Nazgûl

According to Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, the Nazgûl arose as Sauron's most powerful servants in the Second Age of Middle-earth. They were once mortal men; three being "great lords" of Númenor. Sauron gave each of them one of nine Rings of Power. Ultimately, however, they were bound to the One Ring and completely enslaved by the will of Sauron.

Those who used the Nine Rings became mighty in their day, kings, sorcerers, and warriors of old. They obtained glory and great wealth, yet it turned to their downfall. They had, as it seemed, unending life, yet life became unendurable to them. They could walk, if they would, unseen by all eyes in this world beneath the sun, and they could see things in worlds invisible to mortal men; but too often they beheld only the phantoms and delusions of Sauron. And one by one, sooner or later, according to their native strength and to the good or evil of their wills in the beginning, they fell under the thraldom of the ring that they bore and of the domination of the One which was Sauron's. And they became forever invisible save to him that wore the Ruling Ring, and they entered into the realm of shadows. The Nazgûl were they, the Ringwraiths, the Úlairi, the Enemy's most terrible servants; darkness went with them, and they cried with the voices of death. — The Silmarillion, "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age", 346

The corrupting effect of the rings extended the bearers' earthly lives far beyond their normal lifespans. Some passages in the novel suggest that the Nazgûl wore their rings, while others suggest that Sauron actually held them.

In a letter from circa 1963 Tolkien says explicitly that Sauron held the rings:

They would have obeyed . . . any minor command of his that did not interfere with their errand — laid upon them by Sauron, who still through their nine rings (which he held) had primary control of their wills . . . — The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, Letter 246

They were by far the most powerful of his servants, and the most suitable for such a mission, since they were entirely enslaved to their Nine Rings, which he now himself held . . . — Unfinished Tales, p. 338

The Nazgûl are called Úlairi (a plural) in Quenya, one of Tolkien's invented languages. Tolkien stated that three of the Nazgûl were great Númenórean lords;[T 2] in his notes for translators, Tolkien speculates that the Witch-king of Angmar was of Númenórean origin.[T 3]

They are also called the Fell Riders and the Black Wings (when they ride the fell beasts), as well as the Shadows, the Servants of Sauron, and the Nine Servants of the Lord of the Rings. The Orcs of the Tower of Cirith Ungol call them Shriekers.

In her duel with the Witch-king, Éowyn calls him a "dwimmerlaik". This represents a word in Rohirric, the speech of Rohan, translated into Anglo-Saxon; Tolkien glosses it in the index as a "work of necromancy", a "spectre". It derives from Anglo-Saxon (ge)dwimor, "phantom, illusion" and -leikr, the Old Norse ending corresponding to Anglo-Saxon -lac, meaning "a state or act".[1]

Only two of the Nazgûl are named or identified individually in Tolkien's works. The chief of the Nazgûl, the Witch-king, is the only individual Nazgûl identified in The Lord of the Rings. Also known as the Lord of the Nazgûl and the Black Captain, he is a character in Tolkien's legendarium. Writings unpublished in Tolkien's lifetime also identify his second-in-command as Khamûl, the "Black Easterling" or the "Shadow of the East".[T 4] In the text of The Lord of the Rings, after the fall of the Lord of the Nazgûl, command of Mordor's army in the field falls to Gothmog, the "lieutenant of Morgul".[T 5]

The Nazgûl wore their rings for so long that their physical forms faded away: they became entirely invisible to mortal eyes. Their black robes gave them visible form. While wearing the One Ring during their assault on Weathertop, Frodo saw them as pale figures robed in white, with "haggard hands" and wearing crowns. The Witch-king specifically was taller than the others, with "long and gleaming" hair. During the assault on Minas Tirith, the leader of the Nine, the Witch-king, cast back his hood to reveal a crown, but the head that wore it was invisible.[T 6]

Having no physical bodies, they cannot be destroyed by conventional means: ordinary weapons, especially, have no effect on them.

