LotR -- Book 5 - Chapter 04 - The Siege of Gondor

[denethorthefirst]

Originally Posted by davem

This always interested me - 'the abyss that awaits you!' 'Fall into the nothingness that awaits you & your Master.'

Gandalf says that the 'abyss' has been prepared for the WK & for Sauron, that 'nothingness' awaits them. Prepared by whom? Only by Eru. Their fate has been decided, their 'free will' taken away? What's interesting is the WK's response: Gandalf fortells that 'nothingness' awaits him, he throws back his hood to reveal...?

Gandalf's threat has failed to cow him - not because it was vain bluster on the Wizard's part, but because what he has threatened has already occured. So the WK can laugh his 'deadly laugh'. I think this is where his sense of 'indestructibility' arises - when he says none may slay him, he believes it, because he knows he has already been slain. What he will threaten Eowyn with later - her flesh shall be devoured & her shrivelled mind be left naked to the Lidless Eye - this has been his own fate.

The Witch-King and the rest of the Nazgul are NOT dead and they still have a hroa, even though it is not visible to the mortal eye. They are still human. Sauron cannot deny them the gift of Iluvatar.