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{{short description|Character group from J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium}}
{{good article}}
{{use British English|date=March 2025}}
{{use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{redirect-multi|2|Dark Riders|Black Riders||Dark Rider (disambiguation)|and|Black Rider (disambiguation)|and|Nazgul (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox character
| name        = Nazgûl
| aliases     = The Nine<br/>{{Transliteration|qya|Úlairi}} (in [[Quenya]])<br/>Black Riders<br/>Fell Riders<br/>Ringwraiths
| lbl24       = Book(s)
| data24      = ''[[The Fellowship of the Ring]]'' (1954),<br/>''[[The Two Towers]]'' (1954),<br/>''[[The Return of the King]]'' (1955),<br/>''[[The Silmarillion]]'' (1977),<br/>''[[Unfinished Tales]]'' (1980)
}}

The '''Nazgûl''' (from [[Black Speech]] {{Transliteration|art|nazg}} 'ring', and {{Transliteration|art|gûl}}  'wraith, spirit'){{snd}}introduced as '''Black Riders''' and also called '''Ringwraiths''',  '''Dark Riders''', the '''Nine Riders''', or simply '''the Nine'''{{snd}}are fictional characters in [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]'s [[Middle-earth]]. They were nine [[Man (Middle-earth)|Men]] who had succumbed to [[Sauron]]'s power through wearing [[Rings of Power]], which gave them immortality but reduced them to invisible [[wikt:wraith|wraith]]s, servants bound to the power of the [[One Ring]] and completely under Sauron's control.

''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' calls them Sauron's "most terrible servants". Their leader, known as the [[Witch-king of Angmar]], the Lord of the Nazgûl, or the Black Captain, was Sauron's chief agent for most of the Third Age. At the end of the Third Age, their main stronghold was the city of Minas Morgul at the entrance to Sauron's realm, [[Mordor]]. They dress entirely in black. In their early forays, they ride on black horses; later they ride flying monsters, which Tolkien described as "[[Pterosaur|pterodactylic]]". Their main weapon is terror, though in their pursuit of the Ring-bearer [[Frodo Baggins]], their leader uses a Morgul-knife which would reduce its victim to a wraith, and they carry ordinary swords. In his final battle, the Lord of the Nazgûl attacks [[Éowyn]] with a [[Mace (bludgeon)|mace]]<!--Tolkien uses this exact word: "Lord of the Nazgûl and greatest of Sauron's servants, the Witch-king ... He bent over her like a cloud, and his eyes glittered; he raised his mace to kill"-->. The [[hobbit]] [[Merry Brandybuck]] stabs him with an ancient enchanted [[Númenórean]] blade, allowing Éowyn to kill him with her sword.

Commentators have written that the Nazgûl serve on the ordinary level of story as dangerous opponents of the [[Company of the Ring]]; at the romantic level as the enemies of the heroic protagonists; and finally at the mythic level. Tolkien knew the ''[[Lacnunga]]'', the [[Old English]] book of spells; it may have suggested multiple features of the Nazgûl, the Witch-King, and the Morgul-knife.<!--summarizes cited text in article body-->

The Nazgûl appear in numerous adaptations of Tolkien's writings, including animated and live-action films and computer games.

== Fictional history ==

=== Second Age ===

{{quote box|quote=Those who used the [[Nine Rings]] became mighty in their day, kings, sorcerers, and warriors of old. They obtained glory and great wealth, yet it turned to their downfall. They had, as it seemed, unending life, yet life became unendurable to them. They could walk, if they would, unseen by all eyes in this world beneath the sun, and they could see things in worlds invisible to mortal men; but too often they beheld only the phantoms and delusions of Sauron. And one by one, sooner or later, according to their native strength and to the good or evil of their wills in the beginning, they fell under the thraldom of the ring that they bore and of the domination of the One which was Sauron's. And they became forever invisible save to him that wore the Ruling Ring, and they entered into the realm of shadows. The Nazgûl were they, the Ringwraiths, the Úlairi, the Enemy's most terrible servants; darkness went with them, and they cried with the voices of death. |source=''[[The Silmarillion]]'', "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age"<ref name="Silmarillion Ringwraiths" group=T/>
|width=45%|align=right}}

The Nazgûl or Ringwraiths ([[Quenya]] plural: ''Úlairi'') first appeared in the [[Second Age]]. The Dark Lord [[Sauron]] gave nine [[Rings of Power]] to powerful mortal men, including three lords of the once-powerful island realm of [[Númenor]], along with kings of countries in Middle-earth.<ref name="Akallabêth" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1977}}, "The Akallabêth", p. 267. "Yet Sauron was ever guileful, and it is said that among those whom he ensnared with the Nine Rings three were great lords of Númenórean race."</ref><ref name="Journey of the Black Riders" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1980}}, 4. "The Hunt for the Ring" i. "Of the Journey of the Black Riders"</ref> The rings enslaved their bearers to the power of Sauron's [[One Ring]], into which he had put much of his own power. The corrupting effect of the Rings greatly extended the bearers' lives.<ref name="Silmarillion Ringwraiths" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1977}}, "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age"</ref>{{efn|Tolkien in some places stated that the Ringwraiths wore their rings, and in others that Sauron kept control by holding the rings himself: "They would have obeyed . . . any minor command of his that did not interfere with their errand — laid upon them by Sauron, who still through their nine rings (which he held) had primary control of their wills".<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=#246 to Mrs Eileen Elgar, September 1963 }}</ref> They were by far the most powerful of his servants, and the most suitable for such a mission, since they were entirely enslaved to their Nine Rings, which he now himself held.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1980}}, "Journey of the Black Riders"</ref>}}

The Nazgûl had a sharp sense of smell.<ref name="Foster1978">{{cite book |last=Foster |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Foster (author) |title=Guide to Middle Earth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qpNzD69cm7AC |year=1978 |publisher=[[Ballantine Books]] |isbn=978-0-345-27547-9 |page=184}}</ref> Their sight worked differently, too: "They themselves do not see the world of light as we do, but our shapes cast shadows in their minds, which only the noon sun destroys; and in the dark they perceive many signs and forms that are hidden from us: then they are most to be feared."<ref name="Knife in the Dark" group=T/> Their chief weapon was terror; it was so powerful that Sauron faced one disadvantage when using them: they could not easily travel in secret.<ref name="Journey of the Black Riders" group=T/> The terror they spread was greater when they were unclad and invisible; and when they were gathered together.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1980}}, 4. "The Hunt for the Ring" ii. "Other Versions of the Story"</ref>

