The creature Gothmog at the Siege of Minas Tirith

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

I have no issue with that statement. I'm just not buying into his name being 'Morgul', that's all. Isn't that the gist of Gordis's hypothesis?

I suppose that's more for Gordis to answer than me, but my read of him was that the cognomen the WK went under in the Third Age was, given in full, "Aran Morgûl"--and I have to say, I find the structure of the argument compelling, insofar as it DOES seem like something "witch-king" could be an English/Westron translation of, AND it would fit. Even so, whether I'm sold or not, and whether Gordis is right or not, even if "Aran Morgûl" is what the WK went by throughout the Third Age, this is still not a name, but a title. "Morgûl" presented in this manner is not analogous to "Elizabeth" in "Queen Elizabeth" but is analogous to "of England" in "Queen of England." Granted, I don't know enough Sindarin (or anywhere near) to know if Morgûl would have a different genitive (or possessive) form, but Gordis's hypothesis seems to be that "Aran Morgûl"--half translated, by his theory, in one spot, as "the Morgûl-king"--is "King of Black Sorcery" not "King Black Sorcery." That little word "of" makes a lot of difference in English.

The analogy that comes to mind, with the whole Michael Jackson death thing in the news is the title "King of Pop," which is every bit as much a title as "King" on its own, or "King of England." My understanding of Gordis's thesis is that the WK is basically an evil Elvis that has forgotten Presley, and been called nought but the King of Rock for 3000 years.

Originally Posted by Inziladun

There is Khamûl the Shadow of the East mentioned in UT. I'm inclined to think that if the Lord of Morgul had a personal name, it would have gotten a direct mention somewhere along the line, at least peripherally.

Ah, Khamûl... the fact that you bring him up edges me dangerously close to the whole Canon debate, since "Khamûl" is not a name that is found in LotR anywhere, but--using my spurious idea of tiered Canonology--is from Unfinished Tales. Admittedly, though, it's not a directly contradictory work to the LotR--at least as far as the name goes, which is all that's relevant. However, here's the note from UT ("The Hunt for the Ring"), right after the first mention of Khamûl's name:

Originally Posted by Note 1, The Hunt for the Ring

I think it more likely that the present text was superseded when the Tales of the Years was compiled; and it may be noted that in a rejected version of the present passage there was only one Nazgûl in Dol Guldur (not named Khamûl, but referred to as 'the Second Chief (the Black Easterling)')...

Clearly, Christopher Tolkien's notation--presumably correct, for all we'll ever know--that this was superseded by the Tale of the Years means that I'll reject it as less canonical than the published, LotR Tale of the Years. But I don't even need to go that far, I think. Here's the actual passage where Khamûl's name first appears:

Originally Posted by The Hunt for the Ring

Now at that time the Chieftain of the Ringwraiths dwelt in Minas Morgul with six companions, while the second to the Chief, Khamûl the Shadow of the East, abode in Dol Guldur as Sauron's lieutenant, with one other as his messenger.

What I'd like to draw to attention here is that, if one were to place a single comma into the text, right after the name "Khamûl," then the phrase "the Shadow of the East" wouldn't be merely a descriptor of Khamûl, but a possible explanation. Even without the comma to make this a clear apposition, it's still a possible interpretation--one that would be in keeping with my general idea that the Nazgûl haven't retained actual names, but--alas!--no more than cool, unprovable, supposition on my part.