(This posts follows along the same line as Snaga’s; I hope it adds to the discussion.)
Kalmanluin said:
How long was the
Witch-King alive when he was still human?
It seems to me that he was alive for all of
the Third Age, and perhaps some of the
Second Age as well.
The Nine Rings were made during the Second Age between the years 1500 and 1590 by the Mírdain, the Noldorin smiths of Ost-en-Edhil led by
Celebrimbor.
Sauron in the guise of
Annatar had a hand in their manufacture. Sauron completed
the One Ring sometime after II 1600, and launched a war against the
Elves in
Eriador (both Celebrimbor in Eregion and
Gil-galad in
Lindon) when the Eldar resisted his attempt to trap them using
the Rings of Power. He was able to seize the Nine and perhaps at least six of the Seven Rings. (The
Dwarves maintained that
the Ring possessed by the House of
Durin (
Thorin’s ancestors) was given to them by Celebrimbor and not by Sauron.)
Gil-galad appealed to the
Númenóreans for military assistance, and in 1700, Tar-Minastir landed a large force at two separate beachheads, one in Lindon to support Gil-galad, who had been forced back to the line of the Lune, and one at Vinyalondë (Lond Daer) at the mouth of the Gwathló/Greyflood River. The Tale of Years (Appendix B in the
Return of the King) says that around the year 1800 of the Second Age, the “Númenóreans begin to establish dominions... The Shadow falls on
Númenor.” I think it was around this time that Sauron passed three of the Nine Rings to Númenóreans in
Middle-earth, one of whom eventually became the
Witch-king of Angmar.
There is a dispute as to which generation of Númenóreans the future Witch-king belongs. I argue in an essay I wrote some time ago, “
Origins of the Nazgûl and the Downfall of Númenor,” that he was probably a contemporary and close kinsman of Tar-Ciryatan, who was born in 1634. (Personally, I believe he was a younger brother of Tar-Ciryatan, and hence a royal prince: that would explain his arrogance, as well as his bearing and demeanor.) Other people who have studied this material believe he belongs to the previous generation, that of Tar-Minastir, who was born in 1474. Some have argued that he belongs to an even earlier generation, that of Tar-Telperiën, the second Ruling Queen; but in all probability, that would make him too old to have been in Middle-earth long after the War of the Elves and Sauron in 1700, and thus unavailable for Sauron to ensnare. On the other hand, were he a contemporary of Tar-Atanamir, who was born in 1800, he would have been too young to have been ensnared and become a
Ringwraith by 2251. (He’d have been home with his mother. Númenóreans in the royal house were living to over 400 years in those days, so the “wraithification” would likely only have begun by 2250.) So that means he was likely born around the time of Tar-Minastir or Tar-Ciryatan. I’ve stated my preference, and you may debate the wisdom of it, or the lack thereof.
If my estimate of when he was born is true, then the Lord of the
Nazgûl was about 4850 years old when
Éowyn struck him down in the
Pelennor Fields, older if you prefer Minastir’s generation.
Kalmanluin said:
When Sauron was defeated by Gil-Galad and
Elendil the Witch-King continued to exist with great authority; and having a
realm of his own he contributed to the destruction of
Arnor and killed the
king of Gondor.
The Nazgûl went into hiding for several centuries after Sauron fell. There was a
king of Arnor, Valandur, who was slain in 652 of the Third Age; with a little imagination, that might be attributed to the Nazgûl or their agents. We don’t know when
Angmar came under the control of the Witch-king, but Argeleb I fell in battle against Rhudaur and Angmar in 1356, so he was probably there before then. You might recall that when
Dol Guldur first arose about III 1050,
the Wise initially believed the principal inhabitant was one of the Nazgûl, which in fact might have been true, at least at first.
Kalmanluin said:
Was he a wraith when all this was happening, or was he still human living the extended life granted to him by his ring?
He was certainly a wraith by II 2251, when the Tale of Years says that “the Nazgûl … first appear.”
Hobbits were remarkable in their resistance to the Rings of Power, something recognized by
Gandalf but not completely appreciated by the rest of those in-the-know, perhaps not even by Sauron, who got a good look at
Gollum.
Frodo even was stabbed by a
Morgul-knife while wearing the One Ring, and
Men (read: Dúnedain) so attacked normally succumbed far faster than he did in the cold and the wild while bearing the One Ring. I suspect that, as is stated in
Silmarillion, “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 under the domination of
the One, which was Sauron’s.” Compare that to what Gandalf tells Frodo in “The Shadow of the Past” in
Fellowship of the Ring: “‘A mortal ... who keeps one of the Great Rings, does not die, but he does not grow or obtain more life, he merely continues, ... he fades: ... and walks in the twilight ... Sooner or later – later, if he is strong or well-meaning to begin with, but neither strength nor good purpose will last – sooner or later the dark power will devour him.’” Along with other comments
Tolkien made about how quickly Men were corrupted to Sauron’s will, the implication is that the Nine Men fell rather quickly, lasting perhaps at most a generation longer than other mortals around them before the
Ring of Power overcame them, though perhaps the greatest, who became the Lord of the Nazgûl, held out longest.
By the way, the Witch-king wasn’t a “ghost.” He had a physical body, but it had slipped into “the other side” as a result of using his Ring of Power. He wore clothes, his comrades could sniff and smell, he could speak, and – interestingly enough – his eyes still shown in or reflected firelight, as they did at the gate of
Minas Tirith in his confrontation with Gandalf and later on Pelennor Field as he prepared to strike a mortal blow to Éowyn, just before
Merry stabbed him.
Kalmanluin said:
During the “Lord of the Rings”, do all the
nazgul have their rings or does Sauron posses them?
That’s a very good topic for a debate, Kalmanluin. You might also ask if the Lord of the Nazgûl was wearing his ring when Éowyn cut his head off, and if it might thus be lying somewhere on the field of battle. It is a matter of sometimes intense dispute in
places like The Tolkien Forum.
During the
Council of Elrond, Gandalf asserts that “...the Nine [Sauron] has gathered to himself; the Seven also, or else they are destroyed. The Three are hidden still...” I believe that it is generally accepted that Sauron had physical possession of the Nine Rings, at least most of the time. In
The Silmarillion, in the chapter “Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age,” Tolkien writes that “the One and the Seven and the Nine are destroyed; and the Three have passed away,” indicating that all of the Nine Rings have been physically unmade; but I have seen rebuttals of that interpretation both ingenious and desperate. In Letter 246 to Mrs. Eileen Elgar in September 1963, Tolkien specifically stated that Sauron “held” the Nine Rings, which is almost always read to mean physical possession of them; but again, there are those that dispute this interpretation.