{{anchor|Witch-king}}

Only two of the Nazgûl are named or identified individually in Tolkien's works. Their chief, also known as the Lord of the Nazgûl and the Black Captain, appears as the [[Witch-king of Angmar]] during the Third Age, instrumental in the destruction of the North-kingdom of [[Arnor (Middle-earth)|Arnor]].<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955}}, Appendix A, 1 "The Numenorean Kings"</ref> In ''Unfinished Tales'', his second-in-command is named as {{Visible anchor|Khamûl}}, the "Black Easterling" or the "Shadow of the East".<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1980}}, Index, entry for Khamûl</ref> Three of the Nazgûl were great [[Númenórean]] lords;<ref name="Akallabêth" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1977}}, "The Akallabêth", p. 267. "Yet Sauron was ever guileful, and it is said that among those whom he ensnared with the Nine Rings three were great lords of Númenórean race."</ref> in his notes for translators, Tolkien speculated that the Witch-king of Angmar, ruler of a northern kingdom with its capital at Carn Dûm, was of Númenórean origin.<ref group=T>Tolkien writes: "the name and origin of the Witch-king is not recorded, but he was probably of Númenórean descent."  [[Wayne G. Hammond|Hammond, Wayne G.]] & [[Christina Scull|Scull, Christina]], ''[[The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion]]'', p. 20.  Tolkien later removed the passage; it does not appear in the version in [[Jared Lobdell]]'s ''[[A Tolkien Compass]]''.</ref>

The Nine soon became Sauron's principal servants.<ref name="Appendix B Second Age" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955}}, Appendix B, "The Tale of Years", entries in "The Second Age"</ref> They were dispersed after the first overthrow of Sauron late in the Second Age at the hands of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, but their survival was assured by the power of the [[One Ring]].<ref name="Appendix B Second Age" group=T/>

=== Third Age ===

[[File:Gondor sketch map.svg|thumb|upright=2.5|Sketch map of part of [[Middle-earth]] in the [[Third Age]], with [[Mordor]] on the right. Minas Morgul is on the western border of Mordor in the Ephel Duath mountains. ]]

The Nazgûl re-emerge over a thousand years later in the [[Third Age]], when the Lord of the Nazgûl leads Sauron's forces against the successor kingdoms of Arnor: Rhudaur, Cardolan, and Arthedain. He destroys all three but is defeated by the armies of Gondor and the Elf-lord [[Glorfindel]], who prophesies that "not by the hand of man will he fall".<ref name="Gondor and the heirs of Anarion" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955}}, Appendix A, I, iv "Gondor and the heirs of Anarion"</ref> He escapes, and returns to [[Mordor]]. There, he gathers the other Nazgûl to prepare for the return of Sauron.<ref name="Gondor and the heirs of Anarion" group=T/><ref name="Appendix B Third Age" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955}}, Appendix B, "The Tale of Years", entries in "The Third Age"</ref>

{{anchor|Minas Ithil|Minas Morgul|Imlad Morgul}}
The Nazgûl besiege '''Minas Ithil''', a [[Gondor]]ian fortress in the [[Mordor#Geography|Ephel Duath]], capture it, and acquire its ''[[palantír]]'' for Sauron. The city becomes '''Minas Morgul''', the Nazgûl's stronghold,<ref name="Appendix B Third Age" group=T/> and the valley is known as '''Morgul Vale''' ('''Imlad Morgul'''). Sauron returns from [[Dol Guldur]] to Mordor and declares himself openly.<ref name="Council of Elrond" group=T/> He sent two or three of the Nazgûl, led by Khamul, to garrison Dol Guldur.<ref name="Appendix B Third Age" group=T/>

Sauron learns from [[Gollum]] that a [[hobbit]], [[Bilbo Baggins]] of [[the Shire]], has acquired the One Ring.<ref name="Shadow of the Past" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}}, book 1, ch. 2 "[[The Shadow of the Past]]"</ref> Sauron entrusts its recovery to the Nazgûl. They reappear "west of the River", riding black horses that were bred or trained in Mordor to endure their terror.<ref name="Council of Elrond" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}}, book 2, ch. 2 "[[The Council of Elrond]]"</ref> They learn that the Ring has passed to Bilbo's heir, [[Frodo Baggins|Frodo]], and hunt him and his companions across the Shire; the hobbits hear snuffling, and sometimes see them crawling.<ref name="Three is Company" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}} book 1, ch. 3 "Three is Company"</ref><ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}} book 1, ch. 4 "A Short Cut to Mushrooms"</ref> The hobbits escape, via [[Tom Bombadil]]'s realm where they are not pursued, to [[Bree (Middle-earth)|Bree]].<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}} book 1, ch. 6 "The Old Forest"</ref><ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}} book 1, ch. 7 "In the House of Tom Bombadil"</ref><ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}} book 1, ch. 8 "Fog on the Barrow-downs"</ref> A [[Ranger of the North]], [[Aragorn]], arrives ahead of them and for some days leads them on paths not closely followed by the Ringwraiths.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}} book 1, ch. 9 "At the Sign of the Prancing Pony"</ref><ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}} book 1, ch. 10 "Strider"</ref>

{{anchor|Morgul blade|Morgul-knife|Morgul knife}}
Five of the Nazgûl corner Frodo and his company at Weathertop, where the Witch-king stabs Frodo in the shoulder with the Morgul-knife, breaking off a piece of it in the [[Hobbit]]'s flesh.<ref name="Knife in the Dark" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}} book 1, ch. 11 "A Knife in the Dark"</ref> During their assault, they mentally command Frodo to put on the One Ring; while wearing it, he sees them as pale figures robed in white, with "haggard hands", helmets and swords. The Witch-king was taller than the others, with "long and gleaming" hair and a crown on his helmet.<ref name="Knife in the Dark" group=T/>

When all Nine are swept away by the waters of the river [[Bruinen]], their horses are drowned, and the Ringwraiths are forced to return to Mordor to regroup.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}} book 1, ch. 12 "Flight to the Ford"</ref> 
The nine members of the [[Company of the Ring]], tasked with the destruction of the Ring, leave Rivendell as the "Nine Walkers", in opposition to the Nazgûl, the "Nine Riders".<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}} book 2, ch. 3 "The Ring Goes South"</ref><ref name="Little 2020">{{cite book |last=Little |first=Ariel |chapter=<!--22. -->Hope remains while the company is true: The community heroic in the Fellowship of the Ring |title=The Inklings and Culture: A Harvest of Scholarship from the Inklings Institute of Canada |year=2020 |pages=304–315 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=9781527562653 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8WMOEAAAQBAJ&dq=members+of+Fellowship+of+the+Ring&pg=PA304}}</ref>

{{quote box|quote=The Nazgûl came again ... like vultures that expect their fill of doomed men's flesh. Out of sight and shot they flew, and yet were ever present, and their deadly voices rent the air. More unbearable they became, not less, at each new cry. At length even the stout-hearted would fling themselves to the ground as the hidden menace passed over them, or they would stand, letting their weapons fall from nerveless hands while into their minds a blackness came, and they thought no more of war, but only of hiding and of crawling, and of death.|source=''[[The Return of the King]]'', "The Siege of Gondor"<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955}}, book 5, ch. 4 "The Siege of Gondor"</ref>|width=45%|align=right}}

