Nazgûl Purgatory

[Inziladun]

I thought I'd bump this up, since the topic still intrigues me.

[Galadriel55]

'No, I don't know,' said Gorbag's voice. 'The messages go through quicker than anything could fly, as a rule. But I don't enquire how it's done. Safer not to. Grr! Those Nazgûl give me the creeps. And they skin the body off you as soon as look at you, and leave you all cold in the dark on the other side.

I've always interpreted "the other side" to be the other side of death, but that might be the influence of the Russian translation where it is clearly so.

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

There's a great deal of female imagery in Lamentations, where the city Jerusalem is given a female voice.

I would attribute that to the lanuage itself rather than some poetic devise: "city" in Hebrew is feminine, therefore any city is referred to as a "she".

Originally Posted by Rumil

The Mouth's threats of Frodo's torture made me think of Hurin's torment by Morgoth (not necessarily, naturally, but maybe).

That also made me think about the "keeping the fea" issue. If I recall correctly, Morgoth made it so that Hurin couldn't move or die before Morgoth released him. This is not taking away the Gift completely, just delaying it. Maybe Sauron learned this trick from his master.

I think that being "left naked to the lidless eye" means that your hroa is stripped away and your fea is left, well, naked.

Originally Posted by Gaurcrist

I agree with Bethberry on the fact that purgatory is Christian, and that it is a place where you are purified before going to heaven.

If it's a Nazgul purgatory, one is purified for Nazgul heaven.

[Eruhen]

Here's a creepy thought: What would a Nazgûl heaven entail?

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

I've always interpreted "the other side" to be the other side of death, but that might be the influence of the Russian translation where it is clearly so.

I'd thought Gorbag to be speaking of something worse than death there. Considering how expendable Sauron considers the Orcs to be, I wouldn't think they'd be all that fussed about merely dying. Perhaps they feared that the Nazgûl (via their submersion into Sauron's identity) had some means of bringing their prey into the same shadow-realm they inhabited. That seems to be a terrible, inescapable place of torment. Just how they'd accomplish it though, I don't know.

Originally Posted by Eruhen

Here's a creepy thought: What would a Nazgûl heaven entail?

All the blood they could drink, and a supply of Melkor-Bradley® games?