Witch-king of Angmar

"King of Angmar long ago, Sorcerer, Ringwraith, Lord of the Nazgûl, a spear of terror in the hand of Sauron, shadow of despair."

- Gandalf

The Witch-king was once a human king that was corrupted by one of the nine Rings of Power given to the lords of men by Sauron in the Second Age. He and the eight other lords of men received incredible power from the rings, which they used to further their own ambitions, but eventually the Rings completely corrupted them and turned them into the ghostly, undead Nazgûl, slaves to the will of Sauron.

The Second and Third Ages
The first sighting of the Nazgûl in Middle-earth was reported in 2251 of the Second Age. For the next 1200 years, the Lord of the Nazgûl would serve Sauron as his second in command. He fought in the war against the Last Alliance of Elves and Men between 3434 and 3441 of the Second Age. It was in 3441 that Sauron was defeated by Isildur and the nine Nazgûl disappeared from Middle-Earth.

One thousand years into the Third Age, Sauron took a new form as the Necromancer, and founded the fortress of Dol Guldur in southern Mirkwood in 1050 of the Third Age. This signaled the return of the Nine Nazgûl to Middle-earth.

The Lord of the Nazgûl reappeared in TA 1300 in the north near the lost realm of Arnor. There he founded the kingdom of Angmar. It is after the formation of Angmar and several conflicts with the Dúnedain of the North that the Lord of the Nazgul received the title of Witch-king, Lord of Angmar.

He then began his open war campaign with the three divided kingdoms of Arnor (Arthedain, Rhudaur, and Cardolan). In 1409 of the Third Age, the Witch-king invaded the kingdom of Rhudaur and Cardolan and eventually destroyed both kingdoms. Soon, the only resistance against the Witch-king's forces was the western kingdom of Arthedain. The Witch-king continued his war for hundreds of years. In 1636, the Witch-king sent wights to the Barrow-downs in Cardolan in order to prevent the rebirth of the kingdom. The Witch-king claimed ultimate victory in the north in 1974 of the Third Age, when his forces captured Fornost Erain, the capital of Arthedain. With its capture, the final kingdom collapsed, and with it, the last remnants of the lost realm of Arnor were destroyed.

The Witch-king gladly took his seat of power in the newly captured Fornost. But his glory did not last long, for in 1975, general Eärnur of Gondor landed at the harbors of Mithlond, leading an army of Gondorians. His army was joined by the Elves of Lindon and the remnant of the northern Dúnedain and marched on the Witch-king.

They did not meet the Witch-king at Fornost, but on the plains west of it toward Lake Evendim, home of the ancient kings of Arnor, Annúminas. The battle would forever be known as the Battle of Fornost. Eärnur's Dúnedain army was later joined in the mists of battle by Glorfindel and his Elven army from Rivendell. The combined forces of Elves and Men brought utter defeat to the Witch-king and his forces. After the battle, the Witch-king fled south to Mordor and his kingdom of Angmar without an able leader, was destroyed. The Witch-king revealed himself and challenged Eärnur. As Eärnur attempted to attack, his horse was overwhelmed with fear of the Nazgûl lord and bucked. The Witch-King, taunting Eärnur, fled the battlefield. When Eärnur attempted to follow, Glorfindel stopped him and made his famous prophecy,
 * "Do not pursue him! He will not return to these lands. Far off yet is his doom, and not by the hand of Man shall he fall."

Return to Mordor
The Witch-King deserted the ruined lands of Eriador and returned to Mordor. Although Sauron was still hiding in Dol Guldur disguised as the Necromancer, the other eight Nazgûl were present. Together, the nine of them labored to rebuild their master's power in Mordor, gathering huge Orcish hordes about themselves. In the year 2000, they came out of Mordor and began attacking Gondor, which was still reeling from the Great Plague. In 2002, they captured the eastern citadel of Gondor, Minas Ithil, and took the place for their own, renaming it Minas Morgul.

In 2043, King Eärnil II of Gondor passed away and his son, the Witch-king's old enemy, Eärnur inherited the throne. Upon his coronation, the Witch-king challenged him to combat, but Eärnur refused. However, seven years later in 2050, the Witch-king again challenged him, this time he accepted. Eärnur rode out of Minas Tirith to meet the Witch-king in Minas Morgul. He entered the city's gates and was never seen again, thus ending the reign of the Gondorian Kings and causing the beginning of the ruling Stewards of Gondor.

