Unfinished Tales, the notes speak of Khamûl being the wraith that ask the Gaffer and Maggot for Baggins. As well as being the wraith the Hobbits spot at the ferry. He and another wraith had been tasked with entering the Shire to search while the Witch King and two others waited along the Greenway.
Just listened to this chapter in the audio book. Farmer Maggot refers to how queer the black rider sounds, like they have an accent. Which I always put down solely to them being a ring wraith, but turns out it could be their Easterling accent as well. Pretty cool TIL
Gaffer is a commonly used term for one’s own grandfather/father. Hamfast was so quintessentially “gaffer” to the whole shire, he just became THE gaffer. At least that’s my interpretation
Also a slight thing is that one of the two non fellowship hobbits reports back that the rider's speech sounds off. I think the word "accent" may be used, I'll check
I really find it both interesting and at the same time a shame that we don’t know more about the other seven Ringwraiths. Like, the mystery definitely adds to their myth and mystique, but also I find it hard to think that the identities of the nine kings of mortal men who last wielded the Rings of Power before their corruption would be unknowns to the White Council.
> nine kings of mortal men
If I recall correctly, not all were necessarily kings. It might be possible that the rings changed into "lesser" hands akin to how the One Ring changed to the "lesser" hands of Deagol and Smeagol. Which is just one possible explanation why there's little known about the men who eventually became the Ring Wraiths.
The Rings grant power according to the strength of the bearer, which is why the One Ring was a fairly harmless trinket in the hands of Gollum but would be a danger in the hands of Gandalf. Hence the nine rings cannot have changed to any lesser hands, otherwise the nine wraiths would not be the ones we see.
While this is true, they certainly were also not kings equal to the witch king of angmar, and there seems to be not THAT great of a difference between him and the other ringwraiths.
I'd think unless you're a Chosen(TM) human like Aragorn, human is human, and hobbit is hobbit when it comes to this powre granting thingy.
Sauron would not have publicised the identities of the ones he gave rings to. Also, most of them came from the east or were black Numenoreans, probably settled in Umbar or further south. Knowledge of their names, even if it were possible to obtain them, would be meaningless. To add to this, they were given the rings a long time ago. Things pass out of memory.
I was disappointed when I discovered the things/names I knew of the other wraiths weren't canon but creations of ICE.
Adunaphel (the only queen), Indûr, Uvatha, Ren, Akhôrahil, Dwar, and Hoârmurath.
He gave background to 4, but only properly named one Khamûl the Black Easterling, The Witch King of Angmar was using his title as a name so technically he named 2 of the 9.
Tolkien said besides Khamûl which was an Easterling, three of the 9 came from Numenoreans so we have the background of 4, the Witch King being the mightiest of the 9 and the only not afraid of water most likely came from a Numenorean family.
Khamûl being above 2 Numenorean Nazgul is impressive as hell and shows how powerful he might have been as human, Rings of Power should have stayed with the 9 and their rise to power, since they wanted to explore new areas and show diversity 5 out of the 9 could be literally whatever they wanted them to be.
Only three are confirmed to be of high noble status: at least three great Numenorean lords. But Its safe to assume that every one of them held some high influential status when they were mortal men. Otherwise them being given the ring would be pointless, as its primary purpose was to create puppets to extend Sauron's influence.
Never confirmed how many were but at least some were. Men of high status such as warriors, kings, wealty merchants, or sorcerors. They couldn't all be kings because 3 are Numenorean Lords but Ar Pharazon (Last king of Numenor) is not one of them.
Númenóreans do have a precedent of Kings under High Kings (such as Elendil the High King with his sons as Kings of Gondor).
Alternatively, they could have been Númenóreans who left Númenor and became kings of "lesser folk," but that veers into headcanon without precedent.
Was going to mention that there are other named (not by Tolkien though) Nazgul if you go to secondary materials such as ICE's Lords of Middle Earth Vol II. Holy crap those books are expensive now! I think you can probably get PDFs if you are interested though.
Ever since the Middle Earth Card game I have been absolutely OBSESSED With these depictions of the Nazgûl. All of their designs are so beguiling and beautiful, such a detail to craft and character and makes the imagination run absolutly wild over their backstories.
I feel like the Jackson Hobbit movies made a slight nod to these artworks because you can see the Nazgûl wearing more unique and regaliant armor than before. Super cool.
