User blog comment:GikaLXR/Fordo and shelob/@comment-209.210.243.28-20151001225023

In the Two Towers, Book 4, chapter 10 "the Choices of Master Samwise", it says, "Shelob with hideous speed had come behind and with one swift stroke had stung him in the neck." If you look at a mail coat such as Frodo is described as wearing, you'll see that the neck is not covered by the mail at all - it's like a T-shirt neckline. That's why no one could see it under his clothes until they opened his shirt after the Mines of Moria. It's also why knights habitually wore a gorget (neckpiece) or aventail (sort of a mail neck-scarf that attaches to a helmet) - to protect an otherwise bare neck. Shelob did not have to pierce the mail - Frodo's neck was bare.