I hope you enjoy my site on the Witch King!
"Thou
fool, no living man may hinder me!"
-The witch
king of Angmar
The Witch-king was originally a human lord but in
the Second Age he was given one of nine Rings of Power to help rule over his
realm. He and eight others were already in the service of Sauron, the Dark Lord
of Mordor. The Rings gave them much power which they used to further theirs,
and their lord Sauron's goals, but eventually the Rings turned them into the Nazgûl.
The Witch-king became the lord of the Wraiths,
and Sauron's chief servant.
The first sighting of the Nazgûl in
Middle-Earth was reported in 2251 of the Second Age. For the next 1200 years,
the Lord of the Nazgûl would serve Sauron as his second in command. The
Lord of the Nazgûl fought in the war against the Last Alliance of Elves
and Men between 3430 and 3441 of the Second Age. It was in 3441 that Sauron was
destroyed and the nine Nazgûl disappeared from Middle-Earth.
One thousand years into the Third Age, Sauron
took a new form as the Necromancer and in 1050 of the Third Age, he founded the
fortress of Dol Guldur in southern Mirkwood. This signaled the return of the
Nine Nazgûl to Middle-earth.
The Lord of the Nazgûl reappeared in 1300
of the Third Age in the north near the lost realm of Arnor. There he founded
the
He then began his open war campaign with the
three divided kingdoms of Arnor (Arthedain, Rhudaur , and Cardolan). In 1409 of
the Third Age, the Witch-king invaded the
The Witch-king gladly took his seat of power in
the newly captured Fornost. But his glory did not last long, for in 1974 of the
Third Age, a general of Gondor named Eärnur landed at the harbors of Mithlond,
leading an army of Gondorians. His army was joined by the Elves of Lindon and
the remnant of the northern Dúnedain and marched on the Witch-king.
But they did not meet the Witch-king at Fornost,
but on the plains east of it toward
"Do not pursue him! He will not return to these lands. Far off yet is his doom, and not by the hand of Man shall he fall."
The Witch-king finally made it back to Mordor in
the year 1980 of the Third Age.
When the Witch-king returned, his wrath of defeat
still burned within. In 2002, the Witch-king lead the Nazgûl on a siege
of Minas Ithil. They finally captured it in the name of Sauron and renamed it
Minas Morgul, the
In 2043, King Eärnil II of Gondor passed away and
his son, the Witch-king's old enemy, Eärnur inherited the throne. Upon his
coronation, the Witch-king challenged him to combat, but Eärnur refused.
However, seven years later in 2050, the Witch-king again challenged him, this
time he accepted. Eärnur rode out of Minas Tirith to meet the Witch-king in
Minas Morgul. He entered the city's gates and was never seen again, thus ending
the reign of the Gondorian Kings and causing the beginning of the ruling
Stewards of Gondor.
No more than twelve years after the siege of
Minas Ithil, Osgiliath was next in the Witch-king's line of sight. He lead
hoards of Orcs and Haradrim against the city. The city had already been
devastated centuries before by a plague, and the Witch-king's forces ruined
what remained of the city and destroyed the great bridge linking the east and
west banks of the Anduin river. This was a devastating blow to the morale of
Gondor.
In 2941, the Necromancer was finally expelled
from Dol Guldur when Gandalf confirmed that he truly was Sauron in disguise.
Sauron returned to Mordor and began preparations to find his One Ring. He began
the reconstruction of his dark tower, Barad-dur, in 2951 and sent three
Ringwraiths to re-capture Dol Guldur. And in 3018, with the capture of Gollum,
Sauron learned the location of the Ring from two words uttered by Gollum, "Shire...Baggins." Sauron
opened the gates of Minas Morgul and sent forth the Witch-king and the other
Nazgul disguised as Black Riders to fetch his Ring.
The War of the Ring had begun.
The Witch-king and the other eight Nazgûl
rode swiftly from Mordor to the lands of the Shire. They continued to search
for "Baggins" until they tracked him to Buckland. The Nine Riders
raided Buckland but could not find the Ring.