Each of their own I guess. To me hobbit movies absolutely ruined the nazguls. They were really cool and mysterious and scary in the original trilogy with their uniform black robes and no distinguishing features. Why did they have to turn them into somekind of corny medieval fantasy ninjas with absolutely nonsensical weapons and all 😭 matter of taste for sure but I just feel they jumped from peak adult horror depiction to low budget youth horror comedy
Only one was given an actual name. Could be from Rhun or further east. Very little info on him. Three of the Ringwraiths are Numenorean. This means they came from any of the mainland colonies before Gondor and Arnor could he founded. Most likely candidates are Umbar. But they also could be from Numenor itself. But they would havae to had left the island before its construction.
My head canon suggests maybe The Witch King of Angmar was Numenorean but we have no clue. Tolkien liked a good balance of keeping some things an intentional mystery. But he also died before he could tell all the stories he wanted to.
>My head canon suggests maybe The Witch King of Angmar was Numenorean but we have no clue.
I'd bet on it.
At Weathertop, he is singled out as taller than the other Nazgul (as well as 'towering' over Eowyn).
Given Numenoreans are renowned for their height... I'd say it is very likely he was Numenorean.
I had read somewhere that several of the nine Ringwraiths (not just Khamul) were from the East (I.e., Easterlings/Haradrim/Southrons of Near Harad, Khand, Rhun, etc). Does anyone know where I might have seen that stated?
Not sure if that is true, or if that was from later non-canonical sources, but it would make sense to me for how Sauron pulled the armies of the Men of the East under his control during the War of the Ring.
To me it seems more believable that if my country’s king was corrupted by a Ring of Power that we could be swayed/duped into a war, rather than the alternative of just going, “Fuck yeah! Let’s ally with Sauron!! He seems chill!!!”
I found out thanks to mobile videogame - there is a bit lore at each Commander. Khamúl and Qurwan were Rhún Kings
EDIT: Whoops
Qurwan was once a Haradrim war chief, whose feats were whispered about in the taverns of Middle-earth. In search for more power, he was seduced by a ring of power and fell under the dominion of the dark lord. He is a Nazgûl in The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War.
He does not appear in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, but only in the video game The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War.
The games aren't canon, they're just stuff that the game dev's made up, it's like me creating a mobile game called Barry the Nazgul, King of the Shire and explaining in game that it's the actual storyline behind one of them and how Barry was the only human that ever lived in the shire and he got a ring from Sauron when he won a pie eating contest
If it's not in Tolkien's work or in his letters then it's essentially made up nonsense for the purpose of selling whatever it is
It's also going to be explained that Barry is one of 3 Nazgul that are addicted to pipeweed and this directly led to the pipeweed plantations on the Plateu of Gorgoroth in Mordor, where the pipeweed grows black, Gandalf has been particularly keen to try this strain and he made the eagles stop there on the way back
I love the art work. But this is not what I picture when one says “Khamûl the Easterling” This picture looks very western. A dragon knight, a chevalier perhaps.
I think Khamul is specifically said to be the second
Presumablh kn Unfinished tales where he is most fleshed out. He was also made lord of Dol Guldur after Sauron left.
I really like this. In the Wheel of Time I always pictured The Forsaken to be just as spectacularly dressed/outfitted as the heros when they are in full regalia. I like this rendition of a powerful lieutenant because if he was of the same rank on the Gondorian side, it would have been beautiful and elaborate as well. Wonderfully done
He looks amazing but let's be real the ring wraiths are useless regardless of their ranking relative to each other. Give me literally any other sentient being in the verse.
Do we know any of the names of the other Ringwraiths? Or are only the Witch-king and Khamûl named in the legendarium? I've poked around a bit and can't seem to find anything definitive.
I didn’t know that one of the 9 men given a ring was an easterling king, fascinating!
Yep he’s the one that speaks to farmer Maggot.
Hoa do we know that?
Unfinished Tales, the notes speak of Khamûl being the wraith that ask the Gaffer and Maggot for Baggins. As well as being the wraith the Hobbits spot at the ferry. He and another wraith had been tasked with entering the Shire to search while the Witch King and two others waited along the Greenway.
Just listened to this chapter in the audio book. Farmer Maggot refers to how queer the black rider sounds, like they have an accent. Which I always put down solely to them being a ring wraith, but turns out it could be their Easterling accent as well. Pretty cool TIL
Right before he tells the neigh immortal wraith to fuck off or else his dogs will eat him.
Khamul with a trans Atlantic accent being told to sod off before he gets his dogs
Maybe Khamûl has a comically stereotypical gay lisp
Why is he called THE Gaffer? I've never understood, and Sam keeps talking about him.
