'nearly repents'; or March 12, the day that he 'leads Frodo into Shelob's lair'. Assuming that the action is continuous, time has become impossible to measure accurately. Chances are that the dates in the Tale of Years are somewhat arbitrary, with one significant event from the Sam and Frodo thread matched with each calendar day.
Again, Sam is the first to remark on the smell - 'as if filth unnameable were piled and hoarded in the dark within'. (This is not characteristic of ordinary spiders, or of anything identifiable.)
'He doesn't know what we minds, does he, precious?' says Gollum, who mainly minds Sam, and Sam knows this very well - so Gollum must be using 'minds' ironically, meaning more like 'think' or 'plan' than 'dislike'.
There are no 'airs moving . . . echoes. . . sense of space' inside '[b]ut for awhile they could still feel. . .almost painfully'. 'For a while' indicates that this is temporary; all their senses will be stifled here, the way all Frodo's sensual memories will cease by the time they reach Mount Doom. Here too 'even the memory of colors and of forms and of any light faded out of thought'.
'The tunnel was . . . so wide that . . .they were separated, cut off alone in the darkness' a state which becomes unendurable; at some point - after '[h]ours - days, weeks' - 'their hands met and clasped'.
They hold onto each other in the darkness of Shelob's lair to make sure they don't lose each other physically, which is inseparable from staying connected emotionally and spiritually - and they are about to be separated all three ways: Frodo to hope, Sam to fear; Frodo to 'beyond the shadows' and Sam to his 'lonely journey' in the darkness; Frodo to the orcs, Sam to chasing after.
Eventually 'touch and hearing seemed to go numb' so that 'smell was the only clear sense left': 'Sam 'caught a faint breath of some air less heavy, and then they passed it by' from which he concludes that 'There's more than one passage'.
'[I]t seemed hard to make his breath give any sound'. They sense 'some resistance thicker than the foul air.'
When they pass the hole where Shelob waits, '[f]]ighting off both the sickness and the fear, Frodo gripped Sam's hand. "Up!' he said in a horase breath without voice. "It all comes from here, the stench and the peril. Now for it! Quick!' The resolution to move quickly precedes the ability: 'he dragged Sam to his feet and forced his own limbs to move. . . suddenly it was easier to move, as if some hostil will for the moment had released them.' This is the beginning of Frodo's speeding towards the pass and outrunning Sam. (Cara sees him as entering the path to a different future than Sam's.)
'They knew of nothing to guide them, yet a false choice would almost certainly be fatal.' Again tension exists between what they knew of and what was there; the light in the phial and the light/knowledge of light in themselves will get them through.
'I can feel something looking at us.'
'"It's a trap!" said Sam, and he laid his hand upon the hilt of his sword; and as he did so, he thought of the darkness of the barrow whence it came.' When memory first returns it is of another darkness, not of light. The sword does not appear to be active here, however it may exert a subtle influence, similar to that of Frodo's barrow sword in The Flight to the Ford where '[h]is hand left the bridle and gripped the hilt of his sword' before he made a conscious choice to draw it. Merry's barrow sword had its own agenda, fulfilled so spectacularly that it is easy for me to believe that he was meant to carry it, as Bilbo was meant to find the Ring. However I don't recall Pippin's sword ever doing anything. (Will have to watch.)
'"I wish old Tom was near us now!" he thought. Then, as he stood, darkness about him and a blackness of despair and anger in his heart, it seemed to him that he saw a light:' The memory of one powerful helper initiates another; Sam doesn't remember Galadriel or the phial, but light itself.
'a light in his mind, almost unbearably bright at first, as a sun-ray to the eyes of one long hidden in a windowless pit.' The light of the phial will be unbearably bright to Shelob; light being so now in Sam's memory shows how strong her influence is even when consciously resisted.
'Then the light became colour'. This description echoes the way the Valar first experience seeing in the Silmarillion; Iluvatar shows them Arda as it will be created, 'and their eyes beholding many colors were filled with gladness'.
'green, gold, silver, white' - a progression of brightness
'Far off, as in a little picture drawn by elven-fingers' which is to say a picture that in being drawn takes on animation/life
'he saw the Lady Galadriel standing on the grass in Lorien, and gifts were in her hands. And for you, Ring-bearer, he heard her say, remote but clear, I have prepared this.' This is also, like the Valar, who immediately after seeing the colors 'heard the roaring of the sea' in the as - yet uncreated world. I strongly suspect that the parallel process is not accidental.