The Witch-king led four other Nazgûl to
Weathertop where they discovered Frodo, Strider, and the other hobbits. The
Ringwraiths attacked the party and the Witch-king wounded Frodo with a Morgul
blade. Though successfully driven off by Strider, Frodo's wound threatened to
turn him into a wraith like the Nazgûl. Elrond of Rivendell sent
Glorfindel (Arwen in the film) to guide Frodo to Rivendell where
Elrond could heal his wound. Glorfindel's race to Rivendell lured the Ringwraiths
into the Bruinen. Here, Elrond and Gandalf the Grey released a great flood in
the form of horses made out of water. This flood killed the horses of the
Ringwraiths and sent them back to their master in Mordor, buying the Fellowship
time to plan an attack.
With their return to Mordor, Sauron bestowed the
Nazgûl with fell beasts, great winged beasts as their new mounts. Sauron
used the lesser eight Nazgûl for reconnaissance work and the occasional
shock troop. The Witch-king, however, returned to Minas Morgul and reassumed
the role of commander of Sauron's forces. He then began battles to capture
Osgiliath.
The final battle for Osgiliath was fought on
March 13, 3019 of the Third Age against Faramir's rangers. Faramir's forces
could not hold the Orc hordes under the control of Gothmog. Faramir pulled his
forces back to Minas Tirith assailed by flying Nazgûl, losing nearly all
of his forces in the retreat. Faramir was returned to Minas Tirith gravely
wounded. With Gondor's defeat at Osgiliath, nothing stood in the way of
Sauron's ambitions of destroying Minas Tirith and the Free People's hopes.
On March 14, Orcs, Haradrim, and Easterling
forces numbering over 200,000 marched on the gates of Minas Tirith. Sauron had
bestowed the Witch-king with newfound strength, making his might the greatest
it ever had been. Equipped with new armor, he rode in, leading the army to the
gates. Before dawn on the 15th, the great battering-ram Grond was used to break
the city's main gate, and the Witch-king rode into the city unchallenged, save
by Gandalf. Before Gandalf's strength was put to the test, however, the cock
crowed and the horns of Rohan were heard as around 6,000 of their riders joined
the battle. This forced the Witch-king to ride out to face this new threat.
The Witch-king mounted his fell beast and began
slaughtering the Rohirrim. Théoden attempted to rally his troops to form a
resistance against him. The Witch-king responded by personally intervening in
the fray involving the Rohirric King. Flying on the back of his fell beast, he
drove upon Théoden. The advancing Rohirrim's horses panicked as his beast
attacked. Théoden's horse, Snowmane, became frightened and was struck by an
arrow and fell upon its master.
As the Witch-king hovered over Théoden, Éowyn and
the hobbit Merry stood in his way.
"Begone, foul dwimmerlaik, lord of carrion! Leave the dead in peace!"
"Come not between the Nazgul and his prey!"
"Do what you will, but I will hinder it, if I may."
"No living man may hinder me!"
"I am no man. You look upon a woman!"
Eowyn slew his fell beast in a single strike. The
Witch-king arose filled with malice and attacked. Though a powerful warrior,
Eowyn was no match for the Witch-king's might. With a single strike of his
mace, he shattered her shield and broke her left arm.
As he towered over her, preparing to deliver the
final blow, Merry rushed behind him and plunged his enchanted sword into the
back of Witch-king's knee, breaking the spell that held the Morgul Lord's
immortality. Eowyn took the opportunity to strike. As he fell to his knees,
Eowyn rose. She then thrust her sword into the neck of the Witch-king, causing
him to wither and pass away from this world.
The prophecy of Glorfindel so many centuries
before had finally come to pass. For not by the hands of a "man" had
he fallen. With his death, the turn of the battle had changed and ultimately
the outcome. No more than ten days later, Sauron himself was finally destroyed
when the One Ring was finally cast back into the fires of
The Witch-king's true name is never given, and
therefore among Tolkien fans, the Witch-king is often simply called Angmar,
after the name of the realm he founded and led. Many fans also identify him as
one of the three Black Númenóreans under the Nazgûl.
In the now defunct Middle-earth Role Playing
game, he was named Er-Murazor, a Númenórean prince, though this is
strictly non-canonical and does not appear outside of the role playing
material.
In the