{"id":87126,"date":"2014-02-25T20:33:14","date_gmt":"2014-02-26T01:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/?p=87126"},"modified":"2014-02-25T20:33:14","modified_gmt":"2014-02-26T01:33:14","slug":"on-the-identity-and-origins-of-the-nazgul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/2014\/02\/25\/87126-on-the-identity-and-origins-of-the-nazgul\/","title":{"rendered":"On the identity and origins of the Nazg\u00fbl"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NazgulJed\"<\/a><\/p>\n

TORN\u2019s latest library piece tries to uncover the origins of the Ringwraiths.<\/p>\n

Some of Tolkien’s most mysterious and alluring characters in Middle-earth, the Nazg\u00fbl have remained in the shadows (no pun intended) ever since their appearance in The Lord of the Rings<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The following article has examines many of Tolkien’s sources in an attempt to “map out” the possible locations where the Nazg\u00fbl may have originally come from.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, this is all based on speculation … but there’s never a harm in that!<\/p>\n

____________________________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

The identity and origin of the Nazg\u00fbl<\/h3>\n

Introduction<\/b><\/p>\n

There have been many theories and speculations on the possibilities of who and where Sauron\u2019s greatest servants came from.<\/p>\n

To better understand their origins, we must carefully analyse a specific period in time, and cross-reference it with different sources \u2013 trying to build a framework of all the events that occurred at that point in time.<\/p>\n

That is the purpose of this essay. To shed light on the information that is available to us and construct a theory on several possibilities through calculated conclusions.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, though everything presented her comes from Tolkien\u2019s own sources, the end result is entirely based on speculation from the texts and my own interpretations; and are not intended to be perceived as fact.<\/p>\n

What we know<\/b><\/p>\n

It is a known fact among Tolkien readers that the only indications we have to any of the Nazg\u00fbl\u2019s past histories, concern mainly three things:<\/p>\n

1) Three of the Ringwraiths were originally men of N\u00famenor<\/strong><\/p>\n

2) The leader of the Nine was known as the Witch-King<\/strong><\/p>\n

3) The second in command was Kham\u00fbl, an Easterling<\/strong><\/p>\n

The rest of our knowledge on Ringwraiths is based on their characteristics and behaviours channeled through their actions in\u00a0The Lord of the Rings\u00a0<\/i>and a couple of descriptions in\u00a0The Silmarillion<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0Unfinished Tales<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Thus, from here onward we must speculate and reason out what is made available to us \u2013 hoping to shed some light on the matter.<\/p>\n

Constructing a theory<\/b><\/p>\n

In order to begin our quest in exploring deeper the history of the Ringwraiths, we must first go through the different sources we have at our disposal \u2013 mainly, timelines and specific quotes that point towards the unknown aspects of these beings.<\/p>\n

[Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORN\u2019s latest library piece tries to uncover the origins of the Ringwraiths. Some of Tolkien’s most mysterious and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14907,"featured_media":42950,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[36,331,153,35,38,98,149,37,152],"tags":[2433,1788,1915,2033],"class_list":["post-87126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fotr-book","category-greenbooks","category-tolkien-life","category-lotr-books","category-rotk-book","category-silmarillion","category-lotr","category-ttt-book","category-tolkien","tag-khamul","tag-library","tag-nazgul","tag-ringwraith"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Ringwraith-canvas-ebay.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1tLoH-mFg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14907"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87126"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87156,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87126\/revisions\/87156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}