Necromancy is the practice of summoning the spirits of the dead as an apparition or even resurrection of the body for a variety of purposes: divination, prophecy, forbidden knowledge or using the deceased in an act of vengeance or terror. The word is derived from the Greek nekromanteia, meaning “divination by means of the dead body”.

  Necromancers conjure with the spirits of the dead so as to magically influence the course of events in the world of the living. Necromancers are known to have practised in ancient times among the Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. The Jewish and Christian faiths explicitly condemned the practice. And, as Tolkien knew well enough, the Book of Deuteronomy specifically condemned necromancy as an evil act of a wizard or a witch and as “an abomination unto the Lord”. Indeed, the word “abomination” is used repeatedly in the Old Testament in relation to necromancy. Tolkien’s Necromancer is eventually revealed to be Sauron the Ring Lord, whose name is a Quenya High Elvish word meaning “abomination”. Although, as we have seen, Sauron loses his bodily form after Isildur cuts the One Ring from his hand, his evil spirit survives because the One Ring is lost but not destroyed. So, secretly, over ten centuries, the “abomination” that is Sauron’s disembodied spirit slowly re-manifests itself in the form of the Necromancer of Dol Guldur.

  Historically in Europe, although the Christian church condemned the practice of necromancy as a form of black magic and tantamount to Satanic worship, it became especially popular during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. During this period, we find numerous accounts of necromancy during witchcraft trials, and it is also portrayed in many plays such as Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus (1592) and William Shakespeare’s Macbeth (1606).

  In the 19th century, Sir Walter Scott wrote in his Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft (1830) that he knew of many cases of necromancers who claimed to use rings to imprison and compel spirits. The sorcerous use of rings was particularly frequent in medieval Europe. In 1431, one of the many serious charges brought against Joan of Arc was the use of magic rings to enchant and command spirits. Another case recorded by Joaliun of Cambray in 1545 was of a child in thrall to a crystal ring in which he “could see all that the demons within him demanded of him”. The demons of the ring so tormented him that in a fit of despair the child smashed the evil crystal ring and thereby broke its spell.

  SAURON IN THE THIRD AGE

  HISTORY OF THE RINGS OF POWER–THIRD AGE

  SORCERERS AND RINGS

  one of the most vivid historic documentations of the belief in the supernatural power of enchanted rings occurred in the 15th century in a town under the rule of Venice. The incident constituted nothing less than a full-scale Faustian battle for a human’s soul, rather reminiscent of Tolkien’s tale of the torments endured by those who possessed or were tempted to possess the Rings of Power – and, more specifically, the One Ring itself.

  The case involved a talented artist and sculptor named Pythonickes who possessed an enchanted ring. The spirits within this ring seemed full of charm and wisdom and, through its power, Pythonickes believed that he had gained his reputation as an inspired artist. However, in time, Pythonickes began to fear for his immortal soul and wished to be free of any claim the ring might make on him. Not knowing if he had the strength to rid himself of the ring, he confessed to its possession to a preaching friar, whom he knew to be a good and wise man.

  Rings of Power

  The friar commanded that Pythonickes immediately destroy the enchanted ring, but the artist was now so enthralled by it that he no longer had the strength of will to do so. Worse still, as soon as the friar spoke his command, a terrible lamenting cry came from the ring. The evil spirits within offered all manner of wisdom and fame to the friar. Whereupon the friar perceived that his own soul would be in jeopardy if he did not act soon. So, in the words of the medieval scholar Mengius, “The churchman being zealously enraged, with a great hammer broke the ring almost to dust.”

  SAURON AND THE “GREAT EYE”

  It is difficult to determine whether the spirit of Sauron, after his re-manifestation as the Necromancer, is ever able to regain actual material form over the next millennia, either in Dol Guldur or, later, in Mordor. Tolkien gave only vague clues as to Sauron’s physical and/or spectral manifestations. Late in the last century of the Third Age, we are told of one fearful encounter that describes the Dark Lord’s four-fingered “Black Hand”, but whether this is a phantom shape or the actual material physical form of the Dark Lord is open to debate.

  The most common manifestation of the spirit of Sauron in the Third Age is as the fiery “Eye of Sauron”, variously described as the “Red Eye”, the “Evil Eye”, the “Lidless Eye” or the “Great Eye”. Certainly, Tolkien’s son and literary executor Christopher eventually concluded that, in the War of the Ring, his “father had come to identify the Eye of Barad-dûr with the mind and will of Sauron”.