The Nazgûl reappear mounted on hideous flying beasts.<ref name="Pelennor Fields" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955}}, book 5, ch. 6, "The Battle of the Pelennor Fields"</ref><ref name="Letter 211" group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=#211 to Rhona Beare, 14 October 1958 }}</ref> During the [[Battle of the Pelennor Fields]], the Lord of the Nazgûl [[Magic in Middle-earth|uses magic]], including Grond, a [[battering-ram]] engraved with evil spells, to break the gates of Minas Tirith. He is faced by [[Éowyn]], a noblewoman of [[Rohan (Middle-earth)|Rohan]]; and not far away, [[Merry Brandybuck|Merry]], a hobbit of the Company. Éowyn boldly calls the Nazgûl a "dwimmerlaik", telling him to go if he is not deathless.{{efn|"Dwimmerlaik" represents a word in [[Rohirric]], the speech of [[Rohan (Middle-earth)|Rohan]], translated into [[Old English]]; Tolkien glosses it in the index as a "work of [[necromancy]]", a "spectre". It derives from Old English ''(ge)dwimor'', "phantom, illusion" and ''-leikr'', the Old Norse ending corresponding to Anglo-Saxon ''-lac'', meaning "a state or act".<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1990|page=372}}</ref> [[Tom Shippey]] writes that Tolkien borrowed the word from a Middle English poem, [[Layamon's Brut|Layamon's ''Brut'']].<ref>{{harvnb|Shippey|2005|page=394}}</ref>}} He casts back his hood to reveal a crown, but the head that wears it is invisible. Merry's surreptitious stroke with an enchanted [[Middle-earth weapons and armour|Barrow-blade]] brings the Nazgûl to his knees, allowing Éowyn, the niece of [[Théoden]], to drive her sword between his crown and mantle.<ref name="Pelennor Fields" group=T/> Thus is the Witch-king destroyed by a woman and a Hobbit, fulfilling Glorfindel's prophecy.<ref name="Gondor and the heirs of Anarion" group=T/> Both weapons that pierced him disintegrate, and both assailants are stricken with the Black Breath.<ref name="Pelennor Fields" group=T/>

After the fall of the Lord of the Nazgûl, command of Mordor's army in the field falls to Gothmog, the "lieutenant of Morgul", of unspecified race.{{efn|[[Wayne G. Hammond]] and [[Christina Scull]] comment that fans' suggestions that Gothmog was a Nazgûl are "no more than speculation". They note that an earlier Gothmog was "Lord of Balrogs", who killed [[Fëanor]] and Fingon, and was killed in the assault on [[Gondolin]]. They note also that "lieutenant of Morgul" could mean the second-in-command either of Minas Morgul or "more likely" of the Morgul-lord, the Lord of the Nazgûl.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hammond |first1=Wayne G. |author1-link=Wayne G. Hammond |last2=Scull |first2=Christina |author2-link=Christina Scull |title=The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion |title-link=The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-00-720907-1 |page=565}}</ref>}}<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955}}, book 5, ch. 6, "The Battle of the Pelennor Fields". "There they had been mustered for the sack of the City and the rape of Gondor, waiting on the call of their Captain. He now was destroyed; but Gothmog the lieutenant of Morgul had flung them into the fray..."</ref>

The remaining eight Ringwraiths attack the Army of the West during the [[Battle of the Morannon]].<ref name="Morannon" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955}}, book 5, ch. 10 "The Black Gate Opens"</ref> When Frodo claims the Ring for his own in [[Mount Doom]], Sauron, finally realizing his peril, orders the remaining eight Nazgûl to fly to intercept him. They arrive too late: Gollum seizes the Ring and falls into the Cracks of Doom, destroying the Ring. That ends Sauron's power and everything he had brought into being using it, including the Nazgûl.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955}} book 6, ch. 3, "Mount Doom"</ref>

== Steeds ==

{{further|Tolkien's monsters}}

[[File:Extinct monsters BHL23904402 (cropped).jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.25|Tolkien stated that the "fell beasts" that the Nazgûl rode, while not intended actually to be [[pterodactyls]], were "obviously ... pterodactylic".<ref name="Letter 211" group=T/> 1897 reconstruction of pterodactyls shown]]

The flying steeds of the Nazgûl are given various descriptions but no name. The soldier of Gondor [[Beregond]] calls them "Hell Hawks". Tolkien describes them as "[[wiktionary:fell#Etymology 4|fell]] beasts", though he also applies the adjective ''fell'' ("fierce, cruel") to other creatures throughout ''The Lord of the Rings'' – even at one point to the wizard [[Gandalf]]. In a letter, he calls the winged mounts "Nazgûl-birds".<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=#100 to [[Christopher Tolkien]], 29 May 1945, expressing his "loathing" for the [[Royal Air Force]]: "My sentiments are more or less those that [[Frodo]] would have had if he discovered some [[Hobbit]]s learning to ride Nazgûl-birds, 'for the liberation of the Shire'." }}</ref> In the absence of a proper name, derivative works sometimes press "fellbeast" or "fell-beast" into service.<ref>{{cite video game |title=[[The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar]] |developer=[[Turbine, Inc.]] |level=Barad Guldur}}</ref>

In the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, where the Lord of the Nazgûl rode one of the flying beasts against King Théoden of Rohan, his mount is described as:<ref name="Pelennor Fields" group=T/>

{{blockquote|a winged creature: if bird, then greater than all other birds, and it was naked, and neither quill nor feather did it bear, and its vast pinions were as webs of hide between horned fingers; and it stank. A creature of an older world maybe it was ...<ref name="Pelennor Fields" group=T/>}}

It is said to attack with "beak and claw".<ref name="Pelennor Fields" group=T/> Tolkien wrote that he "did not intend the steed of the Witch-king to be what is now called a '[[pterodactyl]]'", while acknowledging "obviously it is ''pterodactylic''" and owed much to the "new ... mythology" [of the "Prehistoric"], and might even be "a last survivor of older geological eras."<ref name="Letter 211" group=T/>

The medievalist [[Marjorie Burns]] compares the fell beast to the ''[[Poetic Edda]]''{{'}}s flying steed [[Sleipnir]], "Odin's eight-legged otherworldly horse". She writes that whereas Gandalf's horse Shadowfax resembles Sleipnir in his miraculous speed and in almost seeming to fly, the Nazgûl's mount actually flies but is a "negative image" of Odin's steed; and, she notes, both Odin and the Nazgûl can cause blindness.<ref name="Burns 2005">{{cite book |last=Burns |first=Marjorie |author-link=Marjorie Burns |title=Perilous Realms: Celtic and Norse in Tolkien's Middle-earth |title-link=Perilous Realms |year=2005 |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |isbn=978-0-8020-3806-7 |pages=104–106}}</ref>{{Clear}}

