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Middle-Earth Tours
Tour 1: The People of Middle-Earth
The Nazgûl
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They strained their eyes, and the shadows seemed to grow. Soon there could be no doubt: three or four tall black figures were standing there on the slope, looking down on them. So black were they that they seemed like black holes in the deep shade behind them. Frodo thought that he heard a faint hiss as of venomous breath and felt a thick piercing chill. Then the shapes slowly advanced.
...[Frodo puts on the Ring]...
Immediately, though everything else remained as before, dim and dark, the shapes became terribly clear. He was able to see beneath their black wrappings. There were five tall figures: two standing on the lip of the dell, three advancing. In their white faces burned keen and merciless eyes; under their mantles were long grey robes; upon their grey hairs were helms of silver; in their haggard hands were swords of steel....Two of the figures halted. The third was taller than the others: his hair was long and gleaming and on his helm was a crown. In one hand he held a long sword, and in the other a knife; both the knife and the hand that held it glowed with a pale light. He sprang forward and bore down on Frodo. --FotR, "A Knife in the Dark"
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The Nazgûl, by Ted Nasmith |
detail of the Witch King, by Roger Garland |
The great shadow descended like a falling cloud. and behold! it was a winged creature: if bird, then greater than all other birds, and it was naked, and neither quill nor feather did it bear, and its vast pinions were as webs of hide between horned fingers; and it stank. A creature of an older world maybe it was, whose kind, lingering in forgotten mountains cold beneath the Moon, outstayed their day, and in hideous eyrie bred this last untimely brood, apt to evil. And the Dark Lord took it, and nursed it with fell meats, until it grew beyond the measure of all other things that fly; and he gave it to his servant to be his steed. Down, down it came, and then, folding its fingered webs, it gave a croaking cry, and settled upon the body of Snowmane, digging in its claws, stooping its long naked neck.
Upon it sat a shape, black-mantled, huge and threatening. 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. To the air he had returned, summoning his steed ere the darkness failed, and now he was come again, bringing ruin, turning hope to despair, and victory to death. A great black mace he wielded. --trotK, "The Battle of the Pelennor Fields"
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detail of the Witch King, by John Howe |
detail of Black Rider, by John Howe
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image from a Decipher trading card |
detail of the Witch King, by Ted Nasmith |
The Witch King Unleashed,
by Rob Alexander |
Weathertop, by Luca Michelucci |
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| Lastly, here are some images of movie Nazgûl. At right the Nazgûl uncloaked, in an image from the 2nd movie trailer available on theonering.net. Below, left to right, are an image from the current official movie site; a spy pic from theonering.net; and a piece of concept art from the oldest version of the official movie site. |
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image from a TTT commercial |
Then Frodo and and Sam staring at the sky, breathing deeply of the fresher air, saw it come: a small cloud flying from the accursed hills; a black shadow loosed from Mordor; a vast shape winged and ominous....
They fell forward, grovelling heedlessly on the cold earth. But the shadow of horror wheeled and returned, passing lower now, right above them, sweeping the fen-reek with its ghastly wings. --TTT, "The Passage of the Marshes" |
Full-size versions of these pictures are on display at Rolozo Tolkien, the official LotR movie site, and theonering.net.
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