No more than twelve years after the siege of Minas Ithil, Osgiliath was next in the Witch-king's line of sight. He led hordes of Orcs and Haradrim against the city. The city had already been devastated centuries before by a plague, and the Witch-king's forces ruined what remained of the city and destroyed the great bridge linking the east and west banks of the Anduin river. This was a devastating blow to the morale of Gondor.

In 2941, the Necromancer was finally expelled from Dol Guldur when Gandalf confirmed that he truly was Sauron in disguise. Sauron returned to Mordor and began preparations to find his One Ring. He began the reconstruction of Barad-dûr in 2951 and sent three Ringwraiths to re-capture Dol Guldur. And in 3018, with the capture of Gollum, Sauron learned, through torture, where the land of the Hobbits lay. Unfortunately, Gollum had lied, and the Ringwraiths went to Saruman, who refused to tell them the location of the land of the Halflings. The Witch King chanced upon Grima Wormtongue in Rohan, who, for fear of his life, told the Nazgûl where the Shire was. In the movies, Sauron learns the location of the Ring from two words uttered by tortured Gollum, "Shire...Baggins." Sauron opened the gates of Minas Morgul and sent forth the Witch-king and the other Nazgul disguised as Black Riders to fetch his Ring.

With an attack on Osgiliath that was in fact a ruse, the Nazgûl were able to cross the river and ride west.

The War of the Ring
The Witch-king and the other eight Nazgûl rode swiftly from Mordor to the lands of the Shire. They continued to search for "Baggins" until they tracked him to Buckland. The Nine Riders raided Buckland but could not find the Ring.

The Witch-king led four other Nazgûl to Weathertop where they discovered Frodo, Aragorn, and the other hobbits. The Ringwraiths attacked the party and the Witch-king wounded Frodo with a Morgul blade. Though successfully driven off by Isildur's heir, Strider, Frodo's wound threatened to turn him into a wraith like the Nazgûl. Elrond of Rivendell sent Glorfindel (Arwen in the film) to guide Frodo to Rivendell where Elrond could heal his wound. Glorfindel's race to Rivendell lured the Ringwraiths into the Bruinen. Here, Elrond and Gandalf the Grey released a great flood in the form of horses made out of water. This flood killed the horses of the Ringwraiths and sent them back to their master in Mordor, buying the Fellowship time to plan an attack.

With their return to Mordor, Sauron bestowed the Nazgûl with fell beasts, great winged beasts as their new mounts. Sauron used the lesser eight Nazgûl for reconnaissance work and the occasional shock troop. The Witch-king, however, returned to Minas Morgul and reassumed the role of commander of Sauron's forces. He then began battles to capture Osgiliath.

At the battle of Minas Tirith he encounters Gandalf The White, The Witch-King breaks Gandalf's staff and sends him flying off his horse, Shadowfax. Many questions have been raised on how The Witch-King should not be a mere match for Gandalf The White, as he is only derived from the race of men. This encounter only happens in the film adaption. Gandalf never faces the Witch King directly in the Return of the King book. But no certain decision is made on how the Witch-King would fare in a battle between himself and Gandalf. The fight could not be determined between them, as the sound of Rohan horns gave the Witch-King a new threat to consider, this forces him to fly away from Minas Tirith, to the Pelennor Fields, where he would soon meet his end.

Siege of Gondor
"Send forth all legions, do not stop the attack until the city is taken." -Witch King of Angmar

The final battle for Osgiliath was fought on March 13, TA 3019 of the Third Age against Faramir's rangers. Faramir's forces could not hold the Orc hordes under the control of Gothmog. Faramir pulled his forces back to Minas Tirith assailed by flying Nazgûl, losing nearly all of his forces in the retreat. Faramir was returned to Minas Tirith gravely wounded. With Gondor's defeat at Osgiliath, nothing stood in the way of Sauron's ambitions of destroying Minas Tirith and the Free People's hopes.

On March 14, Orcs, Haradrim, and Easterling forces numbering over 200,000 marched on the gates of Minas Tirith. Sauron had bestowed the Witch-king with newfound strength, making his might the greatest it ever had been. Equipped with new armor, he rode in, leading the army to the gates. Before dawn on the 15th, the great battering-ram Grond and [in the book] the Witch-King also used his magic to break the city's main gate as well as grond, and the Witch-king rode into the city unchallenged, save by Gandalf. Before Gandalf's strength was put to the test, however, the cock crowed and the horns of Rohan were heard as around 6,000 of their riders joined the battle. This forced the Witch-king to ride out to face this new threat.

