The swarms of dead men fighting for the good side always seemed wrong to me. I know they did it to be released from their plight, but.... It's one thing to curse somebody, it's quite another to back it up. How did Isildur back up his curse on the oath breaking men of Dunharrow?
121995
In Return of the King, we are told that the shades who populate the Paths of the Dead are the spirits of oathbreakers who refused to aid Isildur in the first fight against Sauron.  First, we are told of the oath (Book 5, Chapter 2):     But the oath that they broke was to fight against Sauron... For at Erech there stands a stands yet a stone that was brought, it is said, from Númenor by Isildur... and upon it the King of the Mountains swore allegiance to him in the beginning of the realm of Gondor.   Then, when they fail to honor the oath, we are told about Isildur's curse on them:     "...this curse I lay upon thee and thy folk: to rest never until your oath is fulfilled."   And as we see in the following chapters, the Sleepless Dead are indeed subject to this curse exactly as Isildur descibed it. What seems less clear, however, is how Isildur's curse manages to alter the fundamental nature of the oathbreakers' mortality, so that they became undead shades instead of simply dying in disgrace.   Do we have any other examples of Isildur performing similar acts of magic? Based on what we are told in LotR, Isildur appears to have been a great warrior, but not a regular practitioner of magic. Is the stone at Erech somehow magically involved? (If so, do we know anything more about it or how it works? Does its origin in Númenor have any significance?) It is mentioned that the oathbreakers had worshiped Sauron; could this be a clue?
99630
NOTICE: The author of this question does not deem the use of those curses to be forgiveable under any but the most extreme circumstances.  What made the Unforgivable curses such? Is it due to legislation, consensus or otherwise? There are other curses which are equally evil, such as Obliviate  - look what it does to Lockhart - which should also be considered Unforgivable. What about permanently transfiguring someone?  In short, What gives?
92262
There was a prophecy about the Witch-king of Angmar saying that 'No man could kill him'.  The actual quote:     "He will not return to this land. Far off yet is his doom, and not by the hand of a man will he fall."   —Glorfindel, The Return of the King, Appendix A (iv)   I always interpreted it as literary speak for no person of the male gender could kill him, which is why Eowyn was able to deal the death blow after Merry broke the spell granting them undying life.  But while answering  question, NominSim pointed out rightly that it is possible to interpret the prophecy as no male human can kill him and since Gandalf was a maiar, he could have definitely defeated the Witch King.  Is there anything in canon to clear this up?
49213
During The Great Battle of the Last Alliance, there were an estimated 100,000 elves that fought with the armies of Isildur. This was one of the first scenes in the first LOTR movie. However, in the trilogy, it appears that only a small number of elves show up to Helms Deep and overall left the majority of the fighting to the humans. Why did the elves not participate during the rest of the war?
13547
I recently found out about the war between Arnor and Angmar, and was pretty shocked to learn that the Witch-king basically wiped the floor with the Dúnedain kingdom... I mean he's basically the sole reason Aragorn wanders around like a homeless person.  So with which army did the Witch-king defeat Arnor? Orcs? Men? Sorcery? Did he ever go to battle himself? Did he do this for laughs or by Sauron's orders?   How powerful was the Witch-king at this point, compared to in the Fellowship of the Ring and Return of the King? Were the other Nazgul with him in this war?   And it doesn't even matter to me if all of the eight Nazgul were with him, even if they all had their Rings of Power, and even if they had the largest of armies of Orcs, Men, Elves, Dwarves or even dragons (yes I'm exaggerating at this point), but just how do you defeat a kingdom full of Dúnedain?   We have all seen what Aragorn is capable of doing, so how do you defeat a kingdom worth of Aragorns?   And if it is not much to ask, does anyone know where I can read all about this war and more about the Witch-king? so far all I read about it was from the Internet, wikis, forums and alike, I'd like to read it from the source.
41198
[Yes, The Hobbit movies are nonsense. But how could I call myself a fantasy fan if I didn't demand my nonsense be as logical as possible?]  Tauriel is presented as a highly-skilled fighter and a combatant for the side of good. Despite this, she apparently did nothing during Sauron's war on the free peoples.  Was she somehow     still mourning Killi, after all these decades?   Was she dead? Or is there another reason she didn't participate?
19456
In S01E01 of Game of Thrones, Eddard passes death sentences on a deserter. In a conversation, the desserter says:     I know I broke my oath, and I'm a deserter. I should have gone back to the wall and warned them, but I saw what I saw.   My understanding is there is only one way to enter Winterfell and it is through the Wall. So how did this guys manage to escape the White Walker without going through/crossing the wall?  Please watch both the videos for the reference:
36909
When Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas find the dead bodies of the orcs that they had pursued to the edge of Fangorn, they see an old man robed in white:     Suddenly Gimli looked up, and there just on the edge of the fire-light   stood an old bent man, leaning on a staff, and wrapped in a great   cloak; his wide-brimmed hat was pulled down over his eyes. Gimli   sprang up, too amazed for the moment to cry out, thought at once the   thought flashed into his mind that Saruman had caught them   It is implied in the book (though never verified AFAIK) that this was Saruman, particularly since Gandalf confirms that it was not him     "You certainly did not see me," answered Gandalf, "therefore I must   guess that you saw Saruman."   So if it was indeed Saruman, why would he travel all the way to Fangorn alone? Orthanc to Fangorn is not a short journey and he also had the Palantir at his disposal so what is the purpose of his being there (assuming that it is indeed Saruman).
