InTheChair
Rohan
Apr 18 2017, 5:33pm
Post #2 of 2
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Thus, with the Nazgúl emerging in the year 2251, would indicate that the Nine received their respective Rings sometime between 1600 (the creation of the One Ring) and 1800 – allowing over 500 years for them to acquire extraordinary power and slowly turn into wraiths.
Only if one assumes that all nine of them emerged at once, and that none of the rings changed owner over the years. The statement might be applied to the witch-king though, if one assumes that his prominence comes from beeing more experienced than the others. But that also is a guess.
The Witch-king, leader of the Nine, would most probably have been one of these Black Númenóreans, who came to conquer and settle on Middle-earth’s shores.
Why so? I do not see this at all. The witch-king by his actions seems to have more hate for the Dunedain. This could of course indicate that he was a Black Numenorean, but he could just as well be from the East or South, or even from those same lands that the Dunedain would eventually colonize as their own.
Also the Nazgul like all of Tolkiens characters morphed throughout the authoring process. The witch-king started out as the Wizard-king, originally one of Gandalfs order, and early concept suggest him not even beeing fully under the spell yet, needing to put on his ring in order to become Nazgul.
It’s fascinating to consider this small point in relation to three of the Ringwraiths being Númenóreans. In Unfinished Tales, Christopher Tolkien writes: “At the Ford of Bruinen only the Witch-King and two others, with the lure of the Ring straight before them, had dared the river” (‘The Hunt for the Ring’, Note 3).
I find this to be a stretch. It is as mentioned the lure of the ring that gave them the courage, no matter what their backgroud. While Khamul was considered the number two, he might not have been one of the three, as I recall something about him beeing more powerless than the others in daylight and near water.
The final two sources from which the Nazgûl could have originated, are the regions of Eriador and the White Mountains.
Sure. But they might just as well have originated from the norhtwest, or from the regions where Gondor would later be. Without any more specific references it's just wild guesses.
(This post was edited by InTheChair on Apr 18 2017, 5:35pm)
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