A 10th Nazgul?

[CSteefel]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

I wouldn't be so sure. As I said before, if it were that easy to make Morgul-blades, the Nazgul could make about hundred of them, send some Orcs to make a raid and kill a hundred Gondorians, and thus make a nice little army of wights.

I am not sure that a Morgul blade in the hands of an Orc would have an identical effect as it would wielded by one of the Nazgul.

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

You are coming to very similar conclusions, or ideas I once had as well (well, I was eleven at that moment, but forget it ), and it's more than logical. Since we don't know anything of Eärnur's fate, and he rode to Morgul to face the Witch-king himself, it is not as improbable that he could end like that. However that's still left only to speculation and in my opinion, if we were to stay more true to the "spirit of the story", it would be more probable that Eärnur was ambushed by a force of orcs, outnumbered, and though he fought valiantly and slain many orcs, he could not win because the orcs were many, and his body was dishonourably... hmm... thrown to Shelob? Or something like that.

It seems the suggestion is that it was the work of the Nazgul, since Tolkien in Appendix A says:

...and he rode with a small escort of knights to the gate of Minas Morgul. None of that riding were ever heard of again

although this does not rule out Orcs issuing from the tower. Still, it seems likely that only the Nazgul could have guaranteed that none escaped, or perhaps more importantly, that (with the people of Gondor)

the faithless enemy had trapped the king, and that he had died in torment in Minas Morgul.

But to me, the strongest indication that wraiths are likely to be out there is that Gandalf says that the Nazgul withdrew expecting the Morgul Blade to do its work and turn Frodo in to a wraith. This suggests some previous experience with this... But then, the Hobbit did not fade nearly as fast as the men who had experienced the same wound...