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The White CouncilRe: Black BreathTolkien and Inklings Discussion |
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The White CouncilRe: Black BreathTolkien and Inklings Discussion |
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Posted by Olorin on May 31, 2000 at 11:17:39 In Reply to: Black Breath posted by Foradan on May 30, 2000 at 06:08:06:
: Is the Black Breath something that is to be associated strictly with the Nazgūl only? I thought so, but this bit of verse in "The Houses of Healing" puzzles me a bit. It implies that people of former times knew (out of experience?) that the king could with the help of athelas heal people inflicted by the black breath. How would they have known? I don't believe this verse would have come from the second age. Yet in the Gondor of the third age the Kings and the Nazgul were active at the same time only for 50 years, from the siege of Minas Ithil to the loss of Earnur. So when was the verse formed, would those 50 years have given enough experience in the effects of the black breath and the kings' ability to dispell it for it to become a matter of common knowledge and poetry that would last for a thousand years? But if the black breath was not restricted to the Nazgul only, then the matter would be clearer. : -Foradan It's my thought that the black breath is present wherever the will of Sauron is bent. The oppressive nature of that will can afflict anyone who tries to stand in its way. The Nazgul are obviously tools of Sauron's will and hence are major agents of delivering this destructive combination of fear and delusion. Those afflicted sink into a deeper and deeper dream of depression unitl the will is drained and the body succumbs to the mind's surrender.
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