• Welcome to MCME!

    Minecraft Middle Earth is a Minecraft community that recreates the world described by JRR Tolkien and his writings. Everyone can participate in organized events in which we collaborate to create major landmarks, terrain, caves, castles, towns, farms and more.

    To get started, visit The New Player Guide

    Joining the server

    Joining the server can be done straight away, but you will have to pass the New Player Quiz. Use the The New Player Guide to get acquainted with our community.

    IP: build.mcmiddleearth.com

Were the Nazgûl still humans?

Eriol_Eandur

Head of Plugin Development
Staff member
Vala
Moderator
Supporter
Credits
0
XP
61
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.
Fellowship of the Ring said:
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:
Fellowship of the Ring - The Shadow of the Past said:
‘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:
Fellowship of the Ring - The Shadow of the Past said:
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:
The Two Towers - The Choices of Master Samwise said:
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:
Return of the King - The Battle of the Plennor Fields said:
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:
History of Middle-earth - Of Re-birth and Other Dooms of Those That Go to Mandos said:
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.
 
Eriol, they were humans, but Sauron corrupted them into the shadow, and they become souls that suffer with their screams forever.
 
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. ;)
 
Maybe the Nazgul still have their souls, but the lasting effect of the rings just turned the fully invisible. Like Gollum to another level.
 
Top