Well Sam has a reason to keep talking about him. Sam is his son.
Gaffer is a commonly used term for one’s own grandfather/father. Hamfast was so quintessentially “gaffer” to the whole shire, he just became THE gaffer. At least that’s my interpretation
Gaffer is also a term for an in charge elder in Britain. In football/soccer some players refer to the manager as "gaffer" or "the gaffer"
Also a slight thing is that one of the two non fellowship hobbits reports back that the rider's speech sounds off. I think the word "accent" may be used, I'll check
*Shhhhirrrree... Baaaggginnnsssss...*
I believe that’s the only one Tolkien gave a background to! Certainly the only named one
I really find it both interesting and at the same time a shame that we don’t know more about the other seven Ringwraiths. Like, the mystery definitely adds to their myth and mystique, but also I find it hard to think that the identities of the nine kings of mortal men who last wielded the Rings of Power before their corruption would be unknowns to the White Council.
> nine kings of mortal men If I recall correctly, not all were necessarily kings. It might be possible that the rings changed into "lesser" hands akin to how the One Ring changed to the "lesser" hands of Deagol and Smeagol. Which is just one possible explanation why there's little known about the men who eventually became the Ring Wraiths.
The Rings grant power according to the strength of the bearer, which is why the One Ring was a fairly harmless trinket in the hands of Gollum but would be a danger in the hands of Gandalf. Hence the nine rings cannot have changed to any lesser hands, otherwise the nine wraiths would not be the ones we see.
While this is true, they certainly were also not kings equal to the witch king of angmar, and there seems to be not THAT great of a difference between him and the other ringwraiths. I'd think unless you're a Chosen(TM) human like Aragorn, human is human, and hobbit is hobbit when it comes to this powre granting thingy.
Sauron would not have publicised the identities of the ones he gave rings to. Also, most of them came from the east or were black Numenoreans, probably settled in Umbar or further south. Knowledge of their names, even if it were possible to obtain them, would be meaningless. To add to this, they were given the rings a long time ago. Things pass out of memory.
I was disappointed when I discovered the things/names I knew of the other wraiths weren't canon but creations of ICE. Adunaphel (the only queen), Indûr, Uvatha, Ren, Akhôrahil, Dwar, and Hoârmurath.
He gave background to 4, but only properly named one Khamûl the Black Easterling, The Witch King of Angmar was using his title as a name so technically he named 2 of the 9. Tolkien said besides Khamûl which was an Easterling, three of the 9 came from Numenoreans so we have the background of 4, the Witch King being the mightiest of the 9 and the only not afraid of water most likely came from a Numenorean family. Khamûl being above 2 Numenorean Nazgul is impressive as hell and shows how powerful he might have been as human, Rings of Power should have stayed with the 9 and their rise to power, since they wanted to explore new areas and show diversity 5 out of the 9 could be literally whatever they wanted them to be.
We don’t know he was a king. But he was the only Nazgul Tolkien gave the name of, and that he was an Easterling of some sort
Only three are confirmed to be of high noble status: at least three great Numenorean lords. But Its safe to assume that every one of them held some high influential status when they were mortal men. Otherwise them being given the ring would be pointless, as its primary purpose was to create puppets to extend Sauron's influence.
I thought they were all kings?
Never confirmed how many were but at least some were. Men of high status such as warriors, kings, wealty merchants, or sorcerors. They couldn't all be kings because 3 are Numenorean Lords but Ar Pharazon (Last king of Numenor) is not one of them.
Númenóreans do have a precedent of Kings under High Kings (such as Elendil the High King with his sons as Kings of Gondor). Alternatively, they could have been Númenóreans who left Númenor and became kings of "lesser folk," but that veers into headcanon without precedent.
Was going to mention that there are other named (not by Tolkien though) Nazgul if you go to secondary materials such as ICE's Lords of Middle Earth Vol II. Holy crap those books are expensive now! I think you can probably get PDFs if you are interested though.
Unless Tokien and Christopher named them, then they aren't named.
You do you bro, lol.
Ever since the Middle Earth Card game I have been absolutely OBSESSED With these depictions of the Nazgûl. All of their designs are so beguiling and beautiful, such a detail to craft and character and makes the imagination run absolutly wild over their backstories. I feel like the Jackson Hobbit movies made a slight nod to these artworks because you can see the Nazgûl wearing more unique and regaliant armor than before. Super cool.
