Were the Nazgûl still humans?

[Eriol_Eandur]

In my understanding the Nazgûl ARE still 'living' humans at the end of Third Age. By living humans I mean they had a fëa (spirit/soul) and hröa (body). Though maybe 'undead' is maybe more fitting than 'living' as you'll see below.
Of course all of the Nazgul were humans aka Mortal Men.

Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die

At least three of them are known to be Black Numenoreans. Each of them got a Great Ring from Sauron. And what Great Rings do to mortal men is explained to Frodo by Gandalf:

‘A mortal, Frodo, who keeps one of the Great Rings, does not die, but he does not grow or obtain more life, he merely continues, until
at last every minute is a weariness.

Gandalf also explains to Frodo what must have happened to the Nazgûl long ago:

And if he often uses the Ring to make himself invisible, he fades: he becomes in the end invisible permanently, and walks in the twilight under the eye of the dark power that rules the Rings.

I don't see any hint that the Nazgûl's bodies 'died' at some point. They just became permanently invisible like Gandalf described above. They were able to wield weapons, to talk with a physical voice and to sniff.
Obviously the Nazgûl were not good with seeing things. That also seems to be a consequence of their Rings. Sam experienced just that as soon as he put on the Ring at Cirith Ungol:

Then he put it on. The world changed, and a single moment of time was filled with an hour of thought. At once he was aware that hearing was sharpened while sight was dimmed, but otherwise than in Shelob's lair. All things about him now were not dark but vague;

That dimmed vision was an effect of the Ring shifting it's wearer from the visible to the secondary world of spirits. I guess it was much stronger for the Nazgûl after wearing the rings for thousands of years.
The killing of the Nazgûl shows his corporeality:

But suddenly he too stumbled forward with a cry of bitter pain, and his stroke went wide, driving into the ground. Merry's sword had stabbed him from behind, shearing through the black mantle, and passing up beneath the hauberk had pierced the sinew behind his mighty knee.
...
Then tottering, struggling up, with her last strength she drove her sword between crown and mantle
...
So passed the sword of the Barrow-downs, work of Westernesse. But glad would he have been to know its fate who wrought it slowly long ago in the North-kingdom when the Dunedain were young, and chief among their foes was the dread realm of Angmar and its sorcerer king. No other blade, not though mightier hands had wielded it, would have dealt that foe a wound so bitter, cleaving the undead flesh, breaking the spell that knit his unseen sinews to his will.

So he felt pain, had sinews and flesh. Pretty clear imo.
From a more fundamental perspective it seems also impossible to me that the Nazgûl were bodiless:

From their beginnings the chief difference between Elves and Men lay in the fate and nature of their spirits. The fear of the Elves were destined to dwell in Arda for all the life of Arda, and the death of the flesh did not abrogate that destiny.

In opposite to Elves the fëa of Men was not destined to dwell in Arda and thus left the world soon after the death of the hröa. This Gift of Iluvatar was irrevocable by even Manwe and for sure by Sauron.

 

[destructotank09]

Eriol, they were humans, but Sauron corrupted them into the shadow, and they become souls that suffer with their screams forever.

 

[Eriol_Eandur]

I just wrote that I don't agree Sauron can keep souls of humans within the world after the death of their body

 

[destructotank09]

I just wrote that I don't agree Sauron can keep souls of humans within the world after the death of their body

He can kept human souls, because he is a Maia even if he lost his body.

 

[Eriol_Eandur]

Sauron is no Vala, just a Maia. And even Manwe, greatest of all Valar can not keep human souls (see Beren and Earendil).

 

[destructotank09]

Sauron is no Vala, just a Maia. And even Manwe, greatest of all Valar can not keep human souls (see Beren and Earendil).

I don't know Eriol, perhaps Tolkien when he wrote his book, he gave that privilege to Sauron to stay with souls even if he died, regardless of whether there are Maias or Valars more powerful than him.

 

[Thr33Way]

Maybe the Nazgul still have their souls, but the lasting effect of the rings just turned the fully invisible. Like Gollum to another level.