Editing Nazgûl (section)

== Concept and creation ==

=== Development ===

Tolkien began writing ''The Lord of the Rings'' with no conception of Black Riders at all. The horseman in dark clothes in the early chapter "Three is Company"<ref name="Three is Company" group=T/> was originally Gandalf; in 1938, Tolkien called the figure's transformation into a Black Rider "an unpremeditated turn".<ref name="Scull 2006">{{cite book |last=Scull |first=Christina |author-link=Christina Scull |chapter=What Did He Know and When Did He Know It? |title=The Lord of the Rings, 1954-2004: Scholarship in Honor of Richard E. Blackwelder |editor1=Hammond, Wayne G. |editor1-link=Wayne G. Hammond |editor2=Scull, Christina |publisher=[[Marquette University Press]] |year=2006 |isbn=0-87462-018-X |oclc=298788493 |pages=101–112}}</ref><ref group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=#26 to [[Stanley Unwin (publisher)|Stanley Unwin]], 4 March 1938 }}</ref> Frodo's ring, too, was simply a magic ring conferring invisibility, both in ''The Hobbit'' and early drafts of ''The Lord of the Rings'', with no link to Sauron. However, Tolkien was at the time starting to consider the true nature of the Ring, and the idea that it had been made by the Necromancer, and drew itself or its bearer back to him.<ref name="Scull 2006"/><ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1988}}, pp. 42–43</ref> The Black Riders became Ringwraiths when the hobbit, at that time called Bingo rather than Frodo, discussed the Riders with the Elf Gildor, later in the same chapter. Over the next three years, Tolkien gradually developed the connections between the Nazgûl, the One Ring, Sauron, and all the other Rings of Power. The pieces finally all came together when Tolkien wrote "The Mirror of Galadriel", some hundreds of pages later, around the autumn of 1941.<ref name="Scull 2006"/><ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}}, book 2, ch. 7 "The Mirror of Galadriel"</ref><ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1989}}, pp. 259–260</ref>

=== ''Lacnunga'' ===

The number of the Nazgûl, nine, may be derived from medieval folklore. Edward Pettit, in ''[[Mallorn (journal)|Mallorn]]'', states that nine is "the commonest 'mystic' number in Germanic lore".<ref name="Pettit 2002"/> He quotes the "[[Nine Herbs Charm]]" from the ''[[Lacnunga]]'', an [[Old English]] book of spells:<ref name="Pettit 2002">{{cite journal |last=Pettit |first=Edward |title=J.R.R. Tolkien's use of an Old English charm |journal=Mallorn |date=2002 |issue=40 |pages=39–44 |url=https://journals.tolkiensociety.org/mallorn/article/download/132/126}}</ref>

{{blockquote|<poem>
against venom and vile things
and all the loathly ones,
that through the land rove, 
...
against nine fugitives from glory, 
against nine poisons and 
against nine flying diseases.</poem>}}

Pettit further proposes that Tolkien may have made multiple uses of another ''Lacnunga'' charm, "Against a sudden stabbing pain", to derive multiple attributes of the Nazgûl. He states that Tolkien certainly knew the charm. In [[Henry Sweet]]'s translation:<ref name="Pettit 2002"/><ref>{{cite book |last=Sweet |first=Henry |author-link=Henry Sweet |title=An Anglo-Saxon Reader in Prose and Verse |date=1908 |publisher=[[Clarendon Press]] |location=Oxford |at=XIX, II. pp. 104–105}}</ref>

{{blockquote|<poem>
They were loud, lo, loud, when they rode over the hill,
They were resolute when they rode over the land.
...
If a piece of iron is in here.
The work of a witch, heat shall melt it!
...
If it were shot of gods, or if it were [[elfshot|shot of elves]],
Or if it were shot of witch, now I will help you.
</poem>}}

Pettit writes that Tolkien may have used the "loud" riders to come up with the "thundering hooves" and "piercing cry" of the Nine Riders. The supernatural beings mentioned in the charm – gods, elves, witches – may naturally have suggested the Nazgûl's magical power; in particular, the "work of a witch" may have resulted in the Witch-King of Angmar. Finally, the Morgul-knife that breaks off in the victim's body, and which [[Elrond]] has to destroy by melting, matches the "piece of iron ... in here... heat shall melt it!"<ref name="Pettit 2002"/>

