Nine Rings he gave to Mortal Men, proud and great, and so ensnared them. Long ago they fell under the dominion of the One, and they became Ringwraiths, shadows under his great Shadow, his most terrible servants.

Middle Earth abounds in character quaint and creepy; Gollum, Shelob, trolls and orcs, but arguably none inspire quite the same shivers and chills as the Nazgul.

Everyone assumes Ringwraiths were bad from the word “go” (or “Ring”, as the case may be). Why is there little mention of their sad tales, or of their history? A trail of dropped remarks and an ounce of common sense will help us discover something which has long been shrouded in mists — the story of the Nazgul, and how they entered into bondage to the Dark One.

Willing obedience, or forced servitude?

This Halloween weekend join us in The Hall of Fire (in #thehalloffire live on our chat server irc.theonering.net) as we attempt to delve into the deep, dark, ins and outs of yet another “sad tale” in the history of Middle Earth as we look at “The Nazgul – Unwilling Slaves or Willing Accomplices?”

Upcoming topics in Hall of Fire

* The Hobbit chapter 15
* Spoilers — love them or hate them?
* The Hobbit Ch 1-15: a recap
* Latest Hobbit movie rumours round-up

Do you have a topic suggestion or idea? Email us at: barlimans at theonering dot net (change at to an @ and dot to a full stop — you know the anti-spam drill).

Time zone conversions

Not sure what time the chat will be where you are? Check this little conversion table out for some help.

America:
6.00pm EDT (New York)
5.00pm CDT (Chicago)
4.00pm MDT (Denver)
3.00pm PDT (Los Angeles)

Europe:
11.00pm GMT (London)
Midnight CDT (Europe)

Asia-Pacific
8.00am (Sunday) Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne
11.00am (Sunday) Wellington

Our chats usually last 45 mins to an hour, and are very newbie friendly. Simply drop in and join the conversation!

Where — connection details

Chat happens on #thehalloffire on irc.theonering.net — the TORn IRC server. You can connect instantly via our embedded Mibbit client that works inside your web browser.

Alternatively, you can install a dedicated chat program such as mIRC on your computer and just plug in the following connection details.

Server: irc.theonering.net
Port: 6667
Channel: #thehalloffire