Black steel ring series#

Black steel ring series#

It was during this series of conflicts that they labelled their new enemy's undead sorcerer-chieftain with the title of 'Witch-king, Lord of Angmar'. Adjacent to its territories he founded the dark domain of Angmar – where, from his capital of Carn Dûm, he began his campaign of open war against the Dúnedain of Arnor. It was into this febrile situation that the Lord of the Nazgûl reappeared in TA 1300 and began to fulfil Sauron's plan to bring down the North-kingdom altogether. Their chief, re-empowered, would set about enacting his master's long vengeance upon the Realms in Exile of the Dúnedain, the descendants of the Faithful of Númenor who had escaped its destruction and who subsequently brought him low with the Last Alliance.īy now the northern Dúnedain realm of Arnor, sister-kingdom to the southerly Gondor, had already become split into three warring successor states – Rhudaur, Cardolan and Arthedain. This signalled the return of the Nine to Middle-earth.

One thousand years into the Third Age, Sauron took form in the world again and, incognito, founded the fortress of Dol Guldur in southern Mirkwood in TA 1050. The Witch-king's true undead appearance in the first Lord of the Rings film The Third Age: return and the arising of Angmar With Sauron's spirit and power dissipated, the nine Nazgûl were no longer able to maintain their physical presence and they too disappeared – at least temporarily – from Middle-earth. He fought in the Age's climactic war against the Last Alliance of Elves and Men between SA 3434 and SA 3441, when the Dark Lord was eventually defeated and the One Ring taken from him. For the next 1200 years the greatest among them, known simply as the Lord of the Nazgûl, would serve Sauron as the commander of his army. The first sighting of the Nazgûl in Middle-earth was reported in SA 2251. The only certainty is that eventually he and all the others slipped into the Shadow-world and became one of the Nazgûl, or Ringwraiths, who were enslaved wholly to Sauron's will. The mightiest of all of them was likely a king and a powerful sorcerer, possibly of Númenórean heritage, but little is known of his (or the others') earthly life except that over the coming centuries they prospered as their power, wealth and mortal lifespans extended under the corrupting influence of their rings. In SA 1600 Sauron created and first donned the One Ring, and in SA 1693 began the War of the Elves and Sauron during which the Dark Lord recovered the Nine Rings and gave them to mighty lords and rulers of Men. The forging of the Rings of Power began some 1500 years into the Second Age. The Witch-king is gifted his Ring of Power as a human 5.2.3 The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Questīiography The Second Age: the Nine Rings and the advent of the Nazgûl.5.2.1 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.5.1.1 The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

1.5 Return to Mordor and the rise of Minas Morgul.1.3 The Witch-king's conquest of the North.1.2 The Third Age: return and the arising of Angmar.1.1 The Second Age: the Nine Rings and the advent of the Nazgûl.He led Sauron's armies in the War of the Ring, stabbed Frodo Baggins on Weathertop during the first months of Frodo's venture out of the Shire to Rivendell, and at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields he broke the Great Gate of Minas Tirith, killed King Théoden of Rohan, and met his own doom. The Witch-king returned to Mordor to facilitate Sauron's return to power, then took Gondor's city of Minas Ithil and refortified it as Minas Morgul, and snuffed out the line of Kings of Gondor. After Sauron's defeat by the Last Alliance, the Witch-king eventually reappeared in the Third Age's 14th century to found the evil realm of Angmar, where he gained his infamous epithet and ruled for almost seven centuries until the three successor states of Arnor were finally conquered. His precise identity is unknown, but he could be one of three noble lords of Númenor, who were corrupted by the Nine Rings of Power and thus became the undying Wraiths at the servitude of Sauron. The Witch-king of Angmar, also known as the Lord of the Nazgûl, was the leader of the Nazgûl (Ringwraiths) and Sauron's second-in-command during the Second and Third Ages of Middle-earth.

' - The Return of the King, ' The Battle of the Pelennor Fields' now he was come again, bringing ruin, turning hope to despair, and victory to death. A crown of steel he bore, but between rim and robe naught was there to see, save only a deadly gleam of eyes: the Lord of the Nazgûl. John Stephenson ( The Return of the King), Andy Serkis ( The Fellowship of the Ring) ' Upon it sat a shape, black-mantled, huge and threatening.