'"Master, master!" cried Sam, and life and urgency came back into his voice' despite Shelob's 'reek [that] came on before' her ('some great jointed thing that moved with slow purpose in the dark'). His physical surroundings are if anything more stifling than before, but the physical surroundings alone were never the primary reason that speaking became difficult.
Sam is the one capable of first articulately desiring to escape.
'The Lady's gift! The star-glass! A light to you in dark places, she said it was to be.' The word order in this sentence is scrambled, with the most important thought preceding the framing. 'Star-glass' is Sam's name for it; Frodo in the last chapter thought of it as 'the phial of Galadriel'.
'"The star-glass?" muttered Frodo, as one answering out of sleep, hardly comprehending' both because the name is unfamiliar and because he is more oppressed by Shelob's influence. 'Why, yes! Why had I forgotten it?'
Galadriel made it as a gift for Frodo but (assuming that it gets itself remembered 'when all other lights go out') it reached Sam's consciousness first. Calanthe11 writes that to the Phial, Frodo and Sam are probably indistinguishable; Galadriel certainly perceived that they were going together as far as could be gone and would have no reason to program it to choose one over the other.
'Slowly his hand went to his bosom, and slowly he held aloft the Phial of Galadriel' - slowly because he could not yet move quickly. This is the first place that 'Phial' is capitalized, indicating, I think, that Frodo and Sam now know it to be animate.
'For a moment it glimmered, faint as a rising star struggling in heavy earthward mists, and then as its power waxed, and hope grew in Frodo's mind, it began to burn, and kindled to a silver flame' - Thus there is a resonance: It gets itself remembered, which enables Frodo to reach for it, which enables it to begin to shine, which enables Frodo to feel hopeful, which enables it to burn brighter. (The last part is a bit speculative, but fits with a pattern already clearly established.)
'a minute heart of dazzling light, as though Earendil had himself come down from the high sunset paths with the last Silmaril upon his brow' - This refers to his part (as director of the air war and slayer of the mightiest of the dragon host) in the attack of the Valar upon Angband, which resulted in Morgoth's being banished to the outer void, the border of which Earendil patrols. However in that war, he did not descend all the way to earth, much less under it. It is not clear how much of this history Frodo and Sam know but they are aware of his orbit and the source of his light, and how miraculous such an intervention would be.
'The darkness receded from it, until it seemed to shine in the center of a globe of airy crystal' - as if the glass that holds the light had expanded to include the hobbits as well.
'and the hand that held it sparkled with white fire' which did not burn. The same light will similarly grace Sam's 'faithful brown hobbit hand' when he is separated from and looking for Frodo. (The light is either related or identical to that of the Earendil's Silmaril, which did not burn Beren's hand but did burn the stomach of Carcharoth, who bit off Beren's hand and swallowed it along with the Silmaril.)
'Seldom had he remembered it on the road. . .and never had he used it for fear of its revealing light' - similar to Gandalf on Caradhras, when his starting a fire meant 'I have written Gandalf is here in signs that all can read from Rivendell to the mouths of Anduin' even though Frodo probably didn't realize how uniquely revealing the light of the phial might have been to servants of Sauron.
'Aiya Earendil Elenion Ancalima! he cried, and knew not what he had spoken, for it seemed that another voice spoke through his, clear, untroubled by the foul air of the pit.' This is not the first time another voice has spoken through Frodo's; this one is very likely a property of the phial, since when it is unveiled Frodo and Sam both use Elvish battle-cries, as oposed to their own 'The Shire!' (At Weathertop Frodo's 'O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!' was very likely the voice of the barrow-sword.)
'[H]e was aware of eyes growing visible, two great clusters of many-windowed eyes. . .The raidance of the star-glass was broken and thrown back from their thousand facets, but behind the glitter a pale deadly fire began steadily to glow within, a flame kindled in some deep pit of evil thought.' Shelob, of all beings, has her own internal source of light - perhaps the Fire that animates all of Arda? - certainly the only light she cares to have any relationship with.
'their own gaze held by that dreadful stare' - This indicates that Shelob has a power of being seen similar to that of Minas Morgul (which may be derived from hers by proximity or may be independent.)
'Frodo's hand wavered, and slowly the Phial drooped.' This must in some way protect Shelob's approaching eyes from being dazzled. Does its light lessen, or is it only the angle and the distance that shield her from it?
'Then suddenly, released from the holding spell' - Shelob's power of being seen is under her control, and she can turn it on and off. That of Minas Morgul gives no sign of ever being turned off.
