LOTR Mt. Doom - The Witch King of Angmar LbNA #36366

Prince Isilmo grew up in the shadow of his sister, Tar-Telperiën, Queen of Númenor during the Second Age when the Rings of Power were forged. Perhaps it was his enviousness of her power that drove him to align himself with the Black Númenoreans who lived along the southern shores of Middle Earth. Those men increasingly sought power over mortality from the black arts and thus became easy targets for the Darkness.

Sauron, seeing an opportunity to worm corruption into the heart of the Númenorean kingdom, gave Isilmo one of the nine Rings of Power. Under its influence, Isilmo rose to power in the southern lands of Harad and Umbar and maintained great power in the region for over a thousand years after Númenor’s fall. But as time and flesh passed away, the nine bearers of the Rings of Power fell into the shadow lands between the living and the dead, and became Nazgûl, wraiths under the influence of Sauron’s powerful One Ring, with Isilmo the most powerful of the Nine. After Sauron’s defeat by Isildur at the end of the second age, the Nazgûl diminished, but did not perish.

Over a thousand years into the third age, power again began to creep back into the Darkness and the Lord of the Nazgûl rose again in the northern kingdom of Angmar. The northern people, the Dúnedain, fought his rise, but the witchcraft of the Angmar king was too strong and soon the divided northern lands of Arthedain, Rhudaur, and Cardolan fell under the dark power of the Witch King of Angmar.

After the fall of the northern lands, prince Eärnur of Gondor lead an attack against the Witch King, along with the Elves of Lindon, the remaining Dúnedain, and the elven army of Glorfindel of Rivendell. They defeated the Witch King at the Battle of Fornost, and when he fled to Mordor, Eärnur attempted pursuit, but Glorfindel stopped him, saying, “Far off yet is his doom, and not by the hand of man will he fall." Thus it was prophesied that no man could harm the Witch King.

At Mordor, Sauron put the Witch King in charge of attacks against Gondor, and soon the city of Minas Ithil fell, and was renamed Minas Morgul, where the Witch King took up his new seat of power. From here, he led attacks into Gondor, capturing the city of Osgiliath. Further attacks against Gondor were halted when Sauron learned the location of the Ring of Power and re-directed the Nazgûl to capture it. But the Ring eluded their grasp, and the Witch King of Angmar met his end in the siege of Minas Tirith. There, Éowyn, niece of King Théoden of Rohan stood between the Witch King and the fallen King Théoden to protect him. During this confrontation, Meriadoc Brandybuck, a hobbit, stabbed the Witch King behind his knee with a magical sword made long ago for the prince of Cardolan during Cardolan’s battles with Angmar. The magic of the sword broke the protective spells surrounding the Witch King, enabling Éowyn to deal him a fatal blow. Thus, a woman and a hobbit fulfilled Glorfindel’s prophesy, and the Witch King of Angmar passed into history, but will he rise again?

Terrain Difficulty: Pretty much the same as the other Mount Doom boxes.
Clue Difficulty: Easy.

Clues:
This letterbox has been moved from its original location due to the Aug 08 LOTR gathering, and has become #33 in the series of Mount Doom letterboxes. The first box in the series is here:
http://www.atlasquest.com/boxes/clue/index.html?gBoxId=85653

This letterbox can be found together with the Ringwraith box, #32, which can be seen here:
http://www.atlasquest.com/boxes/clue/index.html?gBoxId=85774


Notes:
- No inkpad or pencil in the box, make sure you bring your own.
- Please do not ask me for additional hints without offering a bribe of unpublished clues, hitchhikers, etc.
- Please email me with notes about the box: jelybean.books@comcast.net.