Re-imagining the Ringwraiths

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

This is a very common misperception, which PJ picked up and ran with- but it's in error. Tolkien was explicit (it's somewhere in HME or UT) that the Pony burglary was carried out by Bill Ferny, Harry Goatleaf and the cross-eyed Southerner at the Wraiths' orders, not by the Nazgul personally.

That's true, in that I also had long assumed that the Black Riders had broken into the hobbit bedroom themselves. I remember in the Bakshi cartoon I saw when very young that that was indeed the depiction.

That said, the Nine clearly aren't just smoke and mirrors. The Black Captain had sufficient physical strength to break Éowyn's shield (and her arm with it) using his mace, and the home-invaders at Crickhollow were able to break open the door of the house.