[obloquy]

Originally Posted by Captain of Despair

It doesn't seem to me that Gandalf's words were the reason that the Witchking halted. It seemed more like the Witchking was confronting Gandalf as the warriors of old did before battling. The Witchking threw back his hood, countered Gandalf's words with a few of his own, and proceded to raise his flaming sword as if ready to attack.

He halted because Gandalf was in his way. He couldn't continue. And not only was Gandalf unafraid (which WK was unaccustomed to), he was capable of squashing him out of hand.

In response to obloquy: I don't believe the Witchking to be on par with Gandalf, but I also don't believe Gandalf to be equal to Sauron.

I anticipated this response and retorted preemptively in my post above. I've written a lot on it here on the Downs and provided plenty of evidence to support my contention. Your turn.

Another comment I would like to make (to no person in particular) is about the infamous prophecy. People always use it to justify why a person could or could not defeat the Witchking, but this is one of my pet peeves. All the prophecy meant is that the Witchking would be defeated by Eowyn and Merry. It did not mean that, in theory, a man could not defeat him or any non-man could.

But if a male Man had killed the Witch-King (which he could have), Glorfindel would've been proven wrong, and we are all familiar enough with Tolkien to know that Glorfindel would not have been proven wrong. That's the point. "In real life," yeah, a male Man had just as much shot as anyone at killing the WK, but really, once the prophecy had been uttered, it was then "impossible" for any male Man to do the deed.