Ringwraith

In J.R.R. more...

Tolkien's fantasy universe of Middle-earth, the Nazgûl (from Black Speech Naz, "Ring", and Gûl, "Slave" or "Wraith": Ringwraiths, sometimes written Ring-wraiths), also known as the Nine Riders or Black Riders (or simply the Nine), are evil servants of Sauron. The rarely used Quenya name for them is Úlairi. The book refers to the Nazgûl as Sauron's "most terrible servants." But only one received a name by Tolkien. He was called "Khamûl". The rest got made-up names by a game developer.

Biography

Second Age

The nine Nazgûl arose as Sauron's most powerful servants in the Second Age of Middle-earth. It is said that three of the Nine were originally "Great Lords" of Númenor. They were all powerful mortal Men to whom Sauron each gave nine Rings of Power. These proved to be their undoing:

"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 undoing. 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 thralldom 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 Enemy's most terrible servants; darkness went with them, and they cried with the voices of death" (The Silmarillion: "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age", 289).

Read more at Wikipedia.org

• [List your site here Free!]