So who really 💀killed the Nazgul Lord?

[DGoeij]

At least the ones in those Greek mythologies always came back in a nasty way. How much the one who was mentioned tried to avoid the faith, it never helped.

 

[Cian]

Into the mix:

"Sam does not 'sink his blade into the Ringwraith's thigh', nor does his thrust save Frodo's life. (If he had, the result would have been much the same as in III 117-20: the Wraith would have fallen down and the sword would have been destroyed.) JRRT Letters

 

[Bucky]

>>>And the Which-king was already a Ring-wraith at this point. But it might
have been an older prophecy anyway I suppose.

Yes, but it was not known that he was the King of the Ringwraiths at that point......

 

[aragil]

Not to mention the fact that Earnur was perfectly willing to go after the Witch-King. From what I can get from Tolkien's conception of the Nazgul, the Witch-king was special in getting the prophecy, and I'm sure that 'the prophecy' is the words of Glorifindel. This makes me think that the other Nazgul could be killed by a 'man'. The Nazgul still had a physical (invisible) form- Merry's sword thrust severs tendons. The River would not kill the Nazgul since they were undead and did not have to breath (although they could still hiss and 'sniff'). However the river would do a lot of damage to their invisible physical form, forcing them to lay low at least until Jan 25th, when Legolas shoots down the fellbeast. I still say that the other Nazgul had a physical form vulnerable to weapons, and would have been as 'easy' to slay as the Witch King. After all, the Ruling Ring could not even spare Frodo from Gollum's teeth, how could the lesser Rings protect the Wraiths from a sword upside the head?

 

[Bucky]

I think the answer is that Frodo wasn't bound up & a slave to his Ring to the point where he had permanently entered the Wraith world. He was still a 'mortal' who just posessed the Ring & hadn't teven tried to master it to his will.

BTW, if a regular sword to the head could kill the other 8, why wouldn't a 'carion bird' crash from hundreds or several thousand feet after Legolas hits it with the arrow?

 

[aragil]

The SR-71 fellbeast was flying low when struck by Legolas's Surface-to-Air Arrow. Even so, it was distressing to the pilot, who let out a mourful wail while ejecting (I believe), no doubt in anticipation of a painful landing in the undergrowth of the East bank.

On a somewhat-related note, I believe that the 9 were sans-rings for the latter part of the 3rd Age, a trick by Sauron to bind them more closely to his will. In this sense, they were not really in posession of the Rings, so I'm not sure that they would have benefitted from any protection that said rings could confer. The possible exception was the Witch-King, who was allowed to attack Minas Tirith with all of his terrifying power. This might be an indication that Sauron loaned the Naz back to his #1 Gul. In any case, even with the ring, the Witch King was slain by a 'normal' weapon after the 'spells binding the sinews to his will' were disrupted. I don't see how even ancient Arthedainian swordsmiths could empower a dagger to disrupt the spells of a ring of power, so I assume that the spells which Merry disrupted were those of the Witch King himself. The bottom line is that without these spells the Witch King, mightiest of all the Nazgul, was vulnerable to Eowyn's sword. I assume that this went for the other 8 as well.