Some of their senses, especially smell, are enhanced. As the Nazgûl hunted Frodo across The Shire, they can hear what they think to be snuffling, and sometimes sees them crawling/crouching on the ground. On Weathertop, Aragorn explains that they smell the blood of living things at all times. They can also keenly feel the presence of others, more-so than mortals. Their sight works differently as well:

They themselves do not see the world of light as we do, but our shapes cast shadows in their minds, which only the noon sun destroys; and in the dark they perceive many signs and forms that are hidden from us: then they are most to be feared. — "A Knife in the Dark", The Fellowship of the Ring, p. 237

Since they cannot see the daylight world as living beings can, they may use spies or even their mounts, which are real animals, to see for them. More generally, they are attracted by the One Ring, when they are in its vicinity.

In The Fellowship of the Ring, they were armed with steel swords, while the Witch-king wielded a Morgul blade that could turn its victim into a wraith.

During the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, the Witch-king bore a "long pale sword", and later used a mace against Éowyn.

The Witch-king practiced black magic, and used it to break the gates of Minas Tirith. Tolkien said of the Nazgûl "... their chief weapon was terror. This was actually greater when they were unclad and invisible; and it was greater also when they were gathered together."[T 7] They exuded an aura of fear:

The Nazgûl came again ... like vultures that expect their fill of doomed men's flesh. Out of sight and shot they flew, and yet were ever present, and their deadly voices rent the air. More unbearable they became, not less, at each new cry. At length even the stout-hearted would fling themselves to the ground as the hidden menace passed over them, or they would stand, letting their weapons fall from nerveless hands while into their minds a blackness came, and they thought no more of war, but only of hiding and of crawling, and of death. — The Return of the King, p. 97

Close or prolonged encounters with a Nazgûl caused unconsciousness, nightmares, and eventual death: an effect known as "the Black Breath". Aragorn used the herb athelas to treat victims of the Black Breath, including Frodo, Faramir, Éowyn, and Merry.

After losing their horses at the Ford of Bruinen, the Nazgûl returned to Mordor and reappeared mounted on hideous flying beasts; Beregond called them "Hell Hawks". Tolkien describes them as "fell beasts", though Tolkien applies the adjective fell ("fierce, cruel") to a variety of other creatures throughout The Lord of the Rings — even at one point to Gandalf. In a letter, he calls the winged mounts "Nazgûl-birds".[T 8] In the absence of a proper name, derivative works sometimes press "fellbeast" or "fell-beast" into service.[2]

The flying steeds figure prominently in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, where the Witch-king rides one against King Théoden of Rohan. Tolkien describes the Witch-king's mount thus:

... it was a winged creature: if bird, then greater than all other birds, and it was naked, and neither quill nor feather did it bear, and its vast pinions were as webs of hide between horned fingers; and it stank. A creature of an older world maybe it was ...[T 9]

A few paragraphs later, it is said to attack with "beak and claw".[T 9]

Tolkien once wrote that he "did not intend the steed of the Witch-king to be what is now called a 'pterodactyl'", while acknowledging that it was "obviously ... pterodactylic and owes much" to the "new ... mythology of the 'Prehistoric'", and might even be "a last survivor of older geological eras."[T 10]

The Appendices of The Return of the King explain that the Nazgûl first appeared around S.A. 2251, some 700 years after the rings were forged, and were soon established as Sauron's principal servants. They were dispersed after the first overthrow of Sauron in S.A. 3441 at the hands of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, but their survival was assured since the One Ring survived. They re-emerged around T.A. 1300, when the Witch-king led Sauron's forces against the successor kingdoms of Arnor: Rhudaur, Cardolan, and Arthedain. He effectively destroyed all the successor kingdoms, but was defeated in T.A. 1975 and returned to Mordor. There, he gathered the other Nazgûl in preparation for the return of Sauron to that realm.

A shield displaying the moon of Minas Morgul

In T.A. 2000, the Nazgûl besieged Minas Ithil and, after two years, captured it and acquired its palantír for Sauron. The city thereafter became Minas Morgul, the stronghold of the Nazgûl. Sauron returned to Mordor in T.A. 2942 and declared himself openly in T.A. 2951. Two or three of the Nazgûl were sent to garrison Dol Guldur, his fortress in Mirkwood.

