[burrahobbit]

And of course by "totally alive" I mean "you're absolutely right." They sort of live in the dead things place and the living things place, moreso in the dead things place. I was thinking that I would be fancy like they were acually the same place but at different energy levels, but that isn't exactly right. They are more like places that overlap, like the pointy oval part of a venn diagram. I would still call them alive, though, as they never really died. Having said that, I think it would be a good ideaa to define death. In the context of Middle-earth I would say that a good definition for death would be when the spirit (fea) leaves the body (hroa) and goes off to do whatever it's going to do. The Rings of the Nazgul trapped the spirits Nazgul in the bodies of the Nazgul, preventing death by any means other than violence. Over time the rings and spirits of the Nazgul consumed the bodies of the Nazgul until there was nearly nothing left. Interestingly enough, the elves are faced with a similar problem. As the ages pass for them their spirits consume their bodies bit by bit, causing them to fade from the world. It casts an intersting light on the Nazgul to think of them this way (which I have never done before now).

[ June 12, 2002: Message edited by: burrahobbit ]