Nazgûl clothes: visible and invisible

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Gordis

I have to disagree: nazgul are mortal equivalent of the Lingerers, not the Houseless Elves. The Houseless have no hroar at all: they are dead, their bodies had died, but their fëar refused to go to Mandos where they belong. The Nazgul and the Lingerers do have bodies invisible by mortals, but solid and not dead. They were never summoned to Mandos - just because they haven't died.

"Invisible" is not the same as "insubstantial". Imagine one walks by night, hits an invisible tree and finds it painfully substantial. Ordinary Men simply don't see at night, neither do they see in the World of Shadow - but that doesn't prevent them from hitting something invisible for them and getting hurt.

Well indeed, they could be either. However the fact that Elves who resist the call to go to Valinor and instead linger in Middle-earth and simply 'fade' are not all evil is very different to the nature of the Ringwraiths, who are evil. And for an Elf to take the choice to wander about as a houseless fea is as bad as for a mortal to exist as a Wraith - wholly against his nature.

A Ringwraith has not resisted any 'call' on his fea, but has succumbed to the temptation offered by living a seemingly endless life, something forbidden to him. He has undergone what must have been a long and drawn out process in which his hroa has withered and to all intents and purposes is not a lot different to the houseless fea of an Elf, though we could say it's a lot worse as it is at least possible for an Elf to exist without a hroa (though it leaves him vulnerable to evil), whereas Men are not created that way.