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Originally Posted by mhagain
<snip>...I don't disagree with the conjectural evidence, but consider: the text states that the Witch-king became a sorceror after he recieved the Ring, not that he was one before:<snip>
<snip>It hardly seems relevant whether or not he was from a culture steeped in sorcery before.<snip>
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We don't really ever find out why the witchy-poo King was a 'witch' and not an ungoliantified, greed vomit--I mean--an Eol Cliff Elf. No, what I'm trying to say is that Turgon's Aredhel ate horse meat in unlight in Valinor. *shakes head*, that's not it either. What I mean is that if the Warlock Queen of Numenor was born, before it was Numenor, then she wouldn't be a she at all. That's really what happened, for a man to be called a Witchking.
We really don't know what 'witch' powers of 'sorcery' the Witchking held. Or whether or not she? studied sorcery, or dabbled, before changing genders. Perhaps Sauron was just having a cosmic joke, and really liked Numenor.
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Likewise, he hardly needs to be long-lived. Bilbo was almost corrupted in just 60 years and he was a more resilient Hobbit, of good will, and who didn't use the Ring much, and these are the key deciding factors according to Gandalf (see above for the quote). The amount of time you have the Ring for isn't really what's important: Khamul as an Easterling wasn't long-lived either.
Speaking of Khamul, he was likely also a sorceror as a Ringwraith so if true that just serves to underline that prior culture is really unimportant.
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Gollum held The Ring for a very long time. Bilbo, I suspect, would have been several Hobbit lifetimes before succumbing. We don't really know how long a transition took into Wraith form, but more than 60 years seems quite likely. We're told the Rings granted great life extension. Educated guess. Follows on from the fact that it was about 700 years before they appeared in ME after Mr Annatar destroyed Eregion.
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As I said before, this is really just arguing the toss. I personally consider it most likely that the Witch-king actually was a Numenorean but it is interesting and informative to deconstruct something taken for granted.
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Yup.