How could the Nazgul take Minas Morgul?

[CaptainofDespair]

Originally Posted by Kuruharan

Collapsing supply lines had a lot to do with why Napoleon retreated. But…Age of gunpowder. Incomparable periods of history. Irrelevant.

Quite foolish of you. Whether it is the Age of Gunpowder or not makes no difference. They still relied on horses to pull everything from cannon to supply wagons.

Except for that irritating fact that the sea was right there and the Crusaders were supplied by sea (and wouldn’t have taken Jerusalem in the first place without it.

The Witch-king had no such option.

You are not listening, again. I never said he'd use the sea. I was focused mainly on the ability to forage. Also, the Crusaders received very little in the way of supplies, especially in the First Crusade. I don't suppose you got the message that they were starving when they were sieging Antioch, as well as other fortifications. Had the Muslim armies managed to actually join together and isolate the Crusaders, what little aid the Byzantines provided wouldn't have helped either.

Try again.

Perhaps you should "try again".

Supposing the Witch-king even had access to it. Yet again your theory rests on the utter and complete inertia of Gondor, something I find difficult to believe in.

No, it does not rely on the complete inertia of Gondor. You only think that.

Even if they were not, they must have still had sufficient force to make a powerful effort at rousting the besieging forces.

Perhaps, but that does not mean they, the Gondorians, could not be beaten. They are not invulnerable. You seem to be attempting to give them an aura akin to that.

Not necessarily. And I doubt that the Gondorians had much to do with or heard much about the Barrow-downs. They had other things on their minds when they were there.

Why? Because Tolkien doesn't mention it? People did not stop traveling in this time period. Word would get around, and I imagine it would not take too long.

Remember by the time we see the Gondorians talking about the Nazgûl they have had centuries of experience with them.

And yet no mention of a 'Haunting' of Ithil. How odd...