=== Etymological connotations ===

Tolkien was a [[philologist]]. [[Jason Fisher]], writing that "all stories begin with words", takes up [[Edmund Wilson]]'s "denigrating dismissal" of ''The Lord of the Rings'' as "a philological curiosity", replying that to him this is "precisely one of its greatest strengths".<ref name="Fisher 2014"/> Fisher explores in detail the connotations of Tolkien's use of "Ringwraith" and its Black Speech translation "Nazgûl", both in languages that Tolkien knew and [[Languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien|those that he invented]]. "Wraith" in modern English means 'spectre'.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wraith |title=wraith, noun |work=Merriam-Webster Dictionary |accessdate=October 29, 2024}}</ref> Fisher notes that the word has a history in folktale and fantasy including usage by the [[Brothers Grimm]], [[William Morris]], and [[George MacDonald]].<ref name="Fisher 2014"/> The word "wraith" can be connected, Fisher writes, to English "[[wikt:writhe|writhe]]", [[Old English]] ''wrīþan'', to bend or twist, and in turn to Gothic ''wraiqs'', curved, crooked, or winding, and ''wraks'', a persecutor. There is also English "wreath", from Old English ''wrida'', meaning a band, a thing wound around something, and indeed a ring. Another cognate is Old Saxon ''wred'', meaning cruel; Fisher comments that all of these stem from Indo-European ''*wreit'', to turn, bend, or wind.<ref name="Fisher 2014">{{Cite book |last=Fisher |first=Jason |author-link=Jason Fisher |chapter=Tolkien's Wraiths, Rings, and Dragons: An Exercise in Literary Linguistics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A_rsAwAAQBAJ&pg=PP1 |title=Tolkien in the New Century: Essays in Honor of Tom Shippey |publisher=[[McFarland & Company|McFarland]] |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-4766-1486-1 |editor-last=Houghton |editor-first=John Wm. |pages=97–114 |access-date=28 November 2021 |editor-last2=Croft |editor-first2=Janet Brennan |editor-link2=Janet Brennan Croft |editor-last3=Martsch |editor-first3=N.}}</ref>

"Nazgûl" has the Black Speech roots ''nazg'', ring, and ''gûl'', wraith. Fisher writes that the former may well be connected, unconsciously on Tolkien's part, to [[Scottish Gaelic|Gaelic]] ''nasc'', a ring. ''Gûl'' has the meaning "magic" in Tolkien's invented language of [[Sindarin]]. Fisher comments that this has an English [[homophone]] in "[[wikt:ghoul|ghoul]]", a wraith, which derives from [[Arabic]] غُول‎ ''ḡūl'', a demon that feeds on corpses. The Sindarin word is related to ''ñgol'', wise, wisdom, and to [[Noldor]], [[Fëanor]]'s elves who became in Fisher's words "bent and twisted" by the desire for the [[Silmaril]]s.<ref name="Fisher 2014"/>

[[File:Nazgûl and Ringwraith.svg|thumb|center|upright=2.8|Diagram of [[Jason Fisher]]'s analysis of [[philological]] connections and [[Etymology|etymologies]] of ''Nazgûl'' and ''Ringwraith''. Both terms have connotations of being "bent and twisted".<ref name="Fisher 2014"/>]]

The only one of the nine Ringwraiths to be named is Khamûl. Fisher suggests a link to [[Welsh language|Welsh]] ''kam'', crooked, and ''kamy'', to bend. "Kam" made its way into English usage, including by [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]],<ref>{{cite dictionary |last=Dyce |first=Alexander |author-link=Alexander Dyce |entry=kam |title=A General Glossary to Shakespeare's Works |date=1904 |publisher=Dana Estes and Company |location=Boston |quote='clean kam', ''[[Coriolanus]]'', iii. 1. 304. Quite crooked, quite wrong (or, as [[Brutus]] subjoins, 'Merely awry)', Compare clean.  |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.03.0067%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DK}}</ref> as is recorded in [[Samuel Johnson]]'s 1755 ''[[A Dictionary of the English Language]]''.<ref name="Fisher 2014"/> Fisher writes that this may have come to Tolkien by way of his time with the [[Lancashire Fusiliers]] in the [[World War I|First World War]], with Lancashire dialect words like ''caimt'', crooked or bad-tempered. In short, Tolkien may have felt many [[philological]] associations between his "Nazgûl" and "Ringwraith" with the meanings of being bent and twisted as well as ghoulish.<ref name="Fisher 2014"/>