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05-19-2009, 01:45 PM | #1 |
Shady She-Penguin
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: In a far land beyond the Sea
Posts: 8,093
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When the Nazgűl lose their bodily form, what happens to their rings?
Well the title says it all.
I was just faced with this question when modding my werewolf game... I mean really, if they lose their cloaks and horses and travel as bodiless spirits, what on earth happens to their rings? Do they become immaterial for the time being? Or do the Nazgűl after all move around without their rings on? Or is there some other solution? I'm puzzled, please help/educate me.
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Like the stars chase the sun, over the glowing hill I will conquer Blood is running deep, some things never sleep Double Fenris
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05-19-2009, 01:47 PM | #2 |
Woman of Secret Shadow
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: in hollow halls beneath the fells
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Umm I was under the impression the rings were with Sauron, who could command them from afar even when they weren't wearing them... Don't know where I've read that though.
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05-19-2009, 01:50 PM | #3 |
Shady She-Penguin
Join Date: Dec 2004
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Well I was semi-under that impression too, but in a way it doesn't quite make sense. Because, how come they can be under the power of their rings if they're not wearing them and one could kind of expect the rings to be the things to sort of "keep them together"... weird.
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Like the stars chase the sun, over the glowing hill I will conquer Blood is running deep, some things never sleep Double Fenris
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05-19-2009, 01:58 PM | #4 |
Gruesome Spectre
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Heaven's doorstep
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I think I recall a quote from UT (don't have the book handy) that implies Sauron could be certain of their loyalty because they were enslaved by their rings, which he held. I think that was from the chapter The Hunt for the Ring.
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05-19-2009, 02:06 PM | #5 | |
Shady She-Penguin
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Quote:
But hmm... I wonder if Tolkien came up with that explanation merely because the problem of the disappearing rings would otherwise be too difficult...
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Like the stars chase the sun, over the glowing hill I will conquer Blood is running deep, some things never sleep Double Fenris
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05-19-2009, 02:10 PM | #6 |
A Voice That Gainsayeth
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: In that far land beyond the Sea
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Indeed, it is there. And no idea about Tolkien's motives, but I know he is sort of ambiguous about that - Gandalf (or Elrond? Or somebody, simply) says "Nine the Nazgul keep". Which sounds as if they have them. I have heard attempts to sort of talk one out of it, but not that they sound very convincing (not even by their logic).
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"Should the story say 'he ate bread,' the dramatic producer can only show 'a piece of bread' according to his taste or fancy, but the hearer of the story will think of bread in general and picture it in some form of his own." -On Fairy-Stories |
05-19-2009, 02:09 PM | #7 | ||||
Laconic Loreman
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Sauron possessed the 9 rings, as some of the 7, as you correctly recall.
Unfinished Tales: Quote:
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Fenris Penguin
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05-19-2009, 02:12 PM | #8 | |
A Voice That Gainsayeth
Join Date: Nov 2006
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Quote:
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"Should the story say 'he ate bread,' the dramatic producer can only show 'a piece of bread' according to his taste or fancy, but the hearer of the story will think of bread in general and picture it in some form of his own." -On Fairy-Stories |
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05-19-2009, 02:08 PM | #9 | |
A Voice That Gainsayeth
Join Date: Nov 2006
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Quote:
Okay, but as for the actual question, I basically said what I think - logically, it seems that when the Nazgul were searching for Baggins, Sauron had the Rings with himself. That would also point to the fact that WK, when killed, didn't have his Ring with him when he died on Pelennor, thus, no Éomer could just come and say "hey, look, what a nice Ring lying in this pile of clothes" (ah yes, I think that was in the discussion I mentioned too). Though if you asked just for personal feelings, all logic aside, I always thought the Nazgul have their Rings with them, and they can feel each other this way, use some powers, are controlled by Sauron etc. Of course, that would face questions like the one you put in front of us.
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"Should the story say 'he ate bread,' the dramatic producer can only show 'a piece of bread' according to his taste or fancy, but the hearer of the story will think of bread in general and picture it in some form of his own." -On Fairy-Stories |
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06-12-2009, 04:15 AM | #10 | |||
Shade of Carn Dűm
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Minas Morgul
Posts: 431
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Quote:
Originally, Nazgul were shape-shifters, that could look like a hobbit (one looking like a hobbit came to Hobbiton – see in HOME 6 or 7), or shapeshift into monstrous birds- vultures. In the first drafts for the scene with Eowyn, she destroyed the Witch-King SIMPLY by cutting off the bird's head! (By the way, there the WK only lost his shape, much like he did at the Ford, and was present again at the Parley (instead of the Mouth) and then even talked with Frodo after the Ring was destroyed in the Cracks of Doom. But then, Tolkien decided that shape-shifting was mostly restricted to incarnate Maiar, not for Nazgul. After that, he changed the draft for the Eowyn scene exactly as it is now. But Tolkien didn't correct the "Fellowship” and the “Two Towers" accordingly. Not all of it, at least, some things he had missed. So Radagast's: "disguised as black riders", Gandalf's " the black robes are real robes that they wear to give shape to their nothingness when they have dealings with the living,” and all the issues with "losing shape" in Bruinen River are the reminders of the original conception. The worst bug connected with the former shape-shifting concept still remains in TT (the White Rider): Quote:
“Behold the new shape in which I have been clad” Yet when Tolkien later returned to the Bruinen ford episode in the “Hunt for the Ring” manuscripts (RC), he made it perfectly clear that none of the nazgul had lost his shape: they lost only their cloaks and boots (not a big issue), and the Witch-King had no difficulty riding his horse unclothed all the way to Mordor: Quote:
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05-04-2010, 06:10 AM | #11 |
Newly Deceased
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 4
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Possession
In my opinion the benefits of wearing the rings were "installed" just to get the bearers to use them. The sinister intentions of the rings is a separate power. Once slaves, the bearers would always be tied to the one ring and do its bidding even in death despite the location of the rings or who was bearing them. Sauron was also a slave to the one ring because as he made it he put more of himself in it than was left over. So each ring could have had its own mini story behind it but only the one ring was the stories focus.
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05-04-2010, 01:07 PM | #12 | |
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
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Quote:
Sauron's actions suggest that he expected a gambit of this kind rather than the madness of destroying the Ring. Any victory he could have had before recovering The One could be undone by a powerful claimant, and the likelihood of such a claim would increase as his realm and power grew. Step one, the most essential step, was to obviate this potentiality, preferably while his enemies believed they still had some slim window of time. Here's a little discussion of Ring-claiming. Last edited by obloquy; 05-04-2010 at 01:58 PM. Reason: Added a link. |
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