The witchking
 

I feel that the Witchking actually died not because his invisible sinews could not hold from the Numenorean sword, but from fear. He was a being of fear and almost allpowerful (compared to Merry) but being supersticious as all were in the trilogy, he felt fear at Eowyn not being man, and that was the key to his downfall. Anyone agree?

I don't think so, Tolkien does state that Merry's sword did remove the enchantment that held his sinews together. And I find it hard to believe that Angmar never felt fear. After all, he didn't always know about the prophecy which was made by Glorfindel quite a long way into the third age. He would probably have been afraid during the Last Alliance, for instance.

Ah, but that brings up the question of where were the nazgul during the last alliance, noone ever made any reference to that. But you are right about the fear, because he fled from the elf lord Glorfindel during his mocking of Earnur. But still, he was a numenorean much older than the sword, so how it could be enchanted against him unless the sword itself had a prophecy on it is beyond me.

During the Last Alliance? Probably running away as fast as possible. They didn't do much when Ar Pharazon took Sauron to Numenor, did they? [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]
The sword could have been made at any time between the reigns of Tar Atanamir and Ar Pharazon.

The sword was made in the 'North Kingdom' (Arnor), after the fall of Numenor. The reason it was so effective against the Witch King is that it was made for the North Kingdom's war with Angmar, the realm that the Witch King used to rule.

-Voronwe

Thats right, but how did the remnants of the northern kingdoms get that kind of enchanting power to fight angmar, unless Rivendell or The Havens helped. I've never heard of men doing stuff to weapons like that.

All the special weapons I can recall in the books were made by either Elves or Dwarves. The Men of Arnor may have had help from Rivendell in sword making, but it's difficult to see the Telerin mariners of the Havens as knowing much about the craft.

I stayed out of this discussion because it didn't seem very interesting, but as of the 14 that changed, and now I have several things I would like to discuss.

What happened to the nazgul after the last alliance? I don't remember anything about them being stated. I know that the witch-king goes on to form a realm in the North, but were the nazgul temporarily out of service when Sauron's ring was cut from his body?

What exactly did the nazgul do during Sauron's stay in Numenor? Did they prepare for his return? Twiddle their thumbs?

Thirdly, in response to the Keeper of Dol Goldur, the Druedain were known for there 'magical' abilities, and they were men, some of them even went to Numenor. In Numenor, the lore of weapon making became great, perhaps the Dunedain of Arnor improved on what they already knew being close in friendship with the Elves, but not necessarily having elves forge the weapons themselves.

A note found in UT, in reference to the Orc troops that attacked Isildur, leading to his death and the loss of the Ring, gives this clue to what happened to the Nazgûl after Sauron's defeat at the hands of the Last Alliance: Presumably during the time he was in Númenor, the Ringwraiths were getting up to dickens back in Middle-earth, as they are wont to do. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

I think it mentions that the Nazgul lost their physical shape and were swept far into the east with their master.

The Witchking stayed hidden until around TA 1300 when he came to Angmar and began troubling the North. The other 8 remained hidden until around TA 1640 when they returned to Mordor to prepare it for Sauron's return.