Desdichado
Hero
Completely agree. The idea that an entire class of weapons, in this case a dagger no less, were designed to kill one person doesn't seem to fit the passage at all.Umbran said:I think that's taking it a little too far. There were a bunch of such knives in the barrow, and many barrows. And there's no reason to think the one the hobbits happened into was particularly special. You mean to say that those folks made an entire class of weapons just to kill one man?
Uh, now that's not right. Actually, the barrows were originally built by the ancestors of the Dunedain as they passed through Eriador on their way to Beleriand ("Of Dwarves and Men" in Peoples of Middle-earth) and were later used again by the men of Arnor and the splinter kingdoms (Cardolan in this case, IIRC.) The evil spirits sent out from Angmar to be the barrow-wights had nothing to do really with the bodies laid in the barrows to begin with (from the Appendices of Return of the King.)Umbran said:Plus, IIRC, you've got the history a bit wrong. I think the barrows are filled with the Black Numenoreans - the men of Aragorn's race after they fell under Sauron's sway. That's why they are wights, they were evil sorcerers in life. The Witch King was the greatest of these. The knife bites not because it was made to work against him specifically, but more generally because it is a magical weapon.
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