== Concept and creation ==

=== Development ===

Tolkien began writing ''The Lord of the Rings'' with no conception of Black Riders at all. The horseman in dark clothes in the early chapter "Three is Company"<ref name="Three is Company" group=T/> was originally Gandalf; in 1938, Tolkien called the figure's transformation into a Black Rider "an unpremeditated turn".<ref name="Scull 2006">{{cite book |last=Scull |first=Christina |author-link=Christina Scull |chapter=What Did He Know and When Did He Know It? |title=The Lord of the Rings, 1954-2004: Scholarship in Honor of Richard E. Blackwelder |editor1=Hammond, Wayne G. |editor1-link=Wayne G. Hammond |editor2=Scull, Christina |publisher=[[Marquette University Press]] |year=2006 |isbn=0-87462-018-X |oclc=298788493 |pages=101–112}}</ref><ref group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=#26 to [[Stanley Unwin (publisher)|Stanley Unwin]], 4 March 1938 }}</ref> Frodo's ring, too, was simply a magic ring conferring invisibility, both in ''The Hobbit'' and early drafts of ''The Lord of the Rings'', with no link to Sauron. However, Tolkien was at the time starting to consider the true nature of the Ring, and the idea that it had been made by the Necromancer, and drew itself or its bearer back to him.<ref name="Scull 2006"/><ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1988}}, pp. 42–43</ref> The Black Riders became Ringwraiths when the hobbit, at that time called Bingo rather than Frodo, discussed the Riders with the Elf Gildor, later in the same chapter. Over the next three years, Tolkien gradually developed the connections between the Nazgûl, the One Ring, Sauron, and all the other Rings of Power. The pieces finally all came together when Tolkien wrote "The Mirror of Galadriel", some hundreds of pages later, around the autumn of 1941.<ref name="Scull 2006"/><ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}}, book 2, ch. 7 "The Mirror of Galadriel"</ref><ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1989}}, pp. 259–260</ref>

=== ''Lacnunga'' ===

The number of the Nazgûl, nine, may be derived from medieval folklore. Edward Pettit, in ''[[Mallorn (journal)|Mallorn]]'', states that nine is "the commonest 'mystic' number in Germanic lore".<ref name="Pettit 2002"/> He quotes the "[[Nine Herbs Charm]]" from the ''[[Lacnunga]]'', an [[Old English]] book of spells:<ref name="Pettit 2002">{{cite journal |last=Pettit |first=Edward |title=J.R.R. Tolkien's use of an Old English charm |journal=Mallorn |date=2002 |issue=40 |pages=39–44 |url=https://journals.tolkiensociety.org/mallorn/article/download/132/126}}</ref>

{{blockquote|<poem>
against venom and vile things
and all the loathly ones,
that through the land rove, 
...
against nine fugitives from glory, 
against nine poisons and 
against nine flying diseases.</poem>}}

Pettit further proposes that Tolkien may have made multiple uses of another ''Lacnunga'' charm, "Against a sudden stabbing pain", to derive multiple attributes of the Nazgûl. He states that Tolkien certainly knew the charm. In [[Henry Sweet]]'s translation:<ref name="Pettit 2002"/><ref>{{cite book |last=Sweet |first=Henry |author-link=Henry Sweet |title=An Anglo-Saxon Reader in Prose and Verse |date=1908 |publisher=[[Clarendon Press]] |location=Oxford |at=XIX, II. pp. 104–105}}</ref>

{{blockquote|<poem>
They were loud, lo, loud, when they rode over the hill,
They were resolute when they rode over the land.
...
If a piece of iron is in here.
The work of a witch, heat shall melt it!
...
If it were shot of gods, or if it were [[elfshot|shot of elves]],
Or if it were shot of witch, now I will help you.
</poem>}}

Pettit writes that Tolkien may have used the "loud" riders to come up with the "thundering hooves" and "piercing cry" of the Nine Riders. The supernatural beings mentioned in the charm – gods, elves, witches – may naturally have suggested the Nazgûl's magical power; in particular, the "work of a witch" may have resulted in the Witch-King of Angmar. Finally, the Morgul-knife that breaks off in the victim's body, and which [[Elrond]] has to destroy by melting, matches the "piece of iron ... in here... heat shall melt it!"<ref name="Pettit 2002"/>

=== Etymological connotations ===

Tolkien was a [[philologist]]. [[Jason Fisher]], writing that "all stories begin with words", takes up [[Edmund Wilson]]'s "denigrating dismissal" of ''The Lord of the Rings'' as "a philological curiosity", replying that to him this is "precisely one of its greatest strengths".<ref name="Fisher 2014"/> Fisher explores in detail the connotations of Tolkien's use of "Ringwraith" and its Black Speech translation "Nazgûl", both in languages that Tolkien knew and [[Languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien|those that he invented]]. "Wraith" in modern English means 'spectre'.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wraith |title=wraith, noun |work=Merriam-Webster Dictionary |accessdate=October 29, 2024}}</ref> Fisher notes that the word has a history in folktale and fantasy including usage by the [[Brothers Grimm]], [[William Morris]], and [[George MacDonald]].<ref name="Fisher 2014"/> The word "wraith" can be connected, Fisher writes, to English "[[wikt:writhe|writhe]]", [[Old English]] ''wrīþan'', to bend or twist, and in turn to Gothic ''wraiqs'', curved, crooked, or winding, and ''wraks'', a persecutor. There is also English "wreath", from Old English ''wrida'', meaning a band, a thing wound around something, and indeed a ring. Another cognate is Old Saxon ''wred'', meaning cruel; Fisher comments that all of these stem from Indo-European ''*wreit'', to turn, bend, or wind.<ref name="Fisher 2014">{{Cite book |last=Fisher |first=Jason |author-link=Jason Fisher |chapter=Tolkien's Wraiths, Rings, and Dragons: An Exercise in Literary Linguistics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A_rsAwAAQBAJ&pg=PP1 |title=Tolkien in the New Century: Essays in Honor of Tom Shippey |publisher=[[McFarland & Company|McFarland]] |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-4766-1486-1 |editor-last=Houghton |editor-first=John Wm. |pages=97–114 |access-date=28 November 2021 |editor-last2=Croft |editor-first2=Janet Brennan |editor-link2=Janet Brennan Croft |editor-last3=Martsch |editor-first3=N.}}</ref>

"Nazgûl" has the Black Speech roots ''nazg'', ring, and ''gûl'', wraith. Fisher writes that the former may well be connected, unconsciously on Tolkien's part, to [[Scottish Gaelic|Gaelic]] ''nasc'', a ring. ''Gûl'' has the meaning "magic" in Tolkien's invented language of [[Sindarin]]. Fisher comments that this has an English [[homophone]] in "[[wikt:ghoul|ghoul]]", a wraith, which derives from [[Arabic]] غُول‎ ''ḡūl'', a demon that feeds on corpses. The Sindarin word is related to ''ñgol'', wise, wisdom, and to [[Noldor]], [[Fëanor]]'s elves who became in Fisher's words "bent and twisted" by the desire for the [[Silmaril]]s.<ref name="Fisher 2014"/>

