Q: Do the Nazgûl, Barrow wights, and Dead Men of Dunharrow have Physical Bodies?
ANSWER: The reader who asked this question followed up with: “if they don’t, can they be harmed by physical means? Can they be harmed by magical weapons?”
This is one of the all time Great Debate questions. You will never find an answer that satisfies everyone. But most people seem to agree that these are three different types of creatures. Let’s look at what we know about each of them:
The Nazgûl are no longer living men, but they were once living men who — having worn and used Rings of Power for some unknown length of time — gradually faded until they lost most if not all of their physical presence. They are like ghosts but not really ghosts because they did not experience a moment of specific death.
In order to interact with the physical world the Nazgûl required clothing that was, apparently, enspelled (although Gandalf only says to Frodo in Rivendell “the black robes are real robes that they wear to give shape to their nothingness when they have dealings with the living”). These spells allowed the Nazgûl to move about as if they had physical bodies, even to smell scents that normal, living men (or hobbits) could not smell. Who cast the spells? Tolkien doesn’t say, although the Nazgûl only answer to Sauron so I think it unlikely anyone other than Sauron would have given the Nazgûl their semi-physical shapes.
We know that this magic could be broken or weakened by the swords of Westernesse that Tom Bombadil recovered from the wight’s barrow, because Merry’s sword-stroke accomplished that much. And yet it required Éowyn’s own stroke, with her (apparently) normal sword to dispatch the Lord of the Nazgûl once and for all.
During her confrontation with the Lord of the Nazgûl, right after he shattered her shield and broke Éowyn’s arm, his eyes glittered. This is, to my knowledge, the only time that anyone not wearing a Ring of Power is said to have seen any physical aspect of one of the Nazgûl. Was this his human form briefly making itself visible because of his anger or was it something else, perhaps reflecting the evil power he wielded as a servant of Sauron?
Merry’s stroke caused the Lord of the Nazgûl great pain, enough to make him cry out, but the sword was enchanted so does that make a difference? Would any normal blade have caused him pain? We only know from what Aragorn said just after the encounter at Weathertop that any blade that struck the Lord of the Nazgûl was destroyed. Éowyn’s own sword was destroyed when struck the Lord of the Nazgûl a final time, and she and Merry apparently heard him scream as his spirit flew up into the air.
She did not kill the Lord of the Nazgûl but his spirit fled the battlefield. He lost the semblance of corporeality for all intents and purposes. And yet when his spirit passed over Frodo and Sam they both also heard it. A physical man’s body would not have flown up into the air like that. The battlefield was strewn with the bodies of the slain. No one else flew up when they were struck by a weapon. So whatever the Lord of the Nazgûl was at the time, he was not a living, biological creature.
When Frodo confronted the Nazgûl at the Ford of Bruinen Tolkien wrote that “they appeared to have cast aside their hoods and black cloaks”; hence, when the Rangers and Elrond’s folk searched for sign of the Black Riders after the flood and they found only dead horses and a tattered black cloak, the cloak itself does not signify much. Gandalf concluded “I think that we may hope now that the Ringwraiths were scattered, and have been obliged to return as best they could to their Master in Mordor, empty and shapeless.”
Being “empty and shapeless” is Tolkien’s way of saying they were not physically manifested. Did he mean they were ghosts? That’s the million dollar question.
The Barrow-wights were spirits sent by Sauron to inhabit old corpses. They are based on creatures out of real folk lore. Tolkien does not say what types of spirits they were. We only know that Sauron could not create spirits as Ilúvatar could, hence they had to be spirits that came into existence outside of Sauron’s power. Were they lesser Maiar? Were they they trapped spirits of Elves or Men? Sauron and Morgoth both had the power to capture spirits of the recently slain and keep them in Middle-earth.
The Barrow-wights represent a class of servants that may have been substantial but unnecessary to the story. In the first age Sauron was a “master of phantoms” but in the original sense of the word a phantom was an illusion, not a real creature. The wights were not illusions but real spirits doing Sauron’s will. We don’t know their numbers or their specific powers but the wight that captured Frodo and the hobbits was performing a ritual when Frodo summoned Bombadil.
The wight’s bony corpse was animated by Sauron’s will or the wight’s will but it was just a physical corpse. Hence, when Frodo cut off the wight’s hand it really did separate from the body. Being already dead the corpse should have felt no pain, although Frodo heard a shriek followed by “a snarling noise”; and whatever power it possessed continued to animate the severed hand.
The wight was clearly able to interact with the physical world. And though Tolkien doesn’t say whether the blade Frodo grabbed was enchanted, it did shatter when he cut off the wight’s hand.
The terror that the wights instilled in the Dunedain, making it impossible for them to reclaim Cardolan (according to a note published in The Peoples of Middle-earth), suggests that the Dunedain could not easily defeat the wights and that perhaps the wights were too strong for the Dunedain to overcome. Maybe the elves could have driven out the wights but Tolkien does not address the question why they failed to do so.
