Overview
The Witch-king is what a bearer of one of the Nine becomes: a will worn down to a single instrument of the Ring-lord. His only destruction comes from a combination no prophecy anticipated — a woman and a hobbit.
Biography
A king of Men
He was one of the nine lords who received Rings of Power from Sauron and became a wraith.
Angmar and Gondor
He ruled Angmar in the North and later led Sauron’s armies against Gondor, killing King Eärnur and holding Minas Ithil as Minas Morgul.
Death at the Pelennor
He broke the gate of Minas Tirith, but was brought down by Éowyn and Merry, fulfilling the prophecy that no man would kill him.
Abilities & limits
Strengths
- Terror
- Command of wraiths and armies
- A blade of deadly wounds
- Near-immortality
Limitations
- A slave to Sauron and the Ring
- Bound by prophecy in ways he cannot foresee
Relationships
In the histories
Artifacts
ArtifactThe Nine Rings of Men
The nine Rings given to mortal lords, whose wearers were stretched into unending life and became the Ringwraiths, the Nazgul, Sauron most terrible servants.
The Morgul-blade
A cursed knife of Minas Morgul whose broken fragment works its way toward a victim heart, turning a wound into a slow fading toward the wraith-world.
Sources
The Lord of the Rings · 1954–55
Three volumes: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King.
The Silmarillion · 1977
Posthumously edited. Contains the Ainulindalë, Valaquenta, Quenta Silmarillion, Akallabêth and Of the Rings of Power.
Related entries
CharacterSauron
A Maia and former lieutenant of Morgoth, forger of the One Ring and the central antagonist of The Lord of the Rings.
Éowyn
Théoden’s niece, who defied the prohibition on women going to war and slew the Witch-king at the Pelennor.
CharacterMeriadoc Brandybuck
A clever Brandybuck who rode to war with Rohan and helped slay the Witch-king at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.