Downfall of the Witch-King
The Witch-king mounted his fell beast and began slaughtering the Rohirrim. Théoden attempted to rally his troops to form a resistance against him. The Witch-king responded by personally intervening in the fray involving the Rohirric King. Flying on the back of his fell beast, he drove upon Théoden. The advancing Rohirrim's horses panicked as his beast attacked. Théoden's horse, Snowmane, became frightened and was struck by an arrow and fell upon its master.

As the Witch-king hovered over Théoden, Éowyn and the hobbit Merry stood in his way.
 * "Begone, foul dwimmerlaik, lord of carrion! Leave the dead in peace!"
 * "Come not between the Nazgul and his prey! Or he will not slay thee in thy turn. He will bear thee away to the houses of lamentation, beyond all darkness, where thy flesh shall be devoured, and thy shrivelled mind be left naked to the Lidless Eye."
 * "Do what you will, but I will hinder it, if I may."
 * "Hinder me? Thou fool. No living man may hinder me!"
 * "But no living man am I! You look upon a woman. Éowyn I am, Eomund's daughter. You stand between me and my lord and kin. Begone, if you be not deathless! For living or dark undead, I will smite you, if you touch him."

Éowyn slew his fell beast in a single strike. The Witch-king arose filled with malice and attacked. Though a powerful warrior, Éowyn was no match for the Witch-king's might. With a single strike of his flail, he shattered her shield and broke her left arm.

As he towered over her, preparing to deliver the final blow, Merry rushed behind him and plunged his sword into the back of Witch-king's knee. The sword, made in Westernesse years ago dealt a mortal blow to the Witch-King, sworn enemy of the Numenoreans. Éowyn took the opportunity to strike. As he fell to his knees, Éowyn rose. She then thrust her sword into the face of the Witch-king (described in the book as follows; '...with her last strength she drove her sword between crown and mantle, as the great shoulders bowed before her'), causing him to wither and pass away from this world.

The prophecy of Glorfindel so many centuries before had finally come to pass. For not by the hands of a "man" had he fallen, but by those of a woman and a hobbit. With his death, the tide of the battle had changed and ultimately the outcome. No more than ten days later, Sauron himself was finally destroyed when the One Ring was finally cast back into the fires of Mount Doom.

In the books

 * The Fellowship of the Ring
 * The Two Towers
 * The Return of the King

In the movies

 * The Fellowship of the Ring
 * The Two Towers
 * The Return of the King

Sword
The Witch-King is a powerful warrior, and his weapons match his strength and skill. When entering a battle, one of his primary weapons is his mighty sword. This ancient weapon was created in the dark forges of Mordor, a mighty blade that suited the Witch-King well. Whether he was out searching for the hobbit with his master's one Ring, or battling Gondor and Rohan at the Battle of Pelennor Fields, the Witch-King used his mighty blade to dispatch and cut down his enemies easily and powerfully.

It is possible that the sword has some fell magic entwined within it. In the movies, the Witch-King confronted Gandalf the White and Pippin up in the higher levelsof Minas Tirith. He drew out his sword, which immediately burst into flame, a spell which eventually shattered Gandalf's staff. This fiery sword is used again apparently in The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, when he is attacking Eowyn and Berethor's party, who has joined with Eowyn against the mighty Lord of the Nazgul.

Behind the Scenes


The Witch-king's true name is never given, and therefore among Tolkien fans, the Witch-king is often simply called Angmar, after the name of the realm he founded and led (like how Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington who helped defeat Napoleon at Waterloo, was and is referred to as simply "Wellington"). Many fans also identify him as one of the three Black Númenóreans Tolkien stated had become Nazgûl, or possibly Isilmo, a Númenórean prince and father of Tar-Minastir. In the now defunct Middle-earth Role Playing game, he was named Er-Murazor, a Númenórean prince, though this is strictly non-canonical and does not appear outside of the role playing material.

In the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, Éowyn challenges the Witch-king with the words: ''"Begone, foul dwimmerlaik, lord of carrion! Leave the dead in peace!" ''. It is supposed that the word "dwimmerlaik" is formed from the Old English words "gedwimer" (sorcery), and "lic" (corpse).

Though no character in the story uses the title Witch King of Angmar, Tolkien does use the title in full in Appendix B in the entry for the year 1409 of the Third Age.

Roots in Norse mythology
An undead witch-king named Þráinn appears in Hrómundar saga Gripssonar. It is probable that this was Tolkien's source of inspiration.