I doubt she's a Maiar, because she's such a pivotal character in the Silmarillion and isn't mentioned in their ranks once. She's apparently from outside Ea, or the universe, so I would say she is some form of spirit or Ainur or some byproduct of Eru. Apparently Melkor corrupted her back before the Lamps fell, so while dark she might not always have been evil.
The thing with Tolkien was he was a really devout Catholic, so I wouldn't think he'd invent a being that wasn't born out of his version of God.
 

TheAncientCenturion

I will never forgive Oda
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That's an interesting interpretation. Ungoliant being a sort of a proverbial "rough draft" at life?
I heard an explanation on the "Nameless Things" underneath the earth that might apply to Ungoliant—though it's just fancy headcanon at the end of the day.

It came from either quora (ew) or The Red Book on youtube. But, it essentially is, that before every orchestra starts, there's a lot of noise. Stringing of instruments, chairs being dragged into place, papers flipped around. Ambient and unintentional noise. The headcanon/theory on the Nameless Things was that, they were born of this ambient noise prior to the Song starting. I can see a similar explanation for Ungoliant, being outside the intended purview of creation but accepted (Because Eru isn't a dick)
 
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