Oye, do we forget easily! I was mystified until I read this entire thread, and remembered what the RingWraiths were all about!
It would not matter if an Elf slashed them down a thousand times, so long as the One Ring existed. If they were unhorsed, or dis-embodied, their spirits would just find their way back to Mordor, to reincorporate themselves into a new host. Disgusting, yes?
Think of the one that Legolas shot down! If that creature was in any way alive, it certainly was not going to live through a fall from the sky. How did it come back to assail the fields of Pelinnor? It had to float back to Mordor, and there take another body and another creature to ride.
(Thus also brings to mind the Riders unhorsed at the Ford. They'd be washed to the Sea, and what then, would they walk all the way to Mordor?! Of course not.)
So, you see, the Elves saw the futility of trying to kill what is unkillable, until the One Ring be destroyed.
[ September 30, 2002: Message edited by: Tirned Tinnu ]
__________________
'Perilous indeed,' said Aragorn, 'fair and perilous; but only evil need fear it, or those who bring some evil with them. Follow me!'
|