Nazgûl

The Nine Rings

When Sauron took the Rings of Power made in Eregion, he gave nine of them to Men, choosing great lords, kings, sorcerers and warriors, some of them Númenóreans. The Rings gave them what they desired: long life, power, wealth, and the ability to see and move in the unseen world. But each of the Nine was bound to the One, and as the years passed the Men who wore them faded. Their bodies became invisible and their wills were bent to Sauron's; they could not die while the One Ring endured, and they could not escape it. They became the Úlairi, the Nazgûl, and Sauron kept the Nine Rings in his own hand while their slaves did his bidding. They first appeared as his servants about S.A. 2251.

Identity of the Nine

Only the two chief Nazgûl have any recorded identity. The greatest was the Witch-king, Lord of the Nazgûl, whose name is never given, and who was a sorcerer and a king before he took his Ring. The second was Khamûl, called the Easterling and the Black Easterling, Sauron's lieutenant at Dol Guldur; his name is preserved only in Unfinished Tales. The other seven are nameless. Three of the Nine were lords of Númenor, and it is likely that the Witch-king was one, but the texts do not say so.

Nature

The Nazgûl were bodiless spirits held together by the power of the Rings and clothed in black robes and armour to give them shape. They saw the world of the living only dimly, but the unseen world clearly, and they were drawn to the One Ring by their own subjection to it. Their weapons were fear, the Black Breath that brought despair and death, the cold of their touch, and poisoned Morgul-blades whose splinters worked toward the heart and turned the victim into a lesser wraith. They feared water, fire and the sun, and names of power like Elbereth; a bold heart could stand against them. Their voices were cries that froze the blood, and in the last year of the Third Age they rode winged fell beasts whose shadow alone unmanned armies.

Second Age and the fall of Sauron

The Nazgûl served Sauron through the wars of the Second Age and vanished into shadow when he fell at the Last Alliance. While he was without body they were hidden, and none appeared for a thousand years.

Angmar

About T.A. 1300 the Witch-king came into the North and founded the realm of Angmar beyond the Ettenmoors, with its capital at Carn Dûm. His purpose was the destruction of the successor-kingdoms of Arnor. Over six centuries he overthrew Rhudaur, ruined Cardolan, sent wights into the Barrow-downs after the Great Plague, and at last in 1974 took Fornost and ended Arthedain. The next year the host of Gondor under Eärnur and the Elves of Lindon and Rivendell destroyed Angmar at the Battle of Fornost, and the Witch-king fled when Glorfindel prophesied that no man would slay him.

Minas Morgul

The Witch-king returned to Mordor and gathered the other Nazgûl. In 2000 they besieged Minas Ithil and in 2002 took it; it became Minas Morgul, the Tower of Sorcery, and the seat of the Nine for the rest of the age. From there the Witch-king challenged Eärnur, now King of Gondor, and in 2050 Eärnur rode into the city and was never seen again, ending the line of Kings. In 2951 Sauron sent three of the Nazgûl under Khamûl to reoccupy Dol Guldur.

The hunt for the Ring

In 3018 Sauron learned from Gollum the names Baggins and Shire and sent all nine to find the Ring. They crossed the Anduin on 20 June in an attack on Osgiliath, searched the Vales of Anduin, and entered the Shire on 22 September, riding as Black Riders hooded and cloaked. They hunted Frodo through the Shire, attacked Crickhollow and Bree, and on 6 October at Weathertop the Witch-king stabbed Frodo with a Morgul-knife. Their pursuit ended at the Ford of Bruinen on 20 October when the river rose at Elrond's command and swept horses and riders away, unhorsing the Nine and sending them back to Mordor in shame.

Winged

In the War of the Ring they returned on fell beasts. One was shot by Legolas over the Anduin on the night of 23 February 3019; others flew over Rohan and Gondor spreading terror, and at the Pelennor on 15 March the Witch-king broke the Gate of Minas Tirith and slew Théoden before Éowyn and Merry destroyed him. The remaining eight flew against the Captains of the West at the Morannon on 25 March, then turned at Sauron's summons and sped toward Mount Doom as the Ring went into the fire. They were caught in the eruption and consumed, and with the One Ring their existence ended.

Invisible in the world of the living, the Nazgûl wore black cloaks, hoods and boots, and beneath them mail and crowns, so that they seemed tall hooded riders on black horses; when the cloak was thrown back there was nothing to see. To one wearing the Ring they appeared as pale, grey-haired kings with keen merciless eyes, one taller and crowned. They spread cold and dread, their cries pierced the heart, and their smell of decay was sensed by horses and by Gollum. On the fell beasts they were seen as black shapes riding under a shadow.

The Nazgûl were a court and a company under their Lord, retaining the speech and bearing of the kings they had been. They dealt with Sauron's other servants as masters and with all else as prey, spoke the Black Speech, and used sorcery, spies and terror as their instruments. Their steeds were bred in Mordor and trained to endure them.

Nine Men of power accepted Rings from Sauron in the Second Age and gained long life and dominion, but the Rings drew them into the unseen world and bound them to the One. As their bodies faded they became wraiths, slaves of the Ring, and they served Sauron for over four thousand years until the Ring was destroyed.

The Witch-king was slain at the Pelennor Fields by Éowyn and Merry; the other eight were consumed in the fires of Mount Doom when the Ring was unmade.