I don’t think the spirits of the wights could have been harmed. Nor do I think they could have enchanted the corpses by themselves. They needed Sauron’s power to animate the dead but they themselves were not living creatures and could not have been slain any more than the Nazgûl could be.
Some people are quick to point out that in early drafts of the story Tolkien intended for the wights and Nazgûl to be of similar kinds, but this type of thinking should be rejected. We don’t know that Tolkien intended to retain that connection. Hence, any speculation that the Barrow-wights were lesser ringwraiths is wild, unsubstantiated inference based on an absence of denial rather than a statement of fact by the author.
The Dead Men of Dunharrow are simply ghosts. The book says that after Isildur cursed them they gradually died and began to haunt the hills around the Ered Nimrais. The physical weapons of Sauron’s servants apparently did them no harm when the Dead Men took the ships at Pelargir. Of course, the narrative implies that no one stayed to fight them, either. So we’ll never know if Tolkien felt there were weapons that could hurt them.
In a note about Baldor, Tolkien wrote that he was attacked by living men, guardians of the temple he had found who followed him into the Paths of the Dead.
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Great post. Do you think the Dead Men of Dunharrow had actual physical weapons?
This line seems to imply so:
“And thereupon the King of the Dead stood out before the host and broke his spear and cast it down.”
On the other side Gimli says this about their weapons:
“Pale swords were drawn; but I know not whether their blades would still bite, for the Dead needed no longer any weapon but fear.”
I’m not versed enough in english, does “pale” indicate these weapons where also ghostly like portrayed in the movies?
Tolkien generally uses “pale” to mean a sort of dirty white shade or coloring (colouring for the Brits). The movies do an adequate job of conveying what Tolkien had in mind, I think. The physicalness of the weapons is left intentionally ambiguous in the book. There is no definitive answer to your question, but in my opinion they probably would not have caused physical wounds but it might have been deadly for one to strike a living person anyway. I vaguely recall a myth or folktale about such a ghostly sword but it has been a long time since I read it and I could be misremembering things. Still, if Tolkien were aware of such a legend then I think that would have influenced the intention behind his ambiguity.
Thanks for the answer!
You’re saying “And yet when his spirit passed over Frodo and Sam they both also heard it.”. This was also always how I read it, but lately I’ve seen the interpretation that it was just another Nazgûl on his flying steed passing over Frodo and Sam to bring the bad news of the Witch-king’s demise to Barad-dûr.
What do you think about this?
Very interesting topic and very good observations, I think! Gotta say I agree with pretty much everything I read.
I’d like to add a couple of things, because I think we may be able to say a little more about the Nazgul.
1) There may be another reference to the eyes of the Nazgul, when the Witch-King rides through the Gates of Minas Tirith. I quote:
“The Black Rider flung back his hood, and behold! he had a kingly crown; and yet upon no head visible was it set. The red fires shone between it and the mantled shoulders vast and dark. From a mouth unseen there came a deadly laughter.”
I’m wondering, do you think “the red fires” are another reference to his (visible) eyes, or to the fires of the trenches in the background?
2) Two more quotes are really telling I think, both from The Battle of the Pelennor Fiels chapter:
“Merry’s sword had stabbed him from behind, shearing through the black mantle, and passing up beneath the hauberk had pierced the sinew behind his mighty knee.”
and:
“No other blade, not though mightier hands had wielded it, would have dealt that foe a wound so bitter, cleaving the undead flesh, breaking the spell that knit his unseen sinews to his will.”
From this I take a couple of points:
– The Witch-King wore a long hauberk. Though it might be just ‘ceremonial’, it’s more likely to be intended as actual protection. That would imply that he could be hurt in battle, which is hard to square with the general idea I get from the books.
– Sinews are mentioned. The sword of Westernesse breaks the spell that knits the sinew to his will, and it seems this is really because of the sword itself (and likely the spells cast on it).
– The sinews are unseen. ‘Undead flesh’ I think likely also (but not exclusively) refers to the sinews.
– The spell that knits the sinew to the will is broken by Merry’s blade, but it is only when Eowyn stabs him in the undead/unseen head that the ‘dies'(?). Afterwards the mantle and hauberk are empty and the bodiless (!) voice passed away.
3) I would like to point to how Frodo sees the Nazgul when he wears the Ring. While wearing the Ring, he can see the Nazgul in the Unseen world. I quote the chapter A Knife in the Dark:
“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. Their eyes fell on him and pierced him, as they rushed towards him. Desperate, he drew his own sword, and it seemed to him that it flickered red, as if it was a firebrand. 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.”
Those long grey robes make me wonder: were those part of the Seen or Unseen? It’s hard to tell, but it seems to me that the implication is that they are part of the Unseen (since he can now see through the normal black mantle, but not through the grey robes). If the robes are indeed part of the Unseen, this would mean that somehow the clothing of the Nazgul became unseen as they themselves faded (which is not really relevant to this discussion, I think, but which is curious nonetheless).
The sword is made from proper steel, however, and we know the Morgul blade was physical.
