The White Council

Re: Nazgul Pondries Final Word?

Tolkien and Inklings Discussion

: [snip]

: : Aragorn and the hobbits were too far away to hear the : : noises of the attack (since it was done with some stealth, no : : doubt). Knowing that he must stay with the hobbits, Aragorn : : remained in the room for the night. : : There, that is my tale. Michael may agree or make : : corrections where he sees fit.

: I can't think of any corrections to offer, although I have been mulling over the suggestion that when Frodo awoke in the middle of the night that might have signalled the approach of a Nazgul. What if one or both of the "Bree Nazgul" accompanied Ferny and his friend(s) to the inn but remained outside while they did the dirty work? But then, that doesn't make sense. Why would they let Ferny go to the wrong room (or, worse, SEND him to the wrong room)?

: It's just logically difficult to place a Nazgul there because the wrong room was attacked. I think that's why Tolkien had Aragorn supply the reader with clues about Ferny -- to make it evident that the Nazgul were not as prone to doing stupid things as Ferny might be, but Ferny had enough sense to realize he was no match for Aragorn (as when Aragorn said later on that Ferny knew the lands near Bree but was no match for the Ranger in the wild).

After re-reading the passages where Aragorn tell the Hobbits to not go to their rooms, I must agree that the Nazgul had left and must not have been around when Ferny and friends came calling. My original objection was "why would the wraiths have left when they were so close to the Ring." But I see now that that they must have ridden ahead to lay in wait for the Fellowship along the road. The one question remaining then is What would have happened had Ferny actually succeeded in killing Frodo and the others? I know that's a "what if" question, and I'm not usually prone to asking such, but the more I think about the whole episode the more I feel that something isn't quite right. But I can understand why you (Michael) figured that Ferny must have acted on his own. If the Nazgul had known that he was going to attempt a break-in and kill Frodo they woud have remained close by.