[[File:Nazgûl and Ringwraith.svg|thumb|center|upright=2.8|Diagram of [[Jason Fisher]]'s analysis of [[philological]] connections and [[Etymology|etymologies]] of ''Nazgûl'' and ''Ringwraith''. Both terms have connotations of being "bent and twisted".<ref name="Fisher 2014"/>]]

The only one of the nine Ringwraiths to be named is Khamûl. Fisher suggests a link to [[Welsh language|Welsh]] ''kam'', crooked, and ''kamy'', to bend. "Kam" made its way into English usage, including by [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]],<ref>{{cite dictionary |last=Dyce |first=Alexander |author-link=Alexander Dyce |entry=kam |title=A General Glossary to Shakespeare's Works |date=1904 |publisher=Dana Estes and Company |location=Boston |quote='clean kam', ''[[Coriolanus]]'', iii. 1. 304. Quite crooked, quite wrong (or, as [[Brutus]] subjoins, 'Merely awry)', Compare clean.  |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.03.0067%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DK}}</ref> as is recorded in [[Samuel Johnson]]'s 1755 ''[[A Dictionary of the English Language]]''.<ref name="Fisher 2014"/> Fisher writes that this may have come to Tolkien by way of his time with the [[Lancashire Fusiliers]] in the [[World War I|First World War]], with Lancashire dialect words like ''caimt'', crooked or bad-tempered. In short, Tolkien may have felt many [[philological]] associations between his "Nazgûl" and "Ringwraith" with the meanings of being bent and twisted as well as ghoulish.<ref name="Fisher 2014"/>

== Analysis ==

=== Literary modes ===

Shippey writes that the Nazgûl function at different [[Anatomy of Criticism#Literary modes|stylistic levels or modes]] (as categorised by [[Northrop Frye]] in his ''[[Anatomy of Criticism]]'') in the story. At one level, they serve simply as story elements, dangerous opponents. But, Shippey notes, the level rises from the romantic, with heroes taking on the Black Riders, to the mythic, giving as example the assault of Minas Tirith. The leader of the Nazgûl directs the attack on the Great Gate; he bursts the gate using both the battering-ram Grond, written with "[[Magic of Middle-earth|spells of ruin]]", and with "words of power and terror to rend both heart and stone".<ref name="Siege of Gondor" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955}}, book 5, ch. 4, "The Siege of Gondor"</ref><ref name="Shippey 2005 Siege">{{harvnb|Shippey|2005|pages=242–243}}</ref>

=== Invisible, but corporeal ===

{{further|Witch-king of Angmar}}

[[File:Nazgûl mirando el crepúsculo.jpg|thumb|A Nazgûl, depicted as a shadowy but solid body, cloaked and hooded, wearing a sword, and mounted on a horse<ref name="Kisor 2013"/>]]

Despite his shadowiness and invisibility, Shippey writes, the Nazgûl on the Pelennor Fields also comes as close as he ever does to seeming human, having human form inside his black robes, carrying a sword, and laughing to reveal his power when he throws back his hood, revealing a king's crown on his invisible head.<ref name="Shippey 2005 Siege"/>

Yvette Kisor, a scholar of literature, writes that while the Ringwraiths and others (like Frodo) who wear Rings of Power become invisible, they do not lose any of their corporeality, being present as physical bodies. They require, she writes, physical steeds to carry them about, and they can wield swords. She notes that only a person in a body can wield the One Ring, so the invisibility is just "a trick of sight". When Frodo, wearing the Ring, saw the Nazgûl in the "twilight world", they appeared solid, not shadowy. He also saw Glorfindel in that world, as a figure of white flame; and Gandalf explains later that the Ringwraiths were "dismayed" to see "an Elf-lord revealed in his wrath".<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}}, book 2, ch. 1 "Many Meetings"</ref><ref name="Kisor 2013">{{cite book |last=Kisor |first=Yvette |chapter=Incorporeality and Transformation in The Lord of the Rings |title=The Body in Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on Middle-earth Corporeality |editor-first=Christopher |editor-last=Vaccaro |publisher=[[McFarland & Company|McFarland]] |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-78647478-3 |pages=20–38}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Croft |first=Janet Brennan |author-link=Janet Brennan Croft |title=Review: The Body in Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on Middle-earth |journal=[[Mythlore]] |volume=33 |issue=1, Fall/Winter 2014 |year=2014 |pages=146–149 |url=https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol33/iss1/9}}</ref> Frodo is in danger of "fading" permanently into invisibility and the twilight world, as the Ringwraiths have done, living "in another mode of reality". She writes, too, that Merry's sword, with the special power to sever the Witch-king's "undead flesh" and in particular to overcome the "spell that knit his unseen sinews to his will",<ref name="Pelennor Fields" group=T/> has in fact to cut through real, but invisible, sinews and flesh.<ref name="Kisor 2013"/>

=== Gradual incarnation ===

Steve Walker, a Tolkien scholar,<!--http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/905-Power-of-Tolkien-Prose.php--> writes that the story gives the Ringwraiths credibility through a "gradual incarnation of bodiless presence". Little by little, in his view, Tolkien increases the reader's insight into their nature, starting with Black Riders who are "spies more human than diabolical", rather than developing their character. Walker sees this as appropriate: the Nazgûl's main weapons are psychological, namely fear and despair. He writes that the progressive revelation of their capabilities, and their "escalation of steeds" from horses to fell beasts, builds up in the reader's mind an "increasingly infernal vision".<ref name="Walker2009">{{cite book |last=Walker |first=Steve C. |title=The Power of Tolkien's Prose: Middle-Earth's Magical Style |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zaq_AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA24 |date=2009 |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |isbn=978-0230101661 |pages=23–24}}</ref>

=== The Black Breath ===

{{redirect|Black Breath|the band|Black Breath (band)}}

The Nazgûl spread terror and despair among their enemies, and discomfit those on their own side. The Black Breath is stated to have afflicted many during the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. Dr Jennifer Urquart, writing in ''[[Mallorn (journal)|Mallorn]]'', describes its normal course as "progressive loss of consciousness and [[hypothermia]], leading to death".<ref name="Urquart 2014">{{cite journal |last=Urquart |first=Jennifer |title='The House of his Spirit Crumbles.' A medical consideration of Faramir's condition on his return from the retreat from Osgiliath, in The Lord of the Rings |journal=Mallorn |date=2014 |issue=55 Winter 2014 |pages=14–17 |url=https://journals.tolkiensociety.org/mallorn/article/download/50/44}}</ref> She comments that the Black Breath, contracted by "excessive proximity" to a Nazgûl, seems to be a "spiritual malady" combined with "fear, confusion, reduced levels of consciousness, hypothermia, weakness and death."<ref name="Urquart 2014"/> Faramir, on the other hand, who was thought to be suffering from the Black Breath, she diagnoses as most likely exhaustion with [[heat stroke]], combined with "psychological distress" and pain, as his symptoms were quite different.<ref name="Urquart 2014"/> Judy Ann Ford and [[Robin Anne Reid]] note that [[Aragorn]]'s use of the herb ''[[athelas]]'' to heal Faramir and others of the Black Breath, a condition "which harms the spirit more than the body",<ref name="Ford Reid 2009"/> identifies him to his people as the true King.<ref name="Ford Reid 2009">{{cite journal |last1=Ford |first1=Judy Ann |last2=Reid |first2=Robin Anne |author2-link=Robin Anne Reid |title=Councils and Kings: Aragorn's Journey Towards Kingship in J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Lord of the Rings' and Peter Jackson's 'The Lord of the Rings' |journal=[[Tolkien Studies]] |volume=6 |issue=1 |year=2009 |doi=10.1353/tks.0.0036 |pages=71–90}}</ref>

