Did all of the 💀Nazgul have flying beasts?

[ArAgOrN]

here's my question:
the nine riders, do the all get the winged horses or is it only a couple? if you can help thanks!

 

[Ithrynluin]

I don't have any quotes to support this,but then again I don't think any evidence exists. Perhaps there is only some vague sentence like "The Nazgul were circling in the air" in ROTK.
First the Nine all had horses but then those perished and they were given winged beasts so they would be faster and thus more efficient.

 

[Húrin Thalion]

Didn't Pippin see all nine flying against him when looking into the palantír? Otherwise I do not know.

Welcome to the forum ArAgOrN

 

[Lantarion]

Each Nazgûl received his own winged beast (not a winged horse!! ). Olny the Witch-King's steed is talked about in more detail.

 

[Eriol]

I think that all (eight surviving) Nazgul flew to Orodruin after Frodo claimed the Ring for himself... and surely the beasts had mothers and fathers, i.e., there were more than nine.

 

[Killabee3]

in thought quite a few of the Nazgul got destroyed when crossing the river to get in to lorein?

 

[Thorin]

Originally posted by Killabee3
in thought quite a few of the Nazgul got destroyed when crossing the river to get in to lorein?

It was to Rivendell, not Lorien, and the Nazgul were not destroyed. They lost their physical form. Gandalf himself said that the wraiths could not easily be destroyed because their fate was tied up with the ring. As long as the ring existed, they existed. The nine rings they wore were tied to Sauron's one ring. That is how he enslaved them to begin with.

 

[Niniel]

Eriol, it doesn't say that there were 8 Nazgul that rode to Orodruin when Frodo destroyed the Ring. But I guess that if one of them was killed, it would have been mentioned somewhere.

 

[mr underhill]

yeah err didnt merry or pippin ( i have a short memory ) kill the witch-king?

 

[Eriol]

Eriol, it doesn't say that there were 8 Nazgul that rode to Orodruin when Frodo destroyed the Ring. But I guess that if one of them was killed, it would have been mentioned somewhere.

I think you are forgetting the Witch-King, my friend.

I clearly remember that when Sauron realized his peril, the Nazgul abandoned the field of battle and flew to Orodruin with all their speed... oh, I see your point -- it doesn't say there were eight on the field of battle. Well, what I was trying to say is that they all had flying mounts. Even if they were not actually on the battle (some could be hanging with Sauron in Barad-dûr, I'll have to check on that), all of them who had mounts flew to Orodruin.

 

[Dáin Ironfoot I]

If there were eight left after Eowyn killed the Witch-King, then what was the thing that Legolas killed on Anduin? Was that not a Nazgul's steed? Maybe it was just flying by itself...

 

[Ithrynluin]

It doesn't necessarily mean that Legolas killed the winged steed. He could have just wounded it.

 

[Khamul]

When you think about it, could these same steeds be similiar to the horses of Valinor given to the Rohirrim?

Thus spoke a forgotten poet long ago in Rohan, recalling how tall and fair was Eorl the Young, who rode down out of the North; and there were wings upon the feet of his steed, Felaróf, father of horses. So men still sing in the evening.'

They could have been perverted to the uses of Sauron, or even back to the days of Melkor.

In a low hesitating voice Pippin began again, and slowly his words grew clearer and stronger. 'I saw a dark sky, and tall battlements,' he said. 'And tiny stars. It seemed very far away and long ago, yet hard and clear. Then the stars went in and out-they were cut off by things with wings. Very big, I think, really; but in the glass they looked like bats wheeling round the tower. I thought there were nine of them. One began to fly straight towards me, getting bigger and bigger. It had a horrible – no, no! I can't say.

Pippin only saw one of the Nazgul in the Palantir, before speaking to Sauron himself.

 

[Mablung]

Originally posted by Dáin Ironfoot I
If there were eight left after Eowyn killed the Witch-King, then what was the thing that Legolas killed on Anduin? Was that not a Nazgul's steed? Maybe it was just flying by itself...

It doesn't necessarily mean that Legolas killed the winged steed. He could have just wounded it.

The steed was actually killed and here I quote from The Two Towers "The White Rider" chapter from Gandalf. "You only slew his steed. It was a good deed; but the Rider was soon horsed again." It may look like he is talking of a horse but in the overall context in which Im too lazy to type out they are talking about the winged ones clearly.

 

[Dáin Ironfoot I]

Right... but was this steed mounted by a Nazgul at the time, or was it flying around by itself? Actually, I guess this is a question that can't be answered with facts, only speculation.

 

[Mablung]

Well it says that the Rider was soon horsed again meaning he had to lose his mount in the first place granted he could have sent his mount ahead I however think it more likely that he was on it.

 

[aragil]

from Letter 246 to Mrs Eileen Elgar, discussing the eight remaining Nazgul if they had confronted Frodo at Mt. Doom
The situation as between Frodo with the Ring and the Eight might be compared to that of a small brave man armed with a devastating weapon, faced by eight savage warriors of great strength and agility armed with poisoned blades.

In the text itself there is a footnote explaining that there are only eight because the Witch-King was made inconsequential at Pelannor. I'd say that this is pretty good evidence that Tolkien intended all the remaining eight Nazgul to be mounted on winged steeds and able to ride to Orodruin, as Eriol suggested.
Before Sting can start a "Balrogs and Horses: which have bigger Wings?" thread, here is yet another quote from Letters:

From Letter 211 To Rhona Beare
Pterodactyl. Yes and no. I did not intend the steed of the Witch-King to be what is now called a 'pterodactyl', and often is drawn (with rather less shadowy evidence than lies behind many monsters of the new and fascinating semi-scientific mythology of the 'Prehistoric'). But obviously it is pterodactylic and owes much to the new mythology, and its description even provides a sort of way in which it could be a last survivor of older geological eras.

I don't think Tolkien is describing a horse with wings here (Rankin/Bass Return of the King had it way wrong).

 

[Eriol]

I could be way off here, but... when we see a winged beast through the eyes of Merry when he is fighting alongside Éowyn, isn't the beast reptilian? I think it is even said something like "a distant relative of the dragons". Gotta check that.

 

[aragil]

From Letter 211 To Rhona Beare
Pterodactyl. Yes and no. I did not intend the steed of the Witch-King to be what is now called a 'pterodactyl', ... But obviously it is pterodactylic and owes much to the new mythology, and its description even provides a sort of way in which it could be a last survivor of older geological eras.

This is Tolkien himself describing the beast to a fan of the books in Letters. I think it pretty well describes the beast as something pterodactylic.

 

[Glomund]

They all had flying steeds, in RotK, before the morrannon, the host of the west sees "all" of the Nazgul gathered together, (all meaning the remaining 8.) hovering like vultures above the towers of the teeth.