Frodo: I can't do this, Sam.
Sam: I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for.
Pippin: I feel like I'm back at the Green Dragon.
Merry: [through a mouthful of food] Mm. Green Dragon.
Pippin: A mug of ale in my hand, putting my feet up on a settle after a hard day's work.
Merry: Only, you've never done a hard day's work.
Gimli: Oh come on, we can take 'em.
Aragorn: It's a long way.
Gimli: Toss me.
Aragorn: What?
Gimli: I cannot jump the distance, you'll have to toss me.
Gimli: Don't tell the elf.
Aragorn: Not a word.
Sometime during the Second Age (after year 1600) Sauron gave nine Rings of Power to powerful mortal Men. It is said that three of the Nine were lords of Númenor corrupted by Sauron, and one was a king among the Easterlings.
For many years the bearers used the rings to gain great wealth, prestige and power, becoming “mighty in their day, kings, sorcerers, and warriors of old”. The effect of the rings caused their lives to be prolonged, and to see things of the Unseen. But over time their bodily forms faded until they became wraiths entirely, slaves under the domination of Sauron’s One Ring.
Known as the Nazgûl, they first appeared around S.A. 2251 and were soon established as Sauron’s principal servants.
They were dispersed after the first overthrow of Sauron in 3441 at the hands of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, but re-emerged around 1300 of the Third Age. The Lord of the Nazgûl, the Witch-king of Angmar, led Sauron’s forces against the mannish kingdom of Arnor in T.A. 1409. He was eventually defeated in battle in 1975 and returned to Mordor, gathering the other Nazgûl in preparation for the return of Sauron to that realm. In 2000, they besieged Minas Ithil and captured it after a two-year siege. The city thereafter became the stronghold of the Nazgûl, from where they directed the rebuilding of Sauron’s armies, also acquiring a palantír for the Dark Lord.
