Witch-king of Angmar

Lord of the Nazgûl, the wraith no man could kill.

The Witch-king of Angmar, Lord of the Nazgûl, is the chief of the nine Ringwraiths in The Lord of the Rings, a Man enslaved by one of the Rings of Power that Sauron gave to mortal kings.

Quick Facts

Also called

Lord of the Nazgûl
the Pale King
Black Captain

Realm

Angmar (capital Carn Dûm)

Killed by

Éowyn and Merry Brandybuck

Facts from the source article.

Background

His ring grants him great power but makes him invisible and binds him to Sauron. In the Third Age he rules the northern kingdom of Angmar from Carn Dûm, destroys the successor realms of Arnor, Rhudaur, Cardolan and Arthedain, and is put to flight by the Elf-lord Glorfindel, who prophesies that he will not fall by the hand of Man. Tolkien suggested in his notes for translators that he was of Númenórean origin.

Sent to the Shire to recover the One Ring, he stabs Frodo at Weathertop with a Morgul-knife meant to turn its victim into a wraith. In his final battle he attacks Éowyn with a mace, and when the hobbit Merry Brandybuck stabs him with an ancient enchanted Númenórean blade she kills him with her sword, fulfilling the prophecy.

Tolkien first called him the Wizard King and considered making him a renegade Istar or an immortal Maia before settling on a corrupted mortal. Commentators note that he calls himself Death as he bursts the gates of Minas Tirith with a spell-engraved battering ram, and compare the prophecy to the one in Macbeth.