'"Stand! Stand!" he cried desperately. "Running is of no use."' Fighting might be of no use either, but reason has eliminated the only alternative.
"'Galadriel!" he called' - using his own voice and his own will - 'and gathering his courage he lifted up the Phial once more. The eyes halted. . . Then Frodo's heart flamed within him' -similarly to the Phial - 'and without thinking what he did, whether it was folly or despair or courage, he took the Phial in his left and hand, and with his right hand drew his sword' - which is to say, he had to think about the sequence of actions, but he wasn't concerned with motives or consequences, which were, in any case, beyond prediction.
'Sting flashed out, and the sharp elven-blade sparkled in the silver light' - which it probably recognized, or at very least found congenial - 'but at its edges a blue fire flickered' - which indicates that there are orcs around, too, or else that Shelob has the same effect. (Elves have fought her before - she recognizes Frodo's battle cry - so might make their weapons spider-sensetive but Sting didn't burn blue when Bilbo killed the Mirkwood spider so I suspect it is reacting to orcs here.)
'Then holding the star aloft' - not the star-glass or the Phial, but a star descended underground, which is what it must now have become in Frodo's consciousness - 'and the bright sword advanced, Frodo, hobbit of the Shire, walked steadily down to meet the eyes. . .One by one they dimmed, and slowly they drew back. No brightness so deadly had ever afflicted them before. . . a star had descended into the very earth. One by one they all went dark.' Shelob's internal source of light, whatever it might be, either fails or else she has to mask it with increasing degrees of darkness, and when they too fail she retreats.
'Now's our only chance. Now let's get out of this foul hole.' They are escaping together, up to the web - 'a greyness that the radiance of the star glass did not pierce and did not illuminate, as if it were a shadow that being cast by not light, no light could dissipate' - where Frodo is sure that the possessor of the eyes is 'looking at me, or thinking about me'. Is Shelob's concentration on him as an individual instrumental in separating them?
Only one of them can attack the web at a time because one has to hold the Phial.
After trying three times to cut the web - and being struck and stung by the one strand he cut - Sam says in despair,'Gnats in a net. May the curse of Faramir bite that Gollum and bite him quick!' Frodo, not having yet given up hope, or uninterested in revenge, answers 'That would not help us now. Come! Let us see what Sting can do. It is an elven blade.' This is one of those little-noted moments in which Sam is not the eternal optimist, and Frodo is the hopeful one.
Frodo knows that 'there were webs of horror in the dark ravines of Beleriand where [Sting] was forged'. This seems like a story that Bilbo might have found personally relevant and therefore passed on, in addition to his own confrontation in Mirkwood.
'But you must be the guard and hold back the eyes. Here, take the star-glass. Do not be afraid. Hold it up and watch!' There is a possible implication here that Sam is afraid to take the Phial, but I can't tell how seriously to take it, given how many other causes there are for fear. I think that the admonition not to be afraid may apply specifically to being killed here and now because there is still something to try - in which Frodo has great confidence. He was 'meant to' carry the Ring, and if Sam was 'meant to' go with him; I think trusts whatever Power meant those things to happen, that they won't be deserted now.
Sam reminds Frodo of the Phial and Frodo holds it; then Frodo reminds Sam of Sting and Sam holds the Phial.
When the emerge 'the last hours of a sullen day were passing' - March 12 according to the probably arbitrary Tale of Years.
The strands of the web are alive: when cut by Sting's 'bitter edge', 'they leaped and writhed and then hung loose.'
'"Come!" cried Frodo. 'On! On!" Wild joy at their escape from the very mouth of despair suddenly filled all his mind. His head whirled as from a draught of potent wine. He sprang out, shouting as he came.' Aside from the effects of breathing hard for uncounted hours in bad air, and of adrenalin, 'it seemed to Frodo that he looked out on a morning of sudden hope. . .A short race, a sprinter's course, and he would be through.' What he sees is 'the Cleft, Cirith Ungol. . ."The pass, Sam!. . .Run, run and we'll be through - before any one can stop us!"
Edited out of an earlier draft was a vision of a door, which might have led anywhere. Did JRR reject this as inconsistent with his will being entirely dedicated to the quest? It might be interpreted to mean that his perceived goal was not necessarily Mordor.
Regardless of Frodo's intent, exits other than to Mordor are possible: The darkness of Shelob's Lair is indistinguishable from 'the darkness that lies about Arda', the void to which Morgoth was banished and from which 'some have said that' Shelob's ancestor Ungoliant 'descended'; the memory of the light of the Phial recapitulates creation. Shelob's Lair is archetypically liminal. It is not impossible for Frodo to emerge from the darkness somewhere very different from where he expects - especially in his current state of 'wild joy' combined with determination to rush forward.
