Quote:
Originally Posted by Nerwen
Ivriniel, I don't think that wiki you link to is all that reliable.
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Indeed, you must never trust the "Lord of the Rings Wiki." It's a mess of book-lore, film material, "fanon", backstory from RPGs and amateur textual interpretation all muddled together. Note that it's too amateurish to even remember the "The" at the beginning of "
The Lord of the Rings!" It's kind of like the post-Peter Jackson equivalent of one of David Day's reference books.
I generally go to the Tolkien Gateway when I need a quick hint for a reference:
tolkiengateway.net I then confirm this with a primary source.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ivriniel
Khamul was the only Ringwraith Tolkien spoke about. Khamul was known as The Black Easterling and Shadow of the East--before he became a Ringwraith. He is implicated in the alliance between the land of Rhun and Mordor. He was second in power, but one of the six Ringwraiths not of Numenorean descent.
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We may observe that Professor Tolkien ultimately omitted the naming of Khamūl in any text published in his lifetime, presumably, I would argue, to maintain the sense of anonymous terror associated with the Ringwraiths. Perhaps he originally intended to identify the Lieutenant of their dark order just as he had, to an extent, their Captain, but ultimately changed his mind.
The East of Middle-earth had lain under the shadow since time immemorial: first as the slaves and worshippers of Morgoth, and later in the same function for Sauron. I would not be surprised if several of the Ringwraiths were Easterlings (I would speculate that some, also, were probably Haradrim). Rhūn was a wide land, and the gift of Rings of Power to Easterling Kings might have secured its realms under his control amid the turmoils of the Second Age after Morgoth's empire collapsed.