I have returned, O learned spirits of the mounds of Tyrn Gorthad, to pick your spectral brains once again. Since I last posted here (as The Black Lieutenant) I have done some research on Middle-earth history and I have some questions for you.
I read on another site a theory similar to that mentioned above, that my namesake may have perhaps been given one of the dwarven rings which the Dark Lord had recovered. This could explain why he was so ancient, assuming these rings had the power to extend life, but for one problem. The rings were forged between the years of 1500 and 1600 of the Second Age, and the first appearance of the Nazgul was in S. A. 2250. That leaves at the most only 650 years to turn all nine mortal Men into the Ringwraiths. If MoS had borne a ring for more than 3,000 years how do we account for his not becoming a wraith in all that time, if it took less than 650 to happen to the Nine?
The only explanation I can come up with is that the Nine had used their rings a lot more often than the Mouth of Sauron used his. After all, they didn't know what would happen to them, whereas MoS could not have been unaware of how the Nazgul came to be what they were. Since he was so cunning and well-versed in the black arts, the Mouth of Sauron may have realized that the less he used his ring the longer he could resist becoming a wraith. Thus he may have kept it close without wearing it, using it only when his need was great, much like Gollum. What are your opinions regarding this theory?
Also, I have yet to read THE NEW SHADOW, but I think it's an interesting idea that the Herumor of the past was MoS, and that he and the Herumor of the Fourth Age may have been one and the same. In truth the forgetting of his name does not pose so much of a problem to my mind. As I suggested before, he may not have literally forgotten it, or he may have simply recalled it again after Sauron's defeat.
The bigger problem would once again be the extreme age of the sorcerer. Could Herumor, alone of all his people, have achieved what so many of the Numenoreans had desired? Was whatever sorcery he may have learned from Sauron in and of itself sufficient to prolong his life to such a degree, even after the Dark Lord's demise? And if MoS was indeed a Ringbearer, wouldn't the destruction of the One have made whatever ring he possessed useless, or am I getting confused by some non-canonical source, such as the movies?Assuming I am correct, if he was over 3,000 years old by T. A. 3019, would not the loss of his ring's power have immediately resulted in his turning to dust? Or would he simply have begun to age normally again, as if he were still the same age he had been when Sauron had first given him the ring?
[ February 01, 2003: Message edited by: Mouth of Sauron ]
|