Michael and Victoria Wodzak discuss how the hobbit Merry Brandybuck can be affected by the Black Breath when the Witch-King has not noticed him, pointing out that Tolkien nowhere says that the Nazgûl breathes on him or on Éowyn. Instead Éowyn "raised her shield against the horror of her enemy's eye", and the Wodzaks comment that the Nazgûl uses his eyes "to overwhelm".<ref name="Wodzak Wodzak 2014">{{cite journal |last1=Wodzak |first1=Michael A. |last2=Wodzak |first2=Victoria Holtz |title=Visibílium Ómnium et Invisibílium: Looking Out, On, and In Tolkien's World |journal=[[Tolkien Studies]] |volume=11 |issue=1 |year=2014 |doi=10.1353/tks.2014.0002 |pages=131–147}}</ref> In their view, the seeming inconsistency is resolved by identifying the Black Breath with his "''[[pneuma]]''", his evil spirit, and assuming that it is this which causes the harm all around him.<ref name="Wodzak Wodzak 2014"/>

[[File:Alfred Bastien-GAS ATTACK, FLANDERS, 1915 (CWM 19710261-0084).jpg|thumb|[[John Garth (author)|John Garth]] suggests that the Black Breath may derive from Tolkien's experience of  [[Chemical weapons in World War I|gas in the First World War]].<ref name="Garth 2009"/> Painting ''Gas Attack, Flanders'' by [[Alfred Bastien]], 1915]]

Tolkien's biographer [[John Garth (author)|John Garth]] finds Christopher Gilson's ''Words, Phrases and Passages in Various Tongues in "The Lord of the Rings"'' especially interesting for its rendering of two of the Dark Lord [[Sauron]]'s epithets, ''Thû'' meaning "horrible darkness, black mist" and ''Gorthu'' meaning "mist of fear".<ref name="Garth 2009">{{cite journal |last=Garth |first=John |author-link=John Garth (author) |title='Words, Phrases and Passages in Various Tongues in "The Lord of the Rings"' (review) |journal=[[Tolkien Studies]] |volume=6 |issue=1 |year=2009 |doi=10.1353/tks.0.0059 |pages=248–255}}</ref> Garth comments that these names "anchor him in the primal night" of Tolkien's [[Giant Spider (Middle Earth)|giant spiders]], the Black Breath, the fog on the [[Barrow-downs]], and the terror of the [[Paths of the Dead]]. He adds that this fog of terror may ultimately derive from [[The Great War and Middle-earth|Tolkien's First World War experience]] "of smoke barrages, [[Chemical weapons in World War I|gas attacks]] and 'animal horror' on the Somme."<ref name="Garth 2009"/> Earlier, in his 2003 book ''[[Tolkien and the Great War]]'', on the other hand, Garth merely notes the "Black Breath of despair that brings down even the bravest" as one of several elements of ''The Lord of the Rings'' which "suggest[s] the influence of 1914–18".<ref>{{cite book |last=Garth |first=John |author-link=John Garth (author) |title=Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth |title-link=Tolkien and the Great War |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |year=2004 |orig-year=2003 |isbn=978-0-00711-953-0 |page=312}}</ref>

In her Tolkienesque 1961 short story "The Jewel of Arwen", the [[fantasy]] and [[science fiction]] writer [[Marion Zimmer Bradley]] provides "Translator's Notes" which assert as part of her [[frame story]] that the Nazgûl were contaminated and enslaved by a monstrous form of radioactivity which transformed "the very cells of their protoplasm".<ref name="Bradley 1961"/> They thereby became radioactive and "immune to radiation poisoning, as is shown by their dwelling in the blasted tower of Minas Ithil [which glowed in the dark]."<ref name="Bradley 1961"/> Further, Bradley writes, the Nazgûl gave off "radioactive contamination", causing the Black Breath.<ref name="Bradley 1961">{{cite journal |last=Bradley |first=Marion Zimmer |author-link=Marion Zimmer Bradley |title=The Jewel of Arwen |journal=I Palantir |date=1961 |issue=2 |url=https://arwen.nu/20/BRADLEY,%20Marion%20Z.%20-%20The%20Jewel%20of%20Arwen.pdf}}</ref>

=== Opposed to the Nine Walkers ===

{{further|Company of the Ring}}

[[File:Nine Walkers vs Nine Riders.svg|thumb|center|upright=2.6|Nine Walkers vs Nine Riders: diagram of Ariel Little's analysis of the enslaved Nine Nazgûl opposed by the free [[Company of the Ring]]. Tolkien made the two groups match in number but sharply different in character.<ref name="Council of Elrond" group=T/><ref name="Little 2020"/>]]

The [[Inklings]] scholar Ariel Little writes that Tolkien explicitly opposes the enslaved Nine Riders with the Nine Walkers, the free Company of the Ring. In "[[The Council of Elrond]]", Elrond announces that "The Company of the Ring shall be Nine; and the Nine Walkers shall be set against the Nine Riders that are evil".<ref name="Council of Elrond" group=T/><ref name="Little 2020"/> Little describes the Nazgûl as "homogeneous, discordant, intensely individualistic", a group bound and trapped by Sauron, noting also Gandalf's description of them in "[[The Shadow of the Past]]" as "Mortal Men, proud and great [who] fell under the dominion of the One, and they became Ringwraiths, shadows under his great Shadow, his most terrible servants".<ref name="Shadow of the Past" group=T/><ref name="Little 2020"/> They had thus, Little writes, lost their identities as humans, even losing their substance and becoming what Tolkien calls "nothingness" under their black clothing. He adds that the evil characters in ''The Lord of the Rings'' are characterised by infighting, as among the Orcs, lack of harmony, and "hate-filled discord", forming an "anti-community".<ref name="Little 2020"/>