Thus, in some way the undead and unseen flesh of the Nazgul was able to interact with the physical world (crowns and mantles could be worn, and swords could be held). Maybe this was due to some spells as you say, but I have not seen evidence for this. Could you elaborate to me on why you think the spells were needed? Isn’t it possible that their unseen and undead bodies were capable of carrying mantles, crowns and swords by themselves?
Considering all these points, it seems to me that the Nazgul themselves were invisible (in the normal world) and made of undead flesh. It seems to me that the unseen flesh, though invisible, was however still physical, in the sense that it could be touched, it could carry something, and could be damaged (hence the ‘haggard’ hand and hauberk?).
I’m very curious to hear your thoughts on these rambling points. 🙂 Thanks for this good post anyway!
The problem with analyzing things like the clothing of the Nazgul is that our only real witness to their “invisible” garments is Frodo (that is, when the story is told from his perspective). So we have a witness who is himself partially faded (while wearing the One Ring) and therefore “part in their world”, or however Gandalf puts it. They might be physical clothing, weapons, and armor that are partially incorporeal or they might be manifestations of the memories of what they once were.
When the Lord of the Nazgul wields a blade against Frodo on Weathertop the Nazgul are still cloaked so even if the Morgul-blade is a physical thing (and I agree it is) they were not interacting with the weapon directly. But like I said in the article, all these questions are tied up with one of the Great Debates. We’ll never be able to settle these questions definitively.
Thanks for your reply, I hadn’t considered the story was told from Frodo’s perspective but you’re right, I cannot safely conclude the points I made.
Cheers, very interesting topic!
In The Return of the Shadow (again – the book) Christopher Tolkien notes his father at one point suggested the clothes the Nazgûl were wearing when they became permanently invisible were also to be invisible; however, he almost immediately struck that out. But then what of the change in colours of their clothes? Frodo was at that point in the Unseen and saw it from their perspective (and think of when he sees Glorfindel too). Remember that their sense of smell is stronger but their sight of the Seen is not good except they are to be feared most at night (as Aragorn says). The Nazgûl were actually interacting with their weapons directly and Frodo was most vulnerable with the One Ring worn as he was truly in their world.
I want to say though there is a source of contention: there is an error/contradiction in the story of whether or not the Nazgûl were wearing their Rings of Power or if Sauron had them (from what Gandalf says but they could not have had them when they were hunting the hobbits). But why grey versus black? I somehow suspect it’s the effect of being in their world and seeing the world as they do (again comes to their limited sense of sight in the Unseen, perhaps a telling name). I won’t say that’s for certain because some of it is cloudy in my head currently.
Did the blade penetrate the hauberk? “and passing up beneath the hauberk” sounds to me like it didn’t, but my english skills could deceive me here.
Excellent article. I am glad you’re back I needed my ‘Tolkien’ fix. The Barrow Wights remind me of the ghost stories my Norwegian grandmother used to tell me about spirits that inhabited dead bodies making them walk. There were happier stories about nisse and trolls but they weren’t scary enough for every night.
They seem to be a kind of demonic spirit that inhabits a corpse. Or perhaps a malevolent human or elfen spirit. Where does Tolkien talk about Sauron and Morgoth capturing the spirits of men and elves?
Well, the story of the Nazgul explains one way Sauron captured the spirits of men. To learn more about how Morgoth captured elven spirits you would have to read Morgoth’s Ring, which is Volume XI of The History of Middle-earth.
You’re quite right; that is exactly what the Barrow-wights are (demons inhabiting the dead). Tolkien borrowed the concept from Norse mythology is my understanding (I thought I read this specifically in one of the Letters or the histories but I’m drawing blanks currently so I can’t say this is 100% but I strongly suspect it from different readings and also knowing his inspirations) but as for etymology: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=barrow
And yes the Lord of the Nazgûl was involved with the Barrow-wights. Of course what Morgoth did to the elves is also in The Silmarillion but I didn’t think the Elves were related to the Barrow-wights. Maybe at one point they were though; there certainly was the suggestion of elfwraiths (also goblins and other races). This (and much more about the wraiths and other things too of course) is in The Return of the Shadow (not the chapter but the first volume of the histories which covers The Lord of the Rings).
Cheers.
Yay! i get so excited when i see new articles from you – what are the chances that Frodo would have become a Barrow Wight like spirit had Elrond not been able to heal the Morgul blade wound? Might the Morgul blade be the source of Barrow Wights? thanks for all your research and this amazing blog!
Late the party as always.
Anyway, I think the easiest answer (given what Tolkien speculated concerning The Houseless) is that Barrow-Wights were either corrupted lesser Maia (who had served Sauron and Morgoth before him) or else Houseless who refused the summons of Mandos. I suppose they could even be very old Avari who had faded already. I think The Dead-Men of Dunharrow were just about the only spirits of Men who remained in Middle-Earth other than the Nazgul (or maybe those who had taken a Morgul wound) as their curse seems to override their natural fates.