# Death of the witch king



## Carcharoth (Jun 22, 2004)

What causes the death of the witch king?
I've heard that its merry's sword
or the profecy that the witch king can not be killed by any man but is instead killed by a woman
or is it a combination of the two?


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## Flame of Udûn (Jun 22, 2004)

I suggest you look at these threads.


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## Arvedui (Jun 22, 2004)

I think that his deat came as a consequence of two actions:
First, Merry's blow made the Witch-king mortal.
Second, Eówyn killed him.

IMO, the prophecy _by itself,_ had nothing to do with it.
The prophecy was uttered by Glorfindel. He had great skills in foresight, and the way I understand the situation when the death of the Witch-king was prophecised, was that he saw that what killed the W-k was not a Man.

As Flame of Udûn have pointed out, there are some threads on this subject already. I don't think that they contain anything else but longwinding speculations that lead to the same answer as mine here, or that are completely wrong...


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## BlackCaptain (Jun 22, 2004)

Arvedui said:


> IMO, the prophecy _by itself,_ had nothing to do with it.
> The prophecy was uttered by Glorfindel. He had great skills in foresight, and the way I understand the situation when the death of the Witch-king was prophecised, was that he saw that what killed the W-k was not a Man.


Doesn't the Witch King say, himself, soemthing to the affect of 'No living man may slay me'? It may just be the movie that's getting me confused, but I think when Eowyn stepped in his way, in the books, he said something like that. I could be wrong though.

As for the original question, it was Eowyn that killed the Witch King. She obviously couldnt without Merry's help, because it was his enchanted Angmarian sword that stopped the W-K from killing Eowyn at that second.


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## Arvedui (Jun 23, 2004)

BC, you are right that the Witch-king does say something to that effect:


> Hinder me? Thou fool! No living man may hinder me!


The closest explanation I can make of this, is that the rumour of Glorfindel's prophecy eventually reached the ears of the Witch-king. Actually, it would make sense. After all, a lot of years passed between the two instances.


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