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Wight
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<img src="http://www.barrowdowns.com/images/posticons/onering.jpg" align=absmiddle> Re: UT and Nazgul
Well if the Gaffer was ignorant of the danger then somehow the Nazgul didn't convey his terrifying-ness (?) to him, which is basically what I'm saying, I guess. Anyway I admit that the passage you quoted only makes sense if the wraiths could NOT "dial back" their terror, but that may just prove that Tolkien -- like all writers, even great ones -- is sometimes inconsistent. Gilthalion's and Lindil's explanations above seem better to explain the difference in the wraiths' effect on various mortals. Which reminds me --when Gloin reports on the wraith's visits to Dain, doesn't it also sound as if the wraith was trying to appear friendly? "You will have friendship of Sauron", he says something like that, and Dain says he must consider what the message means "under its fair cloak". (Don't have books here, going by memory.)
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