Yes, I have a question: who will be answering such questions now that
Bard the Bowman, the author of Nardor and the only person who ever gave a toss about it, has been banninated?
I shall take this grave and solemn duty upon myself, as keeper of Bard's legacy. As such, let me tell you a bit of the lore of Nardor that came to me after a careful examination of
Tolkien's text and dropping a lot of acid:
It is a little known fact that the
Fell Beasts, famed as mounts of the
Nazgul, were native to Nardor and only became part of the Dark One's army after he conquered that land. Previously, the Fell Beasts were known as Sparkleponies, which in the Nardorian dialect of
Adunaic means "adorable fluffy winged critter." You see, during the days of Nardor's supremacy, the Sparkleponies often had lustrous coats in all the colors of the rainbow. Pink ones were especially prized, and the emblem of the royal house of Nardor (the descendants of
Maglor and
Tuor) was a pink Sparklepony. The Nardorians would ride their Sparkleponies as
Elves would
horses, without bridle or saddle. Sparkleponies, being naturally gentle
creatures of good humor, would often converse with their human companions, and tea parties were the commonly accepted means of social interaction between esteemed elder Sparkleponies and Nardorians of good breeding.
When
Sauron conquered Nardor, he had all the Sparkleponies shaved of their adorable fur and forced them to wear saddles when carrying his
Ringwraiths about. The slavery and ensuing inhumane conditions caused the deaths of many Sparkleponies due to heartbreak. Many more died as a result of suffocation on the noxious gases belching forth from Orodruin or the even more noxious gases that issued from
the Nine every time Sauron made his famous five-alarm chili. (In reality, the recipe was one of
Morgoth's. As
the Wise may recount,
Melkor was the author of the cayenne pepper, which, like all his works, was meant for
evil but in the end redounded to the delicious.)
However, the Sparkleponies, like all Nardorians, played an important role in defeating Sauron: if the
Witch-King's Sparklepony, who was originally named Petalblossom before her capture and enslavement, had not allowed
Eowyn to slay her, the Witch-King's knee would have remained outside of the reach of
Meriadoc Brandybuck. In this way, Petalblossom redeemed both herself and all the
race of Sparkleponies, and was instrumental in bringing freedom to the lands of
Middle-Earth.
In recognition of their service to
Gondor,
King Elessar declared that he would personally participate in the mass shaving of horses until he had gathered enough fur to make full-body wigs for the remaining Sparkleponies. Their
gratitude towards Gondor was eternal, and, in the peace and tranquility of the
Fourth Age, eventually their numbers grew to the point where the Reunited Kingdom was able to launch an Osgiliath-Annuminas airline.