Minas Morgul appeared in Peter Jackson's film trilogy The Lord of the Rings: first in The Fellowship of the Ring, when the Nazgûl leave the city and ride towards the Shire to pursue the One Ring. It features again when Frodo and Sam make their way towards Cirith Ungol. These sets were designed by John Howe.[3]

By T.A. 3017, near the beginning of the story told in The Lord of the Rings, Sauron had learned from Gollum that Bilbo Baggins of The Shire had acquired the One Ring. Sauron entrusted its recovery to the Nazgûl. They reappeared "west of the River", riding black horses that were bred or trained in Mordor to endure their terror. They learned that the Ring had passed to Bilbo's heir, Frodo, and followed him and his companions to Bree. Aragorn arrived ahead of them and hid the Hobbits from their pursuers, but eventually five of the Nazgûl cornered Frodo and his company at Weathertop, where the Witch-king stabbed Frodo in the shoulder with the Morgul blade, breaking off a piece of it in the Hobbit's flesh. When all Nine were swept away by the waters of the river Bruinen, their horses were drowned, and the Ringwraiths were forced to return to Mordor to regroup.

In 3018, the nine companions of the Fellowship of the Ring left Rivendell as the "Nine Walkers", in opposition to the Nazgûl, the "Nine Riders". The latter reappeared mounted on hideous flying beasts (reminiscent of — and in part suggested by — pterodactyls).[T 11][T 12] They were then called Winged Nazgûl.

During the Battle of the Pelennor Fields (portrayed in Return of the King), the Witch-king himself was slain by Éowyn and Merry: Merry's surreptitious stroke with an enchanted Barrow-blade drove the Witch-king to his knees, allowing Éowyn, the niece of Théoden, to drive her sword between his crown and mantle. Thus was the Witch-king destroyed by a woman and a Hobbit, fulfilling the prophecy that "not by the hand of man will he fall".[T 13] Both weapons that pierced him disintegrated, and both assailants were stricken with the Black Breath.

The remaining eight Ringwraiths attacked the Army of the West during the last battle at the Black Gate. When Frodo claimed the Ring for his own near the fires of Mount Doom, Sauron ordered the eight to fly to intercept him. They arrived too late, however: Gollum seized the Ring and fell into the Cracks of Doom, and the Nazgûl were extinguished by its destruction.

The Nazgûl, as portrayed in Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated film version

The Nazgûl are featured in adaptations of The Lord of the Rings on radio, film, and stage.

In Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated film version of The Lord of the Rings, the Nazgûl hack and slash the Hobbits' beds at The Prancing Pony inn themselves. In the book, the assailants are not precisely identified.[T 15] After the beds are destroyed, the Ringwraiths remove their hoods, revealing hideous black masks and the armour they wear beneath their cloaks. They remain unhooded, but masked, throughout the remainder of the film. Later one of the Nazgûl is shown riding a winged creature.

A Nazgûl portrayed in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy

In the Rankin-Bass adaptation of The Return of the King, the Nazgûl are robed skeletons with white hair. They ride winged horses, although the Witch-king rides a creature more in line with the book when he confronts Éowyn.

In the 1981 BBC Radio serial of The Lord of the Rings, the Nazgûl chant the Ring-inscription.[6]

In The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy (2001–2003) by Peter Jackson, the Nazgûl are almost always concealed by cloaks; however, they appear as white ghostly corpses to Frodo when he is wearing the Ring. The Nazgûl attack the inn themselves. Their deafeningly loud shrieks and fell beasts are highlighted. During the siege of Minas Tirith, the Witch-king wears a distinctive helmet over his hood resembling a mask and a crown, rather than the crown worn underneath his hood in the book. Their shrieks are distorted recordings of producer and screenwriter Fran Walsh's scream.[7]

John Howe's illustration of the Witch-king's flying steed drove the design of the monsters in Peter Jackson's films.

