The Witch King! Who knew his identity?

Falterroy

New Member
I really dont mean to keep posting threads and promise this will be my last for a while.

This is about the witch king, AGAIN.

So how long did people know the connection between the Witch King and the nazgul?
It seemed to me that the last king of Gondor, forget his name, seemed to think of the WK as a man, rather than as a spirit ghost creature. And as an honourable one, and that was why he lost. Because he trusted on the WK's humanity and pride to have a duel and that the WK would keep his word.
Either the king of gondor was shot down as soon as he entered minas morgul, or there was a one sided fight in which the king struck the WK, the sword dissolved, and then the WK counter struck. I think the former more likely though as the WK had no reason to fight "fairly".

When the necromancer rose up, people naturally assumed he was just a human magician, and not a concern for the white council. This implies that dark human magicians were relatively common or at the very least there was precedent for them. Now, what is this precedent? I wonder if the precedent was the previous 9 human king magicians that were around middle earth who disappeared suddenly a while ago. I wonder if the Witch King was also just considered a powerful magician human, not a concern for the white council but just another example of human infighting.

Gandalf certainly knows by the events of the LOTR that the witch king, the nazgul and the 9 kings of men are all the same but I wonder how recently these connections were made.
Afterall if they knew that Angmar was an extension of Sauron then why did the white council do nothing about him? It could be that the connections were made once Sauron declared himself, or were made even as recently as Gandalf studying the ringlore.
The nine kings were not MAJOR kings, so it is possible that when they disapeared the assumption at the time was that they fell like the Dwarven kings. It is likely only over time that the "good guys" made a proper count of the nazgul and went, "Hey, 9 of them, 9 mortal kings!"

I wanted to add that possibly because of the assumption that the Witch King was just a man was why everyone underestimated him during his hey day, believing him to have the same flaws and temptations as normal Kjngs of men. However, it is interesting to note that over time, almost always winning his major fights and believing himself invulnerable, the first and last time we ever see the Witch King succumb to his mortal pride and actually has a one on one fight against Eowyn with no back up (he could easily have fled or summoned orcs to help him) he gets double teamed and stabbed from behind in a rather unchivalrous manner. He also challenged Gandalf on a one on one fight, with no other nazgul near by, which could say that at this time the WK was feeling far more independent and individualistic than he had felt for a very long time. Keep in mind, Gandalf was a wizard and the WK had experienced Gandalfs magic first hand earlier at weathertop. So the WK wouldnt be relying on his invulnerability to swords in the fight between them.

Edit- the WK probably believed as well that Gandalf was the only one who could defeat him. Gandalf was a powerful magic user, was around Rivendel. He probably thinks Frodo died, so the ring went to someone else. He breaks down the gates at Minas Tirith and he sees Gandalf again, but WAY more powerful than their last encounter. Gandalf, who seemingly has taken command over Minas tirith instead of Denethor. The Witch King's "this is my hour" may have been him facing his ultimate fight against Gandalf. For centuries he had been told that he would die not by the hand of man, and suddenly he is confronted by a Wizard with possibly the One Ring. Either he dies against Gandalf or he slays the only threat to his existence and recovers the one ring. His hour of destiny.
 
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