Q: Are the Nazgûl Really Afraid of Water?
ANSWER: In an early draft for The Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien experimented with the idea that the Nazgûl were afraid to enter the waters of the Bruinen, the river bordering Rivendell, because they might be barred from crossing running water. This idea was borrowed from traditional folklore which holds that certain evil creatures cannot cross running water.
However, J.R.R. Tolkien ultimately abandoned the idea because he would otherwise not be able to explain how the Nazgûl reached the Shire from Mordor. They had to cross the Anduin river, the Gwathlo river, and the Brandywine river in order to reach the Shire.
Nonetheless when the Nazgûl attempt to seize Frodo at the Ford of Bruinen, they appear to be reluctant to enter the water. Readers sometimes use this part of the published story to argue that Tolkien had not completely abandoned the idea.
While it is impossible to know what Tolkien’s final thought on the matter was, it can be shown from the text of the story itself that Glorfindel was a very powerful Elf lord who wielded considerable power against the Nazgûl (a fact stated or alluded to in at least two passages); also, the reader is free to speculate that the Nazgûl recognized the vicinity of Rivendell (having laid seige to the land in the past) and knew that powerful Elvish lords might be nearby.
The flood that Elrond sent down the river in response to the Nazgul’s attempt to cross was able to wash away the riders’ horses and rip their clothing from them, thus depriving them of the “shape” conferred by their clothes and reducing them to the state of “disrobed wraiths”. The Nazgul would have understood that while they could not be killed their physical shapes could be ruined by powerful forces.
UPDATE: 2015-04-22 In a comment published on IMDB, a reader cited the following text from Christopher Tolkien in Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth:
My father nowhere explained the Ringwraiths’ fear of water. It is made a chief motive in Sauron’s assault on Osgilliath, and it reappears in detailed notes on the movements of the Black Riders in the Shire: thus, of the Rider seen on the far side of Bucklebury Ferry just after the Hobbits had crossed, it is said that he was well aware that the ring had crossed the river; but the river was a barrier to his sense of its movement, and that the Nazgûl would not touch the elvish waters of Baranduin. My father did indeed note that the idea was difficult to sustain.
This comment accompanies the texts of “The Hunt for the Ring”, in which J.R.R. Tolkien wrote: “…All except the Witch-king were apt to stray when alone by daylight; and all, again save the Witch-King, feared water, and were unwilling, except in dire need, to enter it or to cross streams unless dryshod by a bridge.”
These texts were unfinished and we have no way of knowing how Tolkien would have completed them. There are inconsistencies between these details and the published Lord of the Rings. For example, the Nazgûl did in fact stay focused on their task while traveling in the day through the Shire and across Eriador. There is no indication of their “straying”, whether alone or together, in the story. To answer the question about whether the Nazgûl feared water, one must ask if the question applies to the published story or to experimental ideas that remained in an incomplete state. If the former then there is no indication that the Nazgûl feared water; if the latter, then it is obvious from Christopher’s comment that his father was unsure of whether that idea could be supported without altering the details of the published story.
One difficulty (as noted above) is the fact that there were no bridges across the Isen, the Brandywine (in the Southfarthing), or the Gwathlo rivers; the Nazgûl had to cross all three by fords. Hence, the primary tale would have to be rewritten in order to get water-fearing Nazgûl across the rivers with some explanation.
See Also:
Did the Nazgûl Have Physical Bodies?
What is the History of the Nazgûl?
Why Did Sauron and the Nazgûl Not Know when Bilbo Wore the One Ring?
Who In Rivendell had Power against the Nazgûl?
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