# Watching LOTR again, couple questions **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** middle-earth\ **Created:** [December 10, 2012, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-lotr-again-couple-questions/643616 "2012-12-10T16:51:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-lotr-again-couple-questions/643616/221 "2012-12-19T18:55:21Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > It certainly did. > > (from “The Bridge of Khazan-Dum”) > > And again at Helm’s Deep, “Anduril rose and fell, gleaming with white fire. A shout went up from wall and tower: ‘Anduril! Anduril goes to war! The Blade that was Broken shines again!’ Dismayed the rammers let fall the trees and turned to fight; but the wall of their shields was broken as by a lightning-stroke, and they were swept away…”. Yeah, Anduril does a bunch of stuff that kinda sounds like it’s just the Professor using flowery language, but then you realize that this is the ONLY times he uses this kind of language to describe swordplay and you start to think “maybe he means that literally…” ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-lotr-again-couple-questions/643616/222 "2012-12-19T22:01:33Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > And smiling bandit, that’s very interesting. So you figure that if Sauron had wanted to take the time, he could have re-embodied the Witch King and sent him back out? It’s possible. I don’t think the Professor made very clear whether the Merry/Eowyn double-tap\* broke the bonds tying the Wicth-King of Angmar to Sauron. It was certainly a grievous attack, but we’ve seen already that he survived, if we may use the word when speaking of the dead, being crushed by waves and left to poke his way back to Mordor as an immaterial wraith. It’s also possible that some or even all of the Ring-Wraiths weren’t bad people at the start. Their Rings may not have been as powerful as the One, but they certainly did the job. We never know their names, whom they once were, or even where they came from. That’s a bit of symbolism for evil itself: it tends to drag down, degrade, and rip out anything human or personal about a man. So Morgoth started out trying to impose his will, and ended up becoming more restricted over time, till he was mostly a legend. Sauron became a cheap copy of Morgoth. Saruman, a copy of Sauron, etc. \*Wow, that sounds incredibly dirty. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-lotr-again-couple-questions/643616/223 "2012-12-19T22:16:52Z")
> [@Airk](#): > > Yeah, Anduril does a bunch of stuff that kinda sounds like it’s just the Professor using flowery language, but then you realize that this is the ONLY times he uses this kind of language to describe swordplay and you start to think “maybe he means that literally…” And I just realized in my post above I misspelled “Khazad-dum”, which I’ve only known how to spell correctly for about 37 years… :smack: ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-lotr-again-couple-questions/643616/224 "2012-12-19T23:38:45Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > It’s also possible that some or even all of the Ring-Wraiths weren’t bad people at the start. Their Rings may not have been as powerful as the One, but they certainly did the job. We never know their names, whom they once were, or even where they came from. . One is, well, sorta two. Of course we know the Witch King of Angmar was from Angmar, one of the great Kingdoms of the North. But not originally. In Unfinished Tales, JRRT noted one other was “Khamul” “a great lord of the Easterlings”. Three of the Nine were Numernorean Lords or Kings, one of these apparently being the Witch King. And I agree, most were likely not evil to start, but since their rings made them immortal, they fell under the sway of the One Ring. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-lotr-again-couple-questions/643616/225 "2012-12-20T00:51:06Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > And I just realized in my post above I misspelled “Khazad-dum”, which I’ve only known how to spell correctly for about 37 years… :smack: It’s Khazad-dûm. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-lotr-again-couple-questions/643616/226 "2012-12-20T01:13:33Z")
> [@Knorf](#): > > It’s Khazad-dûm. Diacriticist! ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-lotr-again-couple-questions/643616/227 "2012-12-20T01:53:18Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Diacriticist! Guilty. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-lotr-again-couple-questions/643616/228 "2012-12-20T01:55:09Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Diacriticist! Speaking of which, when they show Bilbo writing, many of the As have three tiny dots over them. Why? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-lotr-again-couple-questions/643616/229 "2012-12-20T02:31:00Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Speaking of which, when they show Bilbo writing, many of the As have three tiny dots over them. Why? Probably a combination of “looks cool” and the fact that the actual Fëanorian (eat THAT, **Knorf**!) Tengwar have the vowel “a” as three dots in a triangle above either the preceding or following consonant (depending on whether it’s Quenya or Sindarin mode, respectively). ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-lotr-again-couple-questions/643616/230 "2012-12-20T03:29:16Z")
Du skitne rotte du! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-lotr-again-couple-questions/643616/231 "2012-12-20T07:11:01Z")
> [@Knorf](#): > > It’s Khazad-dûm. I know, but life’s too short, so I settled for saying it with a Mannish accent, which probably means that instead of saying “Dwarrowdelf” I said “dwarf-throwing”, but it can’t be helped. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2012, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-lotr-again-couple-questions/643616/232 "2012-12-29T07:15:28Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > And as been pointed out before, they’d already stabbed Frodo. They didn’t need to hang about, their work was accomplished. All they had to do was wait for him to join them. And, now that I think about it, there was nothing the Nazgul _could_ do. Other than using the Morgul-knife, the Ringwraiths could not hurt or touch mortals other than thru terror. The Morgul blade was apparently either rare or unique. True, later the Witch-King wielded a mace\*, but all the other just did their evil with terror and “the Black Breath”. - perhaps some device of Sauron. ---
**Author:** ![dogbutler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dogbutler/32/428_2.png) [@dogbutler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dogbutler)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2012, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-lotr-again-couple-questions/643616/233 "2012-12-29T10:37:58Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > I know, but life’s too short, so I settled for saying it with a Mannish accent, which probably means that instead of saying “Dwarrowdelf” I said “dwarf-throwing”, but it can’t be helped. 😃 “Nobody tosses a dwarf!” ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2012, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-lotr-again-couple-questions/643616/234 "2012-12-29T16:26:13Z")
> [@dogbutler](#): > > “Nobody tosses a dwarf!” To be fair, dwarves sometimes get the human idiom [wrong](http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=850) too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-lotr-again-couple-questions/643616.md?page=11)