'Sam came up behind as fast as he could urge his legs' - not springing out, but making an effort. This difference in motion, which is the beginning of their separation, may have to do with their being caught up in time streams leading to different possible futures.
Gollum 'in past days . . . worshipped' Shelob 'and the darkness of her evil will walked through all the ways of his weariness beside him, cutting him off from light' - which he feared - 'and from regret' - which might have been the beginning of repentance if he had regretted his deeds rather than soleley the loss of the Ring (a big 'if'). He worshipped her because she provided protection, apparently remotely, although the mechanism is never explained.
Shelob 'desired death for all others, mind and body, and for herself a glut of life, alone, swollen till the mountains could no longer hold her and the darkness could not contain her.' This sounds like a horrible death - unless she means to become strong enough to venture outside the darkness. If so, it is stated very circuitously.
'And when we've got it safe, then She'll know it, O yes, then we'll pay Her back, my precious. Then we'll pay everyone back!' Gollum's payback sounds distinctly vengeful. It is never stated why he feels wronged by Shelob; perhaps only due to his habit of feeling wronged.
Frodo's 'wild joy . . .filled all his mind' driving out fear, but 'a fear was growing on [Sam], a menace which he could not see; and such a weight did it become that it was a burden to him to run, and his feet seemed leaden.' Their separation has to do with both motion and emotion, and both have to do with the focus of attention: Frodo's is all ahead, at perceived escape, be it from Shelob's lair to continue the quest, or from Middle-earth and the quest entirely, while Sam's is attached to their current environment and the dangers around them: 'Dread was round him, and enemies before him in the pass, and his faster was in a fey [death-bound] mood running heedlessly to meet them.' Usually their differing focuses work to their advantage, allowing them to marshall more awareness and more resources, but now that they have become separated every difference separates them further.
'[T]he sword which Frodo still held unsheathed was glittering the blue flame.' Without a new sight of either Shelob or Gollum, and despite having seen the Nazgul below ride west, Sam knows that 'There's Orcs about, and worse than Orcs'. I doubt that he could say how he knows about the 'worse than Orcs' but he's right.
'[T]he window in the tower was glowing red' but (unlike Minas Morgul) it has no power of being seen; Sam's noticing this is due to his own paying attention.
'Then returning quickly to his long habit of secrecy, he closed his hand about the precious Phial which he still bore. Red with his own living blood his hand shown for a moment' as Frodo's skin will shine red when Sam finds and rescues him in the tower - a counter-red to that of the tower window. If Sam thought that Shelob was the 'worse than Orcs' he would never have hidden his best weapon against her.
The red light shining through Sam's hand also specifically likens him to Beren, whose hand, in two drafts of the never-completed Lay of Leithian, similarly reddened the light of the Silmaril: 'The jewel he held, and its pure radiance slowly welled through flesh and bone, and turned to fire with hue of living blood' and 'the pure radiance slowly welled red glowing through the clenching flesh'.
'Now he tried to quicken his pace. . .[Frodo] was some twenty strides ahead, flitting like a shadow; he would soon be lost to sight in that grey world'.
Gollum's pathetic attempt to avert the doom he laid on himself: 'Shelob will get him, not Smeagol; he promised; he won't hurt Master at all.' This is Stinker convincing Slinker, not Gollum hoping to trick the Ring. I don't think Stinker for one second takes either oath or curse seriously - which is to say that his lust for the Ring is strong enough to make him oblivious to Its very power over him . . . very dizzying to contemplate.
'Fury at the treachery, and desperation at the delay when his master was in deadly peril, gave to Sam a sudden violence and strength'. The sources of Sam's strength are anger at Gollum and love for Frodo, at this point (when Gollum is trying to kill him) equally strong, but the next chapter will show that is not their essential balance.
'Then Sam played his last trick. With all his strength he pulled away and got his feet firmly planted' which is a constant source of Sam's strength; even in this landscape: the very rootedness in the Shire that makes him seem a 'slow stupid hobbit' to the unperceptive, his connection with his immediate surroundings and with whatever is living in them.
'Sword in hand Sam went after [Gollum]. For the moment he had forgotten everything else but the red fury in his brain and the desire to kill Gollum' - as Frodo's 'wild joy' had driven everything else from his mind. But for Sam 'as the dark hole stood before him and the stench came out to meet him, like a clap of thunder the thought of Frodo and the monster smote upon Sam's mind'. He doesn't think or need to think about it: Love for Frodo is stronger. But '[h]e was too late'.
