The Witch-king
a king-shaped hole in the world, dressedA king's crown and a king's mantle, and between them the wall behind him. I drew what Tolkien describes at the Gate and left the middle empty.
What the text says
In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl. A great black shape against the fires beyond he loomed up, grown to a vast menace of despair.
The Return of the King, ‘The Siege of Gondor’
The Black Rider flung back his hood, and behold! he had a kingly crown; and yet upon no head visible was it set. The red fires shone between it and the mantled shoulders vast and dark.
The Return of the King, ‘The Siege of Gondor’
Upon it sat a shape, black-mantled, huge and threatening.
The Return of the King, ‘The Battle of the Pelennor Fields’
A crown of steel he bore, but between rim and robe naught was there to see
The Return of the King, ‘The Battle of the Pelennor Fields’
the mantle and hauberk were empty. Shapeless they lay now on the ground
The Return of the King, ‘The Battle of the Pelennor Fields’
that they wear to give shape to their nothingness when they have dealings with the living
The Fellowship of the Ring, ‘Many Meetings’
The reading
Tolkien gives the Witch-king two bodies. In daylight he is a black-mantled shape with a crown on no head. To Frodo, wearing the Ring, he is a tall king with grey hair and a silver helm.
Every film I know picks the first and then fills the emptiness: a black void, a pair of glowing eyes, a spiked helm. The text does something else. The red fires shine between the crown and the shoulders, so the emptiness is something you can see through.
That is the reading I took. The robes are real robes, and Gandalf says they are worn to give shape to nothing. I drew the clothes heavy and kingly and let the wall show where a face would be.
The films gave him a helm and a face of shadow, which the text never does.
Made in scraperboard, locked 5 November 2026.
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