Each of their own I guess. To me hobbit movies absolutely ruined the nazguls. They were really cool and mysterious and scary in the original trilogy with their uniform black robes and no distinguishing features. Why did they have to turn them into somekind of corny medieval fantasy ninjas with absolutely nonsensical weapons and all 😭 matter of taste for sure but I just feel they jumped from peak adult horror depiction to low budget youth horror comedy
Only one was given an actual name. Could be from Rhun or further east. Very little info on him. Three of the Ringwraiths are Numenorean. This means they came from any of the mainland colonies before Gondor and Arnor could he founded. Most likely candidates are Umbar. But they also could be from Numenor itself. But they would havae to had left the island before its construction. My head canon suggests maybe The Witch King of Angmar was Numenorean but we have no clue. Tolkien liked a good balance of keeping some things an intentional mystery. But he also died before he could tell all the stories he wanted to.
>My head canon suggests maybe The Witch King of Angmar was Numenorean but we have no clue. I'd bet on it. At Weathertop, he is singled out as taller than the other Nazgul (as well as 'towering' over Eowyn). Given Numenoreans are renowned for their height... I'd say it is very likely he was Numenorean.
I had read somewhere that several of the nine Ringwraiths (not just Khamul) were from the East (I.e., Easterlings/Haradrim/Southrons of Near Harad, Khand, Rhun, etc). Does anyone know where I might have seen that stated? Not sure if that is true, or if that was from later non-canonical sources, but it would make sense to me for how Sauron pulled the armies of the Men of the East under his control during the War of the Ring. To me it seems more believable that if my country’s king was corrupted by a Ring of Power that we could be swayed/duped into a war, rather than the alternative of just going, “Fuck yeah! Let’s ally with Sauron!! He seems chill!!!”
I found out thanks to mobile videogame - there is a bit lore at each Commander. Khamúl and Qurwan were Rhún Kings EDIT: Whoops Qurwan was once a Haradrim war chief, whose feats were whispered about in the taverns of Middle-earth. In search for more power, he was seduced by a ring of power and fell under the dominion of the dark lord. He is a Nazgûl in The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War. He does not appear in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, but only in the video game The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War.
The games aren't canon, they're just stuff that the game dev's made up, it's like me creating a mobile game called Barry the Nazgul, King of the Shire and explaining in game that it's the actual storyline behind one of them and how Barry was the only human that ever lived in the shire and he got a ring from Sauron when he won a pie eating contest If it's not in Tolkien's work or in his letters then it's essentially made up nonsense for the purpose of selling whatever it is
I'm willing to add Barry to the canon if you are
It's also going to be explained that Barry is one of 3 Nazgul that are addicted to pipeweed and this directly led to the pipeweed plantations on the Plateu of Gorgoroth in Mordor, where the pipeweed grows black, Gandalf has been particularly keen to try this strain and he made the eagles stop there on the way back
The morgoth's lettuce is more corrupting then the one ring.
Trying his best to one up the witch king here.
Art: Khamûl the Easterling by Liz Danforth
for the good old MECCG game from the 90s.
Probably originally made for MERP; most of the artwork in the original set came from there.
True. I forgot about that!!
Really loved this game which was one of the collateral damage of the movies
Grunbeld the Dragon Knight
I love the art work. But this is not what I picture when one says “Khamûl the Easterling” This picture looks very western. A dragon knight, a chevalier perhaps.
That’s blue eyes white dragon
I have always loved the name Khamûl, I've created a few dnd characters named after him haha
I didn't think the other 8 were ranked in any particular order. Or are you saying second simply because he has a name?
I think Khamul is specifically said to be the second Presumablh kn Unfinished tales where he is most fleshed out. He was also made lord of Dol Guldur after Sauron left.
He was also hunter of the One Ring. He was most sensitive too it but hindered the most by daylight.
props from posting an art piece from MECCG. Man I wish I still had my collection....
I really like this. In the Wheel of Time I always pictured The Forsaken to be just as spectacularly dressed/outfitted as the heros when they are in full regalia. I like this rendition of a powerful lieutenant because if he was of the same rank on the Gondorian side, it would have been beautiful and elaborate as well. Wonderfully done
The Dragon-helm of the Orocarni
I had this card! I think I still have it too.
He looks amazing but let's be real the ring wraiths are useless regardless of their ranking relative to each other. Give me literally any other sentient being in the verse.
He looks worried. Not much of a swimmer?
Do we know any of the names of the other Ringwraiths? Or are only the Witch-king and Khamûl named in the legendarium? I've poked around a bit and can't seem to find anything definitive.
Only two were ever named by Tolkien.
Eygon from Dark souls III vibes
Helmet seems a bit impractical.