XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: Troels@ThisIsFake.invalid   
      
   In message    
   sean_q  spoke these staves:   
   >   
   > I have searched the Net and the Tolkien FAQ's in particular   
   > but could not read this riddle:   
   >   
   > If Merry and Eowyn suffered a cold, numb hurting from daring   
   > to smite that deadly thing [Nazgul #1], why didn't Isildur   
   > suffer as much or more from taking steel (or bronze) to its   
   > Master?   
      
   Why do you presume that he should?   
      
   Apart from the Witch-king being the servant of Sauron, they have very   
   little in common, and I don't think we should presume, as a thing   
   given, that the same defences would be in place.  Also, neither   
   Lúthien nor Huan seems to suffer any detrimental effects from their   
   attacks on Sauron in the First Age (in any version of the story).   
      
   The illness that ailed Merry and Éowyn appears to be associated with   
   the Black Breath, which is also explicitly linked with the Nine.   
   Speculating freely, I might suggest that the whole thing depends on   
   the wraith-state (in the terminology of role-playing games I'd   
   suggest a kind of energy drain, but such would, I feel, be alien to   
   Tolkien's way of thinking about Middle-earth).   
      
   But such is mere speculation -- we do not and cannot know the precise   
   mechanisms (unless someone finds a note where Tolkien put it all   
   down, which would surprise me very much). Another point that might be   
   relevant is that of Morgoth -- even in his shape as the Dark Lord of   
   Angband, there was no indication of any ill effect for Fingolfin over   
   stabbing Morgoth's foot a few times (that is, not until the effects   
   of being hit by the original Grond set in . . .), nor do we know of   
   any ill effects similar to what Merry and Éowyn suffered to have   
   affected any other slayer of very powerful evil beings (Balrogs,   
   Carcharoth, dragons -- though the fainting of Túrin after killing   
   Glaurung bears some resemblance).   
      
   > Concerning the DL's physique at the battle on Mt. Doom:   
   >   
   [...]   
   >    became black and hideous, and his power thereafter was   
   >    through terror alone.   
   >   
   > So Isildur takes the hilt-shard of his father's sword and   
   > amputates Sauron's Ring finger.   
      
   Sauron had been fighting a group consisting of Gil-galad, Elendil,   
   Círdan, Elrond and Isildur. Gil-galad and Elendil had died, but they   
   had also managed to 'cast down' Sauron. What exactly this means is   
   not entirely clear, but from the context it seems that Sauron was, at   
   least temporarily, helpless on the ground when Isildur used the shard   
   of Narsil (which must have been a very sharp sword indeed) to cut off   
   the finger carrying the Master Ring. The descriptions also appear to   
   indicate that only /after/ Isildur had cut off the Ring did Sauron's   
   ëala flee his body (Ëalar are spirits whose natural state is to be   
   incorporeal -- i.e. to exist without a body).  The implication seems   
   to be that it was the removal of the Ring that in some way was the   
   final straw that allowed Sauron's Dark Lord body to die.   
      
      
      
   --   
   Troels Forchhammer    
   Valid e-mail is    
   Please put [AFT], [RABT] or 'Tolkien' in subject.   
      
       You can safely assume that you've created God in your own   
       image when it turns out that God hates all the same people   
       you do.   
    - Anne Lamott   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)