[Alphaelin]

Good catch, Davem
:

I'm not sure whether this 'Black Shadow' is the same as the 'Black Breath'. Certainly the effect of the Black Breath on Merry at Bree doesn't seem as overwhelming. The Black Shadow certainly has its origin in the Nazgul in the same way as the Black Breath, but it seems that without the healing skills of Aragorn the Black Breath is not curable. It is something like 'plague', like the Black Death which devastated Europe in the Middle Ages. It seems to affect the body as much as the spirit, & Aragorn's healing seems to work on two levels - he calls the victim back (soul/spirit) & uses the Athelas (body). Whatever it is, it seems it is both a symbol of the overwhelming despair suffered by the enemies of Sauron and a physical weapon of war.

You are quite right, of course. <bows to Davem> The Black Breath and the Black Shadow are related but not the same, and I should have been more accurate when describing Merry's malady. Perhaps the Black Shadow is more severe because it involves actually coming into contact with a Nazgul? Merry and Eowyn were fighting the thing this time, whereas before, Merry was in the presence of the Nazgul, but unaware of it. However the impression from your words are that it could be a weapon controlled consciously by the Nazgul, which is also intriguing. (Although I keep getting a Bad Mental Picture of the Witch King telling the rest of the Nazgul "Put your breath on 'kill'.")

Which brings to mind Tolkien's description of the healing process in this chapter for both the Black Shadow and Faramir's fever, and how much it seems to depend on the touch of Aragorn's hand. Human touch is surprisingly powerful. It can help ease both physical and emotional pain (both of which are affecting Faramir, Eowyn and Merry).

Although I enjoyed the comments of Lalwende regarding the Elessar, I think the idea was that Aragorn himself was the main source of healing, not the stone, or the athelas. Ioreth says "The hands of the king are the hands of a healer." And see how much Aragorn's healing involves the sense of touch.

Now Aragorn knelt beside Faramir, and held a hand upon his brow. And those that watched felt that some great struggle was going on. For Aragorn's face grew grey with weariness; and ever and anon he called the mane of Faramir, but each time more faintly to their hearing, as if Aragorn himself was removed from them, and walked afar in some dark vale, calling for one that was lost.

But he bent and kissed her on the brow, and called her softly, saying: "Eowyn Eomund's daughter, awake! For your enemy has passed away!" She did not stir, but now she began again to breathe deeply. so that her breast rose and fell beneath the white linen of the sheet. Once more Aragorn bruised two leaves of athelas and cast them into steaming water; and he laved her brow with it, and her right arm lying cold and nerveless on the coverlet...."Awake, Eowyn, Lady of Rohan!" said Aragorn again, and he took her right hand in his and felt it warm with life returning.

Then Aragorn laid his hand on Merry's head, and passing his hand gently through the brown curls, he touched his eyelids, and called him by name.

While the Elessar might have augmented Aragorn's healing ability, the focus in these passages are on Aragorn using his own voice and hands to bring his patients back. These passages bring up a lot of contemporary ideas: The belief of some Christians in the 'laying on of hands' to heal, interest among medical practicioners in 'theraputic touch' in helping sufferers combat chronic or long-term diseases, even metaphysical claims that human touch can transmit energy between two people.

He uses the athelas as a medicinal plant, probably because having grown up in Rivendell in the care of Elrond, a master of lore and healing, he would have learned the properties of the plant, whereas in the rest of Middle Earth, where the old knowledge had faded away, it was only preserved in the equivalent of nursery rhymes (the Chief Warden's piece of 'doggerel' always reminds me of 'Ring Around the Rosy' and its association with the Black Death). In the eyes of Ioreth, and even the Chief Warden, seeing this "weed" used to heal such severe illness might have seemed like an amazing demonstration of supernatural power on Aragorn's part.