If you have never taken an in-depth look behind the scenes of the adaptation of the Lord of the Rings at the cinema by Peter Jacksonyou probably don’t know this secret about Nazgul. Born from the writings of JRR Tolkien and compositions ofHoward Shorethis allows us to better understand the “Ringwraiths“.
this secret in the trilogy of Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is an immensely rich work that has everything going for it, including iconic villains. Fans who know the lore well will mention Morgoth, others will mention Christopher Lee’s Saruman. But the most emblematic “bad guy” of Tolkien’s novels and Peter Jackson’s films is obviously Sauron, which owes much of its immense power to the One Ring. It was thanks to this that he corrupted nine men who, over time, became the Nazguls. These wraiths of the Ring in the service of Sauron have always fascinated us because they are shrouded in mystery, although we have more information about some, such as the one called Khamul.
By looking a little at the writings of JRR Tolkien, we can learn a lot of information about the Nazgul. The cinematographic trilogy is more stingy at this level. But did you know that a secret about the “Black Horsemen” was hidden in the musical theme associated with them?
the musical theme of the nazgul
In The Lord of the Ringsthe Nazgul have a theme associated with them that is actually repeated in five titles of the films’ OST. This is distinguished in particular by the presence of words sung by choirs. These come from a poem in Adûnaic, the language spoken in Numenor during the Second Age. The poem in question is titled The Revelation of the Ringwraiths, in English, and received an official translation from Howard Shore, composer of the music for the film trilogy:
We renounce our Maker / We renounce our Creator
We cleave to the darkness
We take unto ourselves the power and glory
Behold! We are the Nine / See, we are the Nine
The Lords of Unending Life
While it won’t teach hardcore fans of the Lord of the Rings who know the Silmarillion by heart, this poem allows us to define who the Nazgul are and it is quite clear: the nine wraiths of the Ring yielded to the power of the latter out of lust for power, while forever devoting themselves to Sauron and acting since the “darkness”, in a world that is made neither for the living nor for the dead. Only the first verse can be confusing, because THE “Creator” referred to here is not Sauron, but Iru Iluvatar, the God creator of everything in the universe imagined by Tolkien. Indeed, the former’s master, Morgoth, rebelled against Iluvatar in the past and sought to corrupt Arda. By siding with Sauron, the Nazguls by extension side with Morgoth and therefore oppose the Creator.
