The Nazgûl; also called Ringwraiths, Ring-wraiths, Black Riders, Dark Riders, the Nine Riders,
or simply the Nine are characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. They
were nine men who succumbed to Sauron's power and attained near-immortality as wraiths,
servants bound to the power of the One Ring and completely under the dominion of Sauron.
They are first mentioned in The Lord of the Rings, originally published in 1954–1955.
The book calls the Nazgûl Sauron's "most terrible servants".
In Tolkien's writings Ringwraiths
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 undoing. 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 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
Appearance and characteristics The Nazgûl wore their rings long enough that
their physical forms faded away until they had become entirely invisible to mortal eyes.
Their black robes gave them visible form. During the assault on Minas Tirith, the leader
of the Nine, the Witch-king of Angmar, cast back his hood to reveal a crown, but the head
that wore it was invisible. While wearing the One Ring, Frodo perceived them as pale
figures robed in white, with "haggard hands" and wearing crowns.
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." 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.
History within the legendarium 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 1975 and returned to Mordor. There he gathered
the other Nazgûl in preparation for the return of Sauron to that realm.
In 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 2942 and declared himself openly in 2951. Two or
three of the Nazgûl were sent to garrison Dol Guldur, his fortress in Mirkwood.
By 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 the One Ring in his possession. 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. They were then called Winged Nazgûl. During the Battle of the Pelennor Fields,
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".
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 perished with its destruction. Adaptations
The Nazgûl are featured in all 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, but Tolkien
implies that the attack was carried out by agents of the Nazgûl, possibly including
one Bill Ferny, rather than the Nazgûl themselves. Another thing to note is that after the beds
are destroyed, the Ringwraths remove their hoods, revealing hideous black masks and the
armour they wear beneath their cloaks. As such, they are unhooded, but masked, throughout
the remainder of the film. In the Rankin-Bass adaptation of The Return
of the King, the Nazgûl are robed skeletons with white hair.
In the 1981 BBC Radio serial of The Lord of the Rings, the Nazgûl can be heard chanting
the Ring-inscription. In the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy by
Peter Jackson, the Nazgûl also attack the inn themselves. Emphasis is given to their
loud shrieks, which are made deafening, and their use of the fell beasts in battle is
expanded, notably at the siege of Minas Tirith, when they destroy numerous trebuchets and
kill many soldiers. The cries of the Nazgûl as interpreted in Peter Jackson's films are
mixed from that of his partner and co-screenwriter, Fran Walsh.
In The Hunt for Gollum 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: An Unexpected Journey the White Council claims that the Witch-king of Angmar
was killed when Angmar was defeated, and that his enemies buried him in a tomb protected
by enchantments. It is implied that the Witch-king has been raised from the dead by Sauron, explaining
why he is called the Necromancer. This is a major departure from The Lord of the Rings
and The Silmarillion, in which the Witch-king escapes after the destruction of Angmar, and
Glorfindel makes a prophecy that he would not meet his death at the hand of man; in
both the book and film version of Return of the King, the prophecy is fulfilled when the
Witch-king is killed by a woman, Éowyn. In The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, it turns
out the rest of the Nazgûl were sealed in the same tomb. Gandalf and Radagast visit
it and find it empty. In other media
The Nazgûl are featured in many products based on Tolkien's writings, more recently
the Jackson films. Some examples include the real-time strategy
computer games The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring, not based on the Jackson films,
and The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth and its sequels,The Lord of the
Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II and its expansion pack The Rise of the Witch-king,
which are based on the films. In The Battle for Middle-earth games, each of the Ringwraiths
wields a Morgul blade. In The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring
the Witch-king is a hero for the Evil faction, similar to the movie-based games. In The Rise
of the Witch-king there are three named Ringwraiths: the Witch-king, Khamûl, and "Morgomir", Lieutenant
of Carn Dûm. While a player uses the Mordor faction, Morgomir is a cloaked Nazgûl, but
if a player is to use the Angmar faction, while the Witch-king has no change to his
appearance, Morgomir fits Frodo's vision of a Nazgûl: he has pale skin, white hair and
a crown. Morgomir's name is invented for the game, developed by Electronic Arts.
In the massive multiplayer online role-playing game The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows
of Angmar, the Nazgûl, in particular the Witch-king, play a prominent part in the storyline;
the premise is to fight the armies of the Witch-king in his realm of Angmar. In the
The Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood expansion, players can fight an actual Ringwraith
in the tower of Dol Guldur. In the Middle-earth Collectible Card Game
produced by Iron Crown Enterprises, most of the Nazgûl have invented names, shared with
Middle-earth Role Playing by the same company. Liz Danforth created the art for each of the
Nazgûl in the game. George R. R. Martin's novel The Armageddon
Rag is about a rock band named the Nazgûl. The band's manager and promoter is referred
to as Sauron, its lead singer is nicknamed Hobbit, and its logo is an Eye of Mordor.
Many of its song and album titles make reference to Tolkien's Middle-earth.
The term Ringwraith is used in the song "The Battle of Evermore" by classic rock band Led
Zeppelin, in the line "the ringwraiths ride in black". The Swedish black metal band Marduk
has a song called "Those of the Unlight" which was written about the Nazgûl.
Epic symphonic Serbian band Númenor based their song Once we were Kings on the story
about Nazgûl. Moreover, on the cover for their second full-length Sword and Sorcery
appears a figure with much references to Witch-King. The song Shadows by Swedish Power Metal band
Sabaton is about the Ringwraiths quest to obtain the ring. The Nazgûl are given the
epithet "Black Knights of Sauron"; the Witch-King himself is called "Black Shadow King".
Names, titles and terms The Nazgûl are called Úlairi in Tolkien's
invented language of Quenya. They are also called the Fell Riders and the
Black Wings, 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 is a word in Rohirric,
the speech of Rohan that Tolkien glosses in the index as a "work of necromancy", a "spectre".
Only two of the Nazgûl are named or identified individually in Tolkien's works. Their leader
was the Witch-king of Angmar, and his second in command was named Khamûl, the "black Easterling"
or the "shadow of the East". Tolkien stated that three of them were great Númenórean
lords; in his notes for translators, Tolkien speculates that the Witch-king was of Númenórean
origin. Khamûl was a lord of the Easterlings, and the only Nazgûl whose name is given.
Names not created by Tolkien The early Middle-earth Role Playing games
name the eight other than Khamûl; Er-Murazor, Dwar of Waw, Ji Indûr Dawndeath, Akhôrahil,
Hoarmûrath of Dír, Adûnaphel the Quiet, Ren the Unclean and Ûvatha the Horseman,
but 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, 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", 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 and mîr; 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: Adventures
over the Edge of the Wild, 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". Steeds
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 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". In the absence of a proper name, derivative works
sometimes press "fellbeast" or "fell-beast" into service.
The flying steeds figure prominently in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, where the Witch-king
of Angmar, the Lord of the Nazgûl, 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 ...
A few paragraphs later, it is said to attack with "beak and claw".
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." In Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated version of
The Lord of the Rings, one of the Nazgûl is shown riding these creatures. In the Rankin-Bass
1980 animated version of The Return of the King, the Nazgûl ride winged horses, although
the Witch-king does ride a creature more in line with the book when he confronts Éowyn.
In Peter Jackson's film trilogy based on The Lord of the Rings, all nine Nazgûl are shown
onscreen riding them. Jackson's creatures 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 creatures was based largely on illustrations by artist John Howe.