Again, Sam is the first to remark on the smell - 'as if filth unnameable were piled and hoarded in the dark within'. (This is not characteristic of ordinary spiders, or of anything identifiable.)
'He doesn't know what we minds, does he, precious?' says Gollum, who mainly minds Sam, and Sam knows this very well - so Gollum must be using 'minds' ironically, meaning more like 'think' or 'plan' than 'dislike'.
There are no 'airs moving . . . echoes. . . sense of space' inside '[b]ut for awhile they could still feel. . .almost painfully'. 'For a while' indicates that this is temporary; all their senses will be stifled here, the way all Frodo's sensual memories will cease by the time they reach Mount Doom. Here too 'even the memory of colors and of forms and of any light faded out of thought'.
'The tunnel was . . . so wide that . . .they were separated, cut off alone in the darkness' a state which becomes unendurable; at some point - after '[h]ours - days, weeks' - 'their hands met and clasped'.
They hold onto each other in the darkness of Shelob's lair to make sure they don't lose each other physically, which is inseparable from staying connected emotionally and spiritually - and they are about to be separated all three ways: Frodo to hope, Sam to fear; Frodo to 'beyond the shadows' and Sam to his 'lonely journey' in the darkness; Frodo to the orcs, Sam to chasing after.
Eventually 'touch and hearing seemed to go numb' so that 'smell was the only clear sense left': 'Sam 'caught a faint breath of some air less heavy, and then they passed it by' from which he concludes that 'There's more than one passage'.
'[I]t seemed hard to make his breath give any sound'. They sense 'some resistance thicker than the foul air.'
When they pass the hole where Shelob waits, '[f]]ighting off both the sickness and the fear, Frodo gripped Sam's hand. "Up!' he said in a horase breath without voice. "It all comes from here, the stench and the peril. Now for it! Quick!' The resolution to move quickly precedes the ability: 'he dragged Sam to his feet and forced his own limbs to move. . . suddenly it was easier to move, as if some hostil will for the moment had released them.' This is the beginning of Frodo's speeding towards the pass and outrunning Sam. (Cara sees him as entering the path to a different future than Sam's.)
'They knew of nothing to guide them, yet a false choice would almost certainly be fatal.' Again tension exists between what they knew of and what was there; the light in the phial and the light/knowledge of light in themselves will get them through.
'I can feel something looking at us.'
'"It's a trap!" said Sam, and he laid his hand upon the hilt of his sword; and as he did so, he thought of the darkness of the barrow whence it came.' When memory first returns it is of another darkness, not of light. The sword does not appear to be active here, however it may exert a subtle influence, similar to that of Frodo's barrow sword in The Flight to the Ford where '[h]is hand left the bridle and gripped the hilt of his sword' before he made a conscious choice to draw it. Merry's barrow sword had its own agenda, fulfilled so spectacularly that it is easy for me to believe that he was meant to carry it, as Bilbo was meant to find the Ring. However I don't recall Pippin's sword ever doing anything. (Will have to watch.)
'"I wish old Tom was near us now!" he thought. Then, as he stood, darkness about him and a blackness of despair and anger in his heart, it seemed to him that he saw a light:' The memory of one powerful helper initiates another; Sam doesn't remember Galadriel or the phial, but light itself.
'a light in his mind, almost unbearably bright at first, as a sun-ray to the eyes of one long hidden in a windowless pit.' The light of the phial will be unbearably bright to Shelob; light being so now in Sam's memory shows how strong her influence is even when consciously resisted.
'Then the light became colour'. This description echoes the way the Valar first experience seeing in the Silmarillion; Iluvatar shows them Arda as it will be created, 'and their eyes beholding many colors were filled with gladness'.
'green, gold, silver, white' - a progression of brightness
'Far off, as in a little picture drawn by elven-fingers' which is to say a picture that in being drawn takes on animation/life
'he saw the Lady Galadriel standing on the grass in Lorien, and gifts were in her hands. And for you, Ring-bearer, he heard her say, remote but clear, I have prepared this.' This is also, like the Valar, who immediately after seeing the colors 'heard the roaring of the sea' in the as - yet uncreated world. I strongly suspect that the parallel process is not accidental.
'"Master, master!" cried Sam, and life and urgency came back into his voice' despite Shelob's 'reek [that] came on before' her ('some great jointed thing that moved with slow purpose in the dark'). His physical surroundings are if anything more stifling than before, but the physical surroundings alone were never the primary reason that speaking became difficult.
