XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien
From: jerry_friedman@yahoo.com
On 10/21/14 6:06 AM, Julian Bradfield wrote:
> On 2014-10-21, Jerry Friedman wrote:
>> "...and then they saw a shape, moving at a great speed out of the West,
>> at first only a black speck against the glimmering strip above the
>> mountain-tops, but growing, until it plunged like a bolt into the dark
>> canopy and passed high above them. As it went it sent out a long shrill
>> cry, the voice of a Nazgûl; but this cry no longer held any terror for
>> them: it was a cry of woe and dismay, ill tidings for the Dark Tower.
>> The Lord of the Ringwraiths had met his doom."
>>
>> So here it seems that not only was Sauron unaware that the King of the
>> Nazgûl had died, but another one has to fly all the way from Minas
>> Tirith to the Dark Tower to give him the news.
>
> Interesting. I'd always assumed that this *was* the witch-king, being
> dramatically and ostentatiously terminated, in rather the same way
> that Sauron and Saruman were.
That had never occurred to me. But I can't see it. In addition to what
Wayne Brown said, here's the Witch-King's death.
"Éowyn fell forward upon her fallen foe. But lo! the mantle and hauberk
were empty. Shapeless they lay now on the ground, torn and tumbled; and
a cry went up into the shuddering air, and faded to a shrill wailing,
passing with the wind, a voice bodiless and thin that died, and was
swallowed up and was never heard again in that age of the world."
So he seems to just disappear in an instant--there's no sign of anything
black heading east. And if his voice died and was never heard again,
then Frodo and Sam wouldn't have heard it. Also, "woe and dismay" seems
too weak for someone who's dying (or whatever), but about right for a
Ringwraith when his captain has been killed.
(Something I just noticed: undying is good, but undead is bad.)
--
Jerry Friedman
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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