ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Yes, this is an old, old troll (in the non-Tolkenien sense)...

Who was responsible for the death (er... un-death) of the Witch-King?

Eowyn or Merry? Sword of Westernesse or pure Rohan-gal pluck?

Peter Jackson got around it by digging out the WK - "No man can kill me..." Eowyn - "I am no man!" solution, which I've always found a little too neat...

I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts...

If memory serves, Eowyn killed the Witch-king and Merry killed an Olog-hai.

Merry did stab the Witch-King from behind before Eowyn got a whack at him, but I think the context (in both the book and the movie) make it clear that she was responsible for his death.

I like Merry. Him and his insatiable bloodlust.

The Witch-King was IMPERVIOUS to Merry's weapon though, I think, thanks to that fate the Witch-king had.

IIRC the Witch-King was said to die because both Eowyn and Merry weren't mortal men (but a woman and hobbit). But I wondered recently whether he died truly or was just banished for some time, as when the Nazgul were flooded.

I always got the impression from the books that Merry's stab distracted the Witch-King, giving Eowyn the chance to kill him.

merry certainly hurt the witch-king. there has been debate whether merry's blow enabled eowyn to deliver the coupe de grace......

Because it was a Blade of Westernesse...

Did the enchanted nature of the blade "poison" the Witch-King, or did it merely weaken his defences allowing Eowyn to kill 'im?

For mine, Eowyn did diddly squat.... goooooOOOOO Hobbits!

JRR Tolkien wrote:Merry's sword had stabbed him from behind, shearing through the black mantle, and passing up beneath the hauberk had pierced the sinew behind his mighty knee.
"Eowyn! Eowyn!" cried Merry. Then torttering, struggling up, with her last strnength she drove her sword between crown and mantle as the great shoulders bowed before her.

Merry's blow cause the Witch-King to topple (a blow to the knee) this gave Eowyn the advantage of height she needde to deliver the fatal blow.

Eowyn wielded an art sword and Merry just a westie... so it's easy to tell who killed him

OK, Merry got in a hit, but Eowyn made the kill.

No need to poll on what Tolkien made clear.

There's a line in one of the appendices...or somewhere -- damn, now I have to go look -- in which it states that Merry's sword "unbound his sinew" or something, which weakened him and enabled Eowyn to get in a killing blow.

Definitely the blade of westernesse did it as there is mention in the books and history of the peoples who made that blade solely for the unmaking of the Enemy and his works. The encyclopaedia of Arda has a bit of info on that for anyone interested in looking it up. Jackson filmed it with the intention of leaving room for uncertainty though.

Arioch_Arioch wrote:Definitely the blade of westernesse did it as there is mention in the books and history of the peoples who made that blade solely for the unmaking of the Enemy and his works. The encyclopaedia of Arda has a bit of info on that for anyone interested in looking it up. Jackson filmed it with the intention of leaving room for uncertainty though.

Yet Aragorn said that "Destroyed are all the weapons that strike that terrible king", and Frodo's sword broke when he tried to fight off the ringwraiths...

Who killed the witchking?
"'Twas I!" said young Merry
"He wasn't so scary
I killed the witchking!"

Who killed the witchking?
"Twas I!" said young Eowyn
"Now Black Breath's a-growin'
I killed the witchking!"