Little contrasts this disharmony with the Company of the Ring, which is "diverse, bound by friendship, relying on each other's strengths".<ref name="Little 2020"/> The Company is joined by its common purpose, and by "devoted love".<ref name="Little 2020"/> There are strong bonds of friendship, seen initially between all the Hobbits. Further friendships develop throughout the Company as they travel together; Little notes that Frodo says that "Strider" (Aragorn), viewed initially with suspicion, is "dear to me".<ref name="Little 2020"/> He comments that "the deep affection of the Fellowship breaks down racial and cultural barriers" as all its members drop their initial reserve and come to an "appreciation for the cultural distinctiveness" of their companions.<ref name="Little 2020"/> A case in point is the strong friendship between the Dwarf Gimli and the Elf Legolas, members of two races with radically dissimilar cultures, and which had often clashed in the past; Little notes that even the other members of the Company, in Tolkien's words, "wonder ... at this change".<ref name="Little 2020"/> He writes that even when the Company splits up into smaller groups, it is not destroyed: far from it, Frodo and Sam sustain each other through their arduous journey, their friendship deepening with time; Merry and Pippin supporting each other; Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli acting as a team, all continuing to function as communities. Little adds that the Company functions as a true team, every member being essential to the success of its mission.<ref name="Little 2020"/> The Christian commentator [[Ralph C. Wood]] writes that "the greatness of the Nine Walkers lies in the modesty of both their abilities and accomplishments. Their strength lies in their weakness, in their solidarity as a company unwilling to wield controlling power over others."{{sfn|Wood|2011|pp=116–134}} Rebecca Munro notes that in the Company, "no one acts alone without dependence on the deeds of others".{{sfn|Munro|2014|p=645}}

== Adaptations ==

=== Films ===

[[File:LOTR78 beds Bree.JPG|thumb|left|The Nazgûl hacking and slashing at the hobbits' beds in the ''Prancing Pony'' inn at [[Bree (Middle-earth)|Bree]], in [[Ralph Bakshi]]'s [[The Lord of the Rings (1978 film)|1978 animated film version]]]]

The Nazgûl are featured in [[Adaptations of The Lord of the Rings|adaptations of ''The Lord of the Rings'']] on radio, film, and stage. In [[Ralph Bakshi]]'s 1978 animated film version of ''[[The Lord of the Rings (1978 film)|The Lord of the Rings]]'', the Nazgûl "shamble and limp like zombies".<ref>{{cite web |last=Gilkeson |first=Austin |title=Ralph Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings Brought Tolkien from the Counterculture to the Big Screen |url=https://www.tor.com/2018/11/13/ralph-bakshis-the-lord-of-the-rings-brought-tolkien-from-the-counterculture-to-the-big-screen/ |website=TOR |access-date=20 May 2020 |date=13 November 2018 |quote=Bakshi's Nazgûl shamble and limp like zombies, giving them a truly creepy feeling. Understandably unsettled, the hobbits decide to skip Buckland—and also the Old Forest, Tom Bombadil's house, and the Barrow-downs—and head straight to The Prancing Pony in Bree.}}</ref> They hack and slash the Hobbits' beds at ''The Prancing Pony'' inn, whereas Tolkien does not identify the assailants.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a|loc=book 1, ch. 10, "Strider"}}</ref>

[[File:Nazgul.PNG|thumb|upright=0.6|A Nazgûl portrayed in [[Peter Jackson]]'s [[The Lord of the Rings (film series)|''The Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy]]]]

In the [[Rankin-Bass]] adaptation of [[The Return of the King (1980 film)|''The Return of the King'']], the Nazgûl are robed skeletons with white hair. They ride winged horses, although the Witch-king rides a creature more in line with the book when he confronts Éowyn.<ref>{{cite web |last=Gilkeson |first=Austin |title=Middle-earth's Weirdest film: Rankin-Bass' Animated The Return of the King |url=https://reactormag.com/middle-earths-weirdest-movie-rankin-bass-animated-the-return-of-the-king/ |website=[[Reactor (magazine)|reactormag.com]] |access-date=20 May 2020 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250506081956/https://reactormag.com/middle-earths-weirdest-movie-rankin-bass-animated-the-return-of-the-king/ |archive-date=6 May 2025 |date=24 April 2019 |quote=Now, I should add that while eight of the nine Nazgûl are skeletons with beautiful heads of white hair riding on flying horses, the Witch-king is more traditionally invisible. ... The Witch-king does finally appear, riding a decently dragonish fell beast rather than a Pegasus. }}{{Dead link|date=August 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> The 1981 [[BBC Radio]] serial of ''[[The Lord of the Rings (1981 radio series)|The Lord of the Rings]]'' has the Nazgûl chant the [[Ring-inscription]] in the Black Speech of Mordor.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Nephrite |title=Audiobook Review: The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers(1981) |url=https://theorkneynews.scot/2019/01/22/audiobook-review-the-lord-of-the-rings-the-two-towers1981/ |access-date=28 May 2020 |work=The Orkney News |date=22 January 2019}}</ref> The 1991 Russian [[television play]] ''[[Khraniteli]]'' features a group of Nazgûl galloping through a snowy pine forest; they wear black cloaks, with glimpses of red equipment.<ref name="Templeton 2021">{{cite web |last=Templeton |first=Molly |title=A 30-Year-Old Soviet Adaptation of The Fellowship of the Ring Is Available for Your Viewing Pleasure |url=https://www.tor.com/2021/04/06/soviet-lord-of-the-rings-1991/ |publisher=TOR.com |access-date=18 April 2021 |date=6 April 2021}}</ref>

In ''The Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy (2001–2003) by [[Peter Jackson]], the Nazgûl are almost always concealed by cloaks; they attack the inn at Bree themselves.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rosebury |first=Brian |author-link=Brian Rosebury |chapter=The Lord of the Rings: Imagining Middle-earth |year=2003 |title=Tolkien: A Cultural Phenomenon |title-link=Tolkien: A Cultural Phenomenon |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |isbn=978-1-4039-1263-3 |pages=11–59}}</ref> During the siege of Minas Tirith, the Witch-king wears a distinctive helmet over his hood resembling a mask and a crown, rather than the crown worn underneath his hood in the book.<ref>{{cite web |last=Dembrow |first=Dylan |title=Lord Of The Rings: 20 Strangest Details About Witch-King's Anatomy |url=https://screenrant.com/lord-rings-witch-king-anatomy-trivia-details/ |website=ScreenRant |date=4 November 2018 |quote=To better distinguish him from his fellow Nazgul, the Witch-king was given additional armor and a large, pointed helm. In the novels, whenever his hood is thrown back, he is described as wearing a king’s crown, which floats atop his invisible head and his burning eyes of fire.}}</ref> Their shrieks are distorted recordings of producer and screenwriter [[Fran Walsh]]'s scream.<ref name="New York Times">{{cite news |last=Barnes |first=Brooks |title=Middle-Earth Wizard's Not-So-Silent Partner |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/films/middle-earth-wizards-not-so-silent-partner.html?_r=0 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=30 November 2012 |quote=She also performed with Naked Spots Dance, another punk band. (It was probably good practice for what 'Rings' fans know as the "Nazgul scream", a high-pitched screech made by Tolkien's evil Ringwraiths and performed by Ms. Walsh. "I'm a very good screamer", she said by telephone. "It's not that I scream at people. But I can scream. I went into the room with the mike and let out all the stress and the horror and the terror of making those films.")}}</ref>