Sam is the one capable of first articulately desiring to escape.
'The Lady's gift! The star-glass! A light to you in dark places, she said it was to be.' The word order in this sentence is scrambled, with the most important thought preceding the framing. 'Star-glass' is Sam's name for it; Frodo in the last chapter thought of it as 'the phial of Galadriel'.
'"The star-glass?" muttered Frodo, as one answering out of sleep, hardly comprehending' both because the name is unfamiliar and because he is more oppressed by Shelob's influence. 'Why, yes! Why had I forgotten it?'
Galadriel made it as a gift for Frodo but (assuming that it gets itself remembered 'when all other lights go out') it reached Sam's consciousness first. Calanthe11 writes that to the Phial, Frodo and Sam are probably indistinguishable; Galadriel certainly perceived that they were going together as far as could be gone and would have no reason to program it to choose one over the other.
'Slowly his hand went to his bosom, and slowly he held aloft the Phial of Galadriel' - slowly because he could not yet move quickly. This is the first place that 'Phial' is capitalized, indicating, I think, that Frodo and Sam now know it to be animate.
'For a moment it glimmered, faint as a rising star struggling in heavy earthward mists, and then as its power waxed, and hope grew in Frodo's mind, it began to burn, and kindled to a silver flame' - Thus there is a resonance: It gets itself remembered, which enables Frodo to reach for it, which enables it to begin to shine, which enables Frodo to feel hopeful, which enables it to burn brighter. (The last part is a bit speculative, but fits with a pattern already clearly established.)
'a minute heart of dazzling light, as though Earendil had himself come down from the high sunset paths with the last Silmaril upon his brow' - This refers to his part (as director of the air war and slayer of the mightiest of the dragon host) in the attack of the Valar upon Angband, which resulted in Morgoth's being banished to the outer void, the border of which Earendil patrols. However in that war, he did not descend all the way to earth, much less under it. It is not clear how much of this history Frodo and Sam know but they are aware of his orbit and the source of his light, and how miraculous such an intervention would be.
'The darkness receded from it, until it seemed to shine in the center of a globe of airy crystal' - as if the glass that holds the light had expanded to include the hobbits as well.
'and the hand that held it sparkled with white fire' which did not burn. The same light will similarly grace Sam's 'faithful brown hobbit hand' when he is separated from and looking for Frodo. (The light is either related or identical to that of the Earendil's Silmaril, which did not burn Beren's hand but did burn the stomach of Carcharoth, who bit off Beren's hand and swallowed it along with the Silmaril.)
'Seldom had he remembered it on the road. . .and never had he used it for fear of its revealing light' - similar to Gandalf on Caradhras, when his starting a fire meant 'I have written Gandalf is here in signs that all can read from Rivendell to the mouths of Anduin' even though Frodo probably didn't realize how uniquely revealing the light of the phial might have been to servants of Sauron.
'Aiya Earendil Elenion Ancalima! he cried, and knew not what he had spoken, for it seemed that another voice spoke through his, clear, untroubled by the foul air of the pit.' This is not the first time another voice has spoken through Frodo's; this one is very likely a property of the phial, since when it is unveiled Frodo and Sam both use Elvish battle-cries, as oposed to their own 'The Shire!' (At Weathertop Frodo's 'O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!' was very likely the voice of the barrow-sword.)
'[H]e was aware of eyes growing visible, two great clusters of many-windowed eyes. . .The raidance of the star-glass was broken and thrown back from their thousand facets, but behind the glitter a pale deadly fire began steadily to glow within, a flame kindled in some deep pit of evil thought.' Shelob, of all beings, has her own internal source of light - perhaps the Fire that animates all of Arda? - certainly the only light she cares to have any relationship with.
'their own gaze held by that dreadful stare' - This indicates that Shelob has a power of being seen similar to that of Minas Morgul (which may be derived from hers by proximity or may be independent.)
'Frodo's hand wavered, and slowly the Phial drooped.' This must in some way protect Shelob's approaching eyes from being dazzled. Does its light lessen, or is it only the angle and the distance that shield her from it?
'Then suddenly, released from the holding spell' - Shelob's power of being seen is under her control, and she can turn it on and off. That of Minas Morgul gives no sign of ever being turned off.
'"Stand! Stand!" he cried desperately. "Running is of no use."' Fighting might be of no use either, but reason has eliminated the only alternative.
