The Thousands-Years Grudge: The Witch-King Versus The House of Elendil
For almost two thousand years, the majority of the Third Age, the threat to the peoples of Northwestern Middle-Earth was not believed to be Sauron. Sauron was a mythological being, a defeated enemy long forgotten. In his wake, it was the Ringwraiths, the Nine, who were the active menace, under the leadership of the Witch-King they formed the Kingdom of Angmar in the north to destroy the divided remnants of Arnor (being destroyed in the process) and then soon afterwards, not only conquered Minas Ithil from Gondor, but killed off the supposed last of the line of Elendil. We know that Sauron wanted the Heir of Isildur gone, but someone suggested the idea that there might be something more going on here. Why did the Witch-King seem hell-bent on the extermination of the line of Numenorean kings? Was it just Sauron's most effective lieutenant being sent to do the job, or did the Witch-King have a personal stake? We know that three of the Nazgul were Numenoreans t...