[[File:Darktower.jpg|thumb|upright=0.6|[[John Howe (illustrator)|John Howe]]'s illustration of the Witch-king's flying steed drove the design of the monsters in Peter Jackson's films.<ref name="Dellamorte 2011"/>]]

Minas Morgul is shown first in ''The Fellowship of the Ring'', when the Nazgûl leave the city and ride towards [[the Shire]] to pursue the One Ring. It features again when Frodo and Sam make their way towards Cirith Ungol. These sets were designed by the illustrator [[John Howe (illustrator)|John Howe]].<ref name="Big-atures">{{cite video |title=Big-atures (Special Extended Edition documentary) |medium=DVD |publisher=[[New Line Cinema]] |date=2004}}</ref> All nine Nazgûl are shown riding winged monsters. Jackson's monsters explicitly differ from Tolkien's description in that they have teeth instead of beaks. The Nazgûl use them in battle more extensively than in the book. In the film the Witch-king's mount is largely responsible for the death of Théoden and his horse Snowmane, a departure from the book. As confirmed in the films' [[audio commentary]], the design of the monsters was based largely on illustrations by John Howe.<ref name="Dellamorte 2011">{{cite web |last=Dellamorte |first=Andrew |title=The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy: Extended Edition Blu-ray Review |url=https://collider.com/lord-of-the-rings-extended-edition-blu-ray-review/ |website=Collider |access-date=11 March 2020 |date=20 June 2011}}</ref><ref name="Conlogue 2003">See also {{cite news |last=Conlogue |first=Ray |title=Tolkien's Gentlemanly Art of War |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/tolkiens-gentlemanly-art-of-war/article18440172/ |work=[[The Globe and Mail]] |date=16 December 2003}}</ref>

The fan-made 2009 film ''[[The Hunt for Gollum]]'' features Aragorn fighting a Ringwraith on the borders of Mirkwood.<ref>{{cite web |last=Mooney |first=Michael <!--staff writer--> |title=The Hunt For Gollum |url=http://www.filmscramble.co.uk/2014/01/20/hunt-gollum/ |website=filmscramble |access-date=20 May 2020 |date=20 January 2014 }}{{Dead link|date=August 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

In Jackson's 2012–2014 [[The Hobbit (film series)|''The Hobbit'' film trilogy]], the men who became the Nazgûl are said to have been buried and sealed within the invented High Fells of Rhudaur. In the first film, Radagast briefly encounters the Witch-king while investigating Dol Guldur, and gives the Nazgûl's Morgul dagger to Gandalf to present at the White Council as proof of their return. In the second film, at Galadriel's behest, Gandalf heads to the High Fells and finds that all the Nazgûl have left the tomb. This confirms the Necromancer's identity as Sauron, as the Nazgûl appear alongside their master in the third film in spectral forms wearing Morgul armour and fight Elrond and Saruman before being driven away by Galadriel.<ref>{{cite web |last=LaSala |first=Jeff |title=Extending The Desolation of Smaug: More Is More |url=https://www.tor.com/2014/11/14/more-is-more-extending-the-desolation-of-smaug/ |publisher=TOR |access-date=21 May 2020 |date=14 November 2014}}</ref>

=== Games ===

The Nazgûl are featured in the video game ''[[Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor]]'' and its sequel ''[[Middle-earth: Shadow of War]]''. In the latter, [[Isildur]] is revealed to be one of the Nazgûl before he is killed by the game's protagonist, Talion. Talion takes Isildur's ring to prolong his life and eventually becomes Isildur's replacement until the demise of the Nazgûl in the ''Return of the King''.<ref>{{cite web |last=Mithaiwala |first=Mansoor |title=How Shadow of War Breaks Tolkien's Middle-Earth Lore |url=https://screenrant.com/shadow-war-tolkien-middle-earth-lore/ |website=ScreenRant |access-date=21 May 2020 |date=25 October 2017}}</ref>
For the expansion to its real-time strategy game ''[[The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II]]'', ''[[The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II: The Rise of the Witch-king|The Rise of the Witch-king]]'', [[Electronic Arts]] invented the name ''Morgomir'' for one of the Nazgûl.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth II: The Rise of the Witch-King |url=https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/video-games/The-Lord-of-the-Rings-Battle-for-Middle-Earth-The-Rise-of-the-Witch-King/ |website=Behind the Voice Actors |access-date=21 May 2020}}</ref>

== Influence ==

The fantasy novelist [[George R. R. Martin]]'s 1983 ''[[The Armageddon Rag]]'' tells the tale of a rock promoter who had managed a band named the Nazgûl, and was found [[ritual murder|ritually murdered]] on the 10th anniversary of the band's breakup.<ref name="Pringle 1998">{{cite book |last=Pringle |first=David |title=St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic Writers |publisher=[[St. James Press]] |year=1998 |isbn=978-1-55862-206-7 |oclc=38149929 |pages=388–390}}</ref>

== Notes ==

{{notelist}}

== References ==

=== Primary ===

{{reflist|group=T|28em}}

=== Secondary ===

{{reflist}}

=== Sources ===

* {{ME-ref|Letters}} <!--Carpenter 1981-->
* {{cite journal |last=Munro |first=Rebecca |title=The Art of The Lord of the Rings: A Defense of the Aesthetic |journal=Religion and the Arts |year=2014 |volume=18 |issue=5 |pages=636–652|doi=10.1163/15685292-01805002 }}
* {{ME-ref|ROAD}}    <!--Shippey 2005-->
* {{ME-ref|FOTR}}    <!--Tolkien 1954a-->
* {{ME-ref|ROTK}}    <!--Tolkien 1955-->
* {{ME-ref|Silm}}
* {{ME-ref|UT}}
* {{ME-ref|RoTS}}
* {{ME-ref|TI}}
* {{ME-ref|WotR}}
* {{cite book |last=Wood |first=Ralph C. |author-link=Ralph C. Wood |chapter=J. R. R. Tolkien: His Sorrowful Vision of Joy |editor1-last=Hein |editor1-first=David |editor2-last=Henderson |editor2-first=Edward |title=C. S. Lewis and his Friends |publisher=[[SPCK]] |year=2011 |pages=116–134}}

{{Lord of the Rings}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nazgul}}
[[Category:Middle-earth Men]]
[[Category:Fictional undead]]
[[Category:Fictional kings]]
[[Category:The Lord of the Rings characters]]
[[Category:Literary characters introduced in 1954]]
[[Category:Male literary villains]]
[[Category:Fictional nonets]]
[[Category:Ring-bearers]]
[[Category:Middle-earth monsters]]