54538
I was recently reading some Lord of the Rings/Stargate SG-1 crossover fanfiction. It is a guilty pleasure, I admit :) In this story, it was suggested by Col. O'Neill to destroy the Ring using a nuclear device. Truth be told I stopped reading at this point, as it was getting to be a little much even for me.  Obviously, this is not canonical in either universe, but it made me wonder: When Elrond said that "only in the fires of Mt. Doom may it be unmade," was he speaking literally? Or was this merely the only known active volcano in Middle Earth? In other words, was whatever magic that protected the One Ring from damage location-based or did it just make it very resistant to destructive force, and Mt. Doom just happened to be hot enough to do this? I know there is (understandably) little information about such technicalities of how magic works in Middle Earth, but I'll accept any reasonable conjecture/consensus as an answer.
58798
Is the wall a bad or a good place to be? Some people are sent there as punishment, others go because they want to (Jon Snow), others to get away from harm (Arya).  If I am not completely correct, it is because I have only started watching the series recently, and it is a bit confusing!  Please also correct me if I am wrong with any facts!
27017
I was fighting bandits in the sewers when one of them went into a "cower" animation, and began screaming about how he had given up.  Given that I found his terror endearing, I deigned to spare him. I tried talking to him, to no effect. Then I tried sheathing my weapon - upon which the brigand thought he had a chance, and resumed hostilities with due haste!  Sadly, he did not offer to yield again before I slew him.  And so, the question remained unanswered: do enemies actually surrender, or was this just a clever ploy to catch me with my pants down?
44270
Among all the rings of power, the 3 rings possessed by Elves are special in that they (unlike Men's and Dwarves' and The one) were made by Elves and not Sauron.  Why?  As in,   Were they made before Sauron conceived of the idea of making the Rings and controlling them with the One? Were they made before Sauron knew HOW to make Rings of power, by Elves on his request so that he could learn the process? Were they made because Elves didn't trust him and preferred to roll their own modules instead of downloading from CPAN? Other?   Canon supported answers only, please.
111352
This is relating to the movie. Frodo finally relinquishes his desire for the ring, and it melts in the fires of Mount Doom. The next scene shows the eruption of Mount Doom and the destruction of Barad Dur. Gandalf looks up with tears in his eyes.  I have read the books, and can't seem to remember this being explained or described. I'm just wondering why they depicted Gandalf as being so emotional about the event, when throughout the story it depicts Gandalf as having unparalleled wisdom, faith and knowledge. Out of all the Ainur he listened to Eru's song the longest and contemplated it's meaning.   It strikes me that Tolkien portrayed Gandalf as all knowing, and has ultimate faith that Frodo would carry out the task at hand. So why was he so emotionally surprised that it happened? Especially when he had seen far more surprising things happening throughout the War of the Ring and in the movies he was depicted as emotionally immovable, an almost cold hearted awareness of the evil that lurks within the world.   I understand this is probably going to be down-voted as it has alot of opinion based statements. The TL:DR is: Was Gandalf described in the book as being so emotional at Sauron's fall? Or was this simply for effect in the screenplay?
91023
According to the poem:     Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,   Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,   Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,   One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne   In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.   One Ring to rule them all. One Ring to find them,   One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them   In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.   This implies that the One Ring has power over the other rings and those that bear them. I'm not fully knowledgeable about the state of the other rings in the setting of the Lord of the Rings trilogy but I'm under the impression that nine rings were worn by the Nazgûl were already under the power of Sauron. The rings given to the Dwarves were lost, or Sauron had recovered them. The rings owned by the elves could have been destroyed or safely hidden so to avoid being used by anyone.  Why was it imperative that the One Ring be destroyed if its control over the other ring bearers would be negligible?
96220
Did Ilúvatar know that Melkor would 'turn bad'? Was it part of his vast design? Tolkien often hints that also Morgoth's evil is part of the grand plan, and that he does the will of Ilúvatar in the long run, despite opposing him. But why did he oppose Ilúvatar in the first place? Why did Ilúvatar make someone who would oppose him? Surely THE God would have complete control and knowledge.
84361
Why is it that more rings of this nature/power could not be made again? Are there no elven smith's left with the capability? How were the rings of power "enchanted" with their magical properties to begin with if Sauron did not directly forge them?   You would think that more would be made to aid in the battles against Sauron and his armies if someone had the capabilities to do so.
110128
What would happen if a wizard w successfully casts the Imperius curse on a equally powerful wizard a and then order him to cast the same curse back on w?  Follow-up questions.  It is established that casting the curse can be done .  What would happen in the case of a chain of casts that would hit back the original wizard? w-&gt;a-&gt;b-&gt;c-&gt;w  The original wizard could rather command the last wizard c, in the chain, to curse his first target instead. w-&gt;a-&gt;b-&gt;c-&gt;a wich would create a loop of a-&gt;b-&gt;c-&gt;a...  In what kind of limbo would wizards a, b and c exist in?  ( for the sake of simplicity, we can assume that every curse target is not very good at resisting the curse )