The reason as stated above was so that the nazgul could deal with mortals. If you read Unfinished Tails they have a great explanation on this. They needed to deal with people cause they did not know where the Shire was. Also, when they are wearing nothing, their ability to cause fear actually increases... this was something that Sauron did not want for this particular mission (getting the ring). He wanted it to be done as low key as possible so that Gandalf and others would not be alerted and try to stop them. Anyway, its all in Unfinished Tails... great description.
|