All nine Nazgûl are shown onscreen riding winged monsters. Jackson's monsters explicitly differ from Tolkien's description in that they have teeth instead of beaks. The Nazgûl use them in battle more extensively than in the book. In the film the Witch-king's mount is largely responsible for the death of Théoden and his horse Snowmane, while in the book Snowmane is killed by a "black dart", crushing Théoden as he falls. As confirmed in the films' audio commentary, the design of the monsters was based largely on illustrations by the artist John Howe, who was the films' conceptual designer.[8][9]

In The Hunt for Gollum (2009) Aragorn fights a Ringwraith on the borders of Mirkwood. The Hunt for Gollum puts more emphasis on the Nazgûl's physical strength: Aragorn is shown physically struggling as he pushes his sword against that of the Nazgûl.

In The Hobbit movie trilogy (2012–2014) by Peter Jackson, a prequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the men who became the Nazgûl are said to have been buried and sealed within the High Fells of Rhudaur. In the first film, Radagast briefly encounters the Witch-king while investigating Dol Guldur, and gives the Nazgûl's Morgul dagger to Gandalf to present at the White Council as proof of their return. In the second film, at Galadriel's behest, Gandalf heads to the High Fells and finds that all the Nazgûl have left the tomb. This confirms the Necromancer's identity as Sauron, as the Nazgûl appear alongside their master in the third film in spectral forms wearing Morgul armour and fight Elrond and Saruman before being driven away by Galadriel.

The Nazgûl are featured in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and its sequel Middle-earth: Shadow of War. In the latter, Isildur is revealed to be one of the Nazgûl before he is killed by the game's protagonist, Talion. Talion takes Isildur's ring to prolong his life and eventually became Isildur's replacement until the demise of the Nazgûl in the Return of the King.

The early Middle-earth Role Playing games (and material derived from them) name the eight other than Khamûl; Er-Murazor (the Witch-king, of Númenórean race), Dwar of Waw, Ji Indûr Dawndeath, Akhôrahil (Númenórean), Hoarmûrath of Dír, Adûnaphel the Quiet (female Númenórean), Ren the Unclean and Ûvatha the Horseman,[10] however, none of these names come from Tolkien's writings.

In The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game, chiefly based on the Jackson films, the Nazgûl are called The Witch King, Úlairë Attëa (The Easterling), Úlairë Nelya, Úlairë Cantëa, Úlairë Lemenya, Úlairë Enquëa, Úlairë Otsëa, Úlairë Toldëa and Úlairë Nertëa. These are not new names: Úlairë is a reconstructed Quenya singular "Ringwraith" (the singular of Q. pl. Úlairi is not directly attested), and the second word is simply an ordinal number from second to ninth.

For the expansion to its real-time strategy game The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II, The Rise of the Witch-king — chiefly based on the Jackson films and building much upon the original writings — Electronic Arts invented the name Morgomir for one of the Nazgûl. This appears to be a pastiche of the Sindarin words Morgoth ("Dark Enemy") and mîr ("jewel"); it is not attested in Tolkien's Elvish languages.

In The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game, the Witch-king and Khamûl the Easterling retain the titles Tolkien gave them. The other seven are given honorific titles emphasising aspects of how they are used in the game: The Dark Marshal, The Shadow Lord, The Undying, The Tainted, The Betrayer, The Knight of Umbar and The Dwimmerlaik.

In The Heart of the Wild and The Darkening of Mirkwood, supplements for the tabletop role-playing game The One Ring, the three Nazgûl sent to Dol Guldur in T.A. 2951 are named in honorific form as "The Lieutenant of Dol Guldur", "The Ghost of the Forest", and "The Messenger of Mordor".[11][12]

In the Middle-earth: Shadow of War video game, named Nazgûl include, in addition to Isildur and Talion, Helm Hammerhand (a king of Rohan) and Suladan, an original character for the game. In the expansion "The Blade of Galadriel", two rogue Nazgûl (both female and unnamed) are also revealed. None of these Nazgûl are considered canon with any of the source material.

Merchandise from Weta Workshop identifies one of the Nine as "the Ringwraith of Forod",[13] (literally, the Ringwraith of the North).

This list identifies each item's location in Tolkien's writings.