"'Galadriel!" he called' - using his own voice and his own will - 'and gathering his courage he lifted up the Phial once more. The eyes halted. . . Then Frodo's heart flamed within him' -similarly to the Phial - 'and without thinking what he did, whether it was folly or despair or courage, he took the Phial in his left and hand, and with his right hand drew his sword' - which is to say, he had to think about the sequence of actions, but he wasn't concerned with motives or consequences, which were, in any case, beyond prediction.
'Sting flashed out, and the sharp elven-blade sparkled in the silver light' - which it probably recognized, or at very least found congenial - 'but at its edges a blue fire flickered' - which indicates that there are orcs around, too, or else that Shelob has the same effect. (Elves have fought her before - she recognizes Frodo's battle cry - so might make their weapons spider-sensetive but Sting didn't burn blue when Bilbo killed the Mirkwood spider so I suspect it is reacting to orcs here.)
'Then holding the star aloft' - not the star-glass or the Phial, but a star descended underground, which is what it must now have become in Frodo's consciousness - 'and the bright sword advanced, Frodo, hobbit of the Shire, walked steadily down to meet the eyes. . .One by one they dimmed, and slowly they drew back. No brightness so deadly had ever afflicted them before. . . a star had descended into the very earth. One by one they all went dark.' Shelob's internal source of light, whatever it might be, either fails or else she has to mask it with increasing degrees of darkness, and when they too fail she retreats.
'Now's our only chance. Now let's get out of this foul hole.' They are escaping together, up to the web - 'a greyness that the radiance of the star glass did not pierce and did not illuminate, as if it were a shadow that being cast by not light, no light could dissipate' - where Frodo is sure that the possessor of the eyes is 'looking at me, or thinking about me'. Is Shelob's concentration on him as an individual instrumental in separating them?
Only one of them can attack the web at a time because one has to hold the Phial.
After trying three times to cut the web - and being struck and stung by the one strand he cut - Sam says in despair,'Gnats in a net. May the curse of Faramir bite that Gollum and bite him quick!' Frodo, not having yet given up hope, or uninterested in revenge, answers 'That would not help us now. Come! Let us see what Sting can do. It is an elven blade.' This is one of those little-noted moments in which Sam is not the eternal optimist, and Frodo is the hopeful one.
Frodo knows that 'there were webs of horror in the dark ravines of Beleriand where [Sting] was forged'. This seems like a story that Bilbo might have found personally relevant and therefore passed on, in addition to his own confrontation in Mirkwood.
'But you must be the guard and hold back the eyes. Here, take the star-glass. Do not be afraid. Hold it up and watch!' There is a possible implication here that Sam is afraid to take the Phial, but I can't tell how seriously to take it, given how many other causes there are for fear. I think that the admonition not to be afraid may apply specifically to being killed here and now because there is still something to try - in which Frodo has great confidence. He was 'meant to' carry the Ring, and if Sam was 'meant to' go with him; I think trusts whatever Power meant those things to happen, that they won't be deserted now.
Sam reminds Frodo of the Phial and Frodo holds it; then Frodo reminds Sam of Sting and Sam holds the Phial.
When the emerge 'the last hours of a sullen day were passing' - March 12 according to the probably arbitrary Tale of Years.
The strands of the web are alive: when cut by Sting's 'bitter edge', 'they leaped and writhed and then hung loose.'
'"Come!" cried Frodo. 'On! On!" Wild joy at their escape from the very mouth of despair suddenly filled all his mind. His head whirled as from a draught of potent wine. He sprang out, shouting as he came.' Aside from the effects of breathing hard for uncounted hours in bad air, and of adrenalin, 'it seemed to Frodo that he looked out on a morning of sudden hope. . .A short race, a sprinter's course, and he would be through.' What he sees is 'the Cleft, Cirith Ungol. . ."The pass, Sam!. . .Run, run and we'll be through - before any one can stop us!"
Edited out of an earlier draft was a vision of a door, which might have led anywhere. Did JRR reject this as inconsistent with his will being entirely dedicated to the quest? It might be interpreted to mean that his perceived goal was not necessarily Mordor.
Regardless of Frodo's intent, exits other than to Mordor are possible: The darkness of Shelob's Lair is indistinguishable from 'the darkness that lies about Arda', the void to which Morgoth was banished and from which 'some have said that' Shelob's ancestor Ungoliant 'descended'; the memory of the light of the Phial recapitulates creation. Shelob's Lair is archetypically liminal. It is not impossible for Frodo to emerge from the darkness somewhere very different from where he expects - especially in his current state of 'wild joy' combined with determination to rush forward.
