In SA 1600 Sauron created and first donned the One Ring, and in SA 1693 began the War of the Elves and Sauron during which the Dark Lord recovered the Nine Rings and gave them to mighty lords and rulers of Men. The Wraith-king arose, and giving a cry of hatred he shattered her shield and broke her left arm with a single blow of his mace. By 1349, the government of Rhudaur was controlled by men secretly in his service, [10] and he secretly aided them in their wars against the other kingdoms. Fortunately for the hobbit, the blade failed to complete its task, as Frodo was swiftly brought to Rivendell and healed there by the ministrations of Elrond. The Witch-king sent three Ringwraiths under Khamûl into the Shire while he went east with the others.

R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, "The Númenorean Kings", "Eriador, Arnor, and the Heirs of Isildur", The North-kingdom and the Dúnedain, entry for King Arvedui, p.

Gandalf escaped at dawn, and again the Witch-king divided his force and sent four after the wizard while he and Khamûl remained near Weathertop to watch it. Gandalf's face shows obvious fear in this scene, in comparison to the resolution (for "victory or death") in the books. Finding the Hobbit dwellings there long deserted and Sauron's anger growing, the chief Nazgûl led all the Nine to Isengard, where Saruman refused to tell them the location of the land of the Halflings.

Only a few days later, during the final council of war before the assault on the Black Gate, Gandalf predicted that the Witch-king's defeat was one of several factors that would undermine Sauron's confidence in the superiority of his forces. Eärnur's host did not meet the Witch-king at Fornost Erain itself, but on the plains west of it toward Lake Evendim, near the site of the ancient capital of the High Kings of Arnor, Annúminas. The Witch-king mounted his winged steed and rallied his troops against the furious cavalry charge of the Rohirrim. Elrond brought an army of Elves from Rivendell and Lothlórien, and the Witch-king was pushed back and subdued.In TA 2043, King Eärnil II of Gondor passed away and his son Eärnur, the Witch-king's old foe, inherited the throne. His precise identity is unknown, but he could be one of three noble lords of Númenor, who were corrupted by the Nine Rings of Power and thus became the undying Wraiths at the servitude of Sauron.

He used it on Frodo, in an attempt to claim the Ring and punish its bearer by putting him in a state worse than death. In this game, the Witch-king's powers of sorcery come from elemental forces (of ice and the cold) and necromancy. For the next 1200 years the greatest among them, known simply as the Lord of the Nazgûl, would serve Sauron as one of the commanders of his armies. The confrontation takes place later, as Pippin and Gandalf race to the tombs to save Faramir, and the Witch-king intercepts them. During the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, the Witch-king's army uses the ram Grond to break through the city gates early in the battle (after the failure of a lesser ram), and the Witch-king is not present to confront Gandalf as he is in the book.Unlike the other Nazgûl, the Witch-king was not daunted by rivers and could perceive more clearly in daylight. Usually when sculpting mounted models, we try to design them so that both rider and mount are in sync with each other, each part working together as they ride into battle – a kind of symbiosis, if you will. In TA 2941, after Gandalf finally confirmed that it truly was Sauron in disguise, the White Council belatedly moved to expel the Dark Lord from Dol Guldur.