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Magic by Melkor, No Returns Accepted - Page 4

© Michael Martinez

In the third Age Sauron took shape very slowly, and he concentrated his efforts around Dol Guldur for a long time. He sent the Lord of the Nazgul north to found the Witch-realm of Angmar, and from Angmar Sauron struck out at the Dunedain of the North (and to a lesser extent at the Eldar, too). Part of Angmar's strategy seems to have been to corrupt the Hill-folk of Rhudaur, some of whom became sorcerors. But though perhaps feared by Men these sorcerors don't seem to have made a lasting mark upon history. They were virtually wiped out during or after the war of 1409. Though Tolkien doesn't speak of the sorceries performed by the Hill-folk he does reveal something of the kinds of sorcery used by the Lord of the Nazgul and by the Barrow-wights, which were sent by the Witch-king to inhabit the barrows of Tyrn Gorthad after the Great Plague destroyed most of Cardolan's people. The Nazgul and the Wights seem to be adept at killing living beings, and the Nazgul especially (with their Morgul-blades) enslaved the spirits of those whom they had slain. The Barrow-wight which captured Frodo and the Hobbits was ready to sacrifice them, presumably to send their spirits to Sauron or the Lord of the Nazgul. In Morgoth's Ring, the essay on "Death and the severance of the fea and hrondo (>hroa)", Tolkien speaks of how the spirits of slain Elves can linger in Middle-earth:

But it would seem that in these after-days more and more of the Elves, be they of the Eldalie in origin or be they of other kinds, who linger in Middle-earth now refuse the summons of Mandos, and wander houseless in the world, unwilling to leave it and unable to inhabit it, haunting trees or springs or hidden places that once they knew. Not all of these are kindly or unstained by the Shadow. Indeed the refusal of the summons (of Namo to Mandos) is in itself a sign of taint.

It is therefore a foolish and perilous thing, besides being a wrong deed forbidden justly by the appointed Rulers of Arda, if the Living seek to commune with the Unbodied, though the houseless may desire it, especially the most unworthy among them. For the Unbodied, wandering in the world, are those who at the least have refused the door of life and remain in regret and self-pity. Some are filled with bitterness, grievance, and envy. Some were enslaved by the Dark Lord and do his work still, though he himself is gone. They will not speak truth or wisdom. To call on them is folly. To attempt to master them and to make them servants of one's own will is wickedness. Such practices are of Morgoth; and the necromancers are of the host of Sauron his servant.

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