'Sam came up behind as fast as he could urge his legs' - not springing out, but making an effort. This difference in motion, which is the beginning of their separation, may have to do with their being caught up in time streams leading to different possible futures.
Gollum 'in past days . . . worshipped' Shelob 'and the darkness of her evil will walked through all the ways of his weariness beside him, cutting him off from light' - which he feared - 'and from regret' - which might have been the beginning of repentance if he had regretted his deeds rather than soleley the loss of the Ring (a big 'if'). He worshipped her because she provided protection, apparently remotely, although the mechanism is never explained.
Shelob 'desired death for all others, mind and body, and for herself a glut of life, alone, swollen till the mountains could no longer hold her and the darkness could not contain her.' This sounds like a horrible death - unless she means to become strong enough to venture outside the darkness. If so, it is stated very circuitously.
'And when we've got it safe, then She'll know it, O yes, then we'll pay Her back, my precious. Then we'll pay everyone back!' Gollum's payback sounds distinctly vengeful. It is never stated why he feels wronged by Shelob; perhaps only due to his habit of feeling wronged.
Frodo's 'wild joy . . .filled all his mind' driving out fear, but 'a fear was growing on [Sam], a menace which he could not see; and such a weight did it become that it was a burden to him to run, and his feet seemed leaden.' Their separation has to do with both motion and emotion, and both have to do with the focus of attention: Frodo's is all ahead, at perceived escape, be it from Shelob's lair to continue the quest, or from Middle-earth and the quest entirely, while Sam's is attached to their current environment and the dangers around them: 'Dread was round him, and enemies before him in the pass, and his faster was in a fey [death-bound] mood running heedlessly to meet them.' Usually their differing focuses work to their advantage, allowing them to marshall more awareness and more resources, but now that they have become separated every difference separates them further.
'[T]he sword which Frodo still held unsheathed was glittering the blue flame.' Without a new sight of either Shelob or Gollum, and despite having seen the Nazgul below ride west, Sam knows that 'There's Orcs about, and worse than Orcs'. I doubt that he could say how he knows about the 'worse than Orcs' but he's right.
'[T]he window in the tower was glowing red' but (unlike Minas Morgul) it has no power of being seen; Sam's noticing this is due to his own paying attention.
'Then returning quickly to his long habit of secrecy, he closed his hand about the precious Phial which he still bore. Red with his own living blood his hand shown for a moment' as Frodo's skin will shine red when Sam finds and rescues him in the tower - a counter-red to that of the tower window. If Sam thought that Shelob was the 'worse than Orcs' he would never have hidden his best weapon against her.
The red light shining through Sam's hand also specifically likens him to Beren, whose hand, in two drafts of the never-completed Lay of Leithian, similarly reddened the light of the Silmaril: 'The jewel he held, and its pure radiance slowly welled through flesh and bone, and turned to fire with hue of living blood' and 'the pure radiance slowly welled red glowing through the clenching flesh'.
'Now he tried to quicken his pace. . .[Frodo] was some twenty strides ahead, flitting like a shadow; he would soon be lost to sight in that grey world'.
Gollum's pathetic attempt to avert the doom he laid on himself: 'Shelob will get him, not Smeagol; he promised; he won't hurt Master at all.' This is Stinker convincing Slinker, not Gollum hoping to trick the Ring. I don't think Stinker for one second takes either oath or curse seriously - which is to say that his lust for the Ring is strong enough to make him oblivious to Its very power over him . . . very dizzying to contemplate.
'Fury at the treachery, and desperation at the delay when his master was in deadly peril, gave to Sam a sudden violence and strength'. The sources of Sam's strength are anger at Gollum and love for Frodo, at this point (when Gollum is trying to kill him) equally strong, but the next chapter will show that is not their essential balance.
'Then Sam played his last trick. With all his strength he pulled away and got his feet firmly planted' which is a constant source of Sam's strength; even in this landscape: the very rootedness in the Shire that makes him seem a 'slow stupid hobbit' to the unperceptive, his connection with his immediate surroundings and with whatever is living in them.
'Sword in hand Sam went after [Gollum]. For the moment he had forgotten everything else but the red fury in his brain and the desire to kill Gollum' - as Frodo's 'wild joy' had driven everything else from his mind. But for Sam 'as the dark hole stood before him and the stench came out to meet him, like a clap of thunder the thought of Frodo and the monster smote upon Sam's mind'. He doesn't think or need to think about it: Love for Frodo is stronger. But '[h]e was too late'.