  In all cultures, eyes are believed to have special powers and are often said to be windows onto the soul. So, Tolkien’s description of the Evil Eye of Sauron gives us considerable insight into the Dark Lord himself: “The Eye was rimmed with fire, but was itself glazed, yellow as a cat’s, watchful and intent, and the black slit of its pupil opened on a pit, a window into nothing.” This last phrase, “a window into nothing”, reflects Tolkien’s Catholic, Augustinian philosophical standpoint that evil is essentially the absence of good, and that ultimately evil in itself is a soul-destroying nothingness.

  The evil eye is widespread throughout history. It is recorded in ancient Greek and Roman texts, as well as many religious scriptures, from the Koran to the Bible. In Proverbs (23:6), we find the warning: “Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye.” Attempts to ward off the curse of the evil eye has resulted in the creation of talismans in a multitude of cultures: the image of a staring eye or eyes is supposed to deflect the malicious gaze back on the sorcerer., the motif is found painted, carved or engraved on the prows of boats and ships, on houses and vehicles, and on beads and jewels in a multitude of cultures from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean.

  Odin the Necromancer is the mythological figure who most obviously informed the identity of Sauron the Necromancer and who was – not coincidentally – also known as the One-Eyed God. In the Norse canon, Odin sacrificed one eye in exchange for one deep draught from the Mímisbrunnr, the “Well of Secret Knowledge”. Thereafter, Odin – like Sauron – was able to consult and command wraiths, phantoms and spirits of the dead.

  Another notable mythological figure related to the power of the evil eye can be found in Irish mythology. This is Balor of the Evil Eye, the king of a race of deformed giants called the Formorians. Balor’s name is possibly derived from the Celtic word beleros, meaning “the deadly one”, and is suggestive of a god of drought and plague. He was also known as Balor Béimnech (“Balor the Smiter”) and Balor Birugderc (“Balor of the Piercing Eye”). By some accounts, in his looks, Balor was akin to the Greek Cyclops, a monstrous race of giants with a single eye in the middle of their foreheads. However, Balor’s eye was so deadly that he opened it only when he was engaged in battle. Once the eye was open, its searing glance would wreak such terrible destruction that it would burn like a laser beam through any opposing army.

  Great Eye of Sauron

  EASTERLINGS OF RHÛN AND KHAND

  In the Middle-earth of the Third Age, Tolkien’s history of the Dúnedain kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor was undoubtedly inspired in good part by the history of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. The history of the southern kingdom, Gondor, is comparable to the history of the Eastern Roman Empire (later Byzantium), and the history of the northern kingdom, Arnor, is comparable to the history of the Western Roman Empire. Tolkien’s Easterling barbarian hordes in the service of the Evil Eye of Sauron, who for centuries menace the kingdoms’ eastern borders, are certainly comparable to the Germanic hordes, who, in the service of the one-eyed necromancer god Odin, for centuries menaced the Roman Empire’s northern borders.

  From TA 490 onwards, the first wave of Easterling invaders appeared on Gondor’s eastern borders, resulting in pitched battles and centuries of conflict. A parallel can be drawn with the first wave of Germanic invaders who harried Rome’s borders in the 1st century BC, culminating in the Battle of Teutoburg Forest in 9 BC – a cataclysmic battle that proved to be only the first of many conflicts and wars over the following centuries between Rome and the Germanic peoples.

  Tolkien’s century of Wainrider invasions of Gondor (TA1851–1944), which result in the loss of Gondor’s eastern territories, owes something to historic accounts of the century-long Roman conflict with the Ostrogoths (East Goths) and its culmination in the Battle of Adrianople (AD 378), resulting in the loss of Rome’s eastern provinces. The Wainriders of Rhûn are a nomadic confederacy of people that travels as an army and nation in vast caravans of wains (wagons) and war chariots. This is certainly comparable to the nomadic Ostrogoths, whom ancient historians described as “an entire nation on the move in great wains”.

  Balchoth Easterlings

  Then, too, in TA 2050, the forces of Gondor are about to be routed in the critical Battle of the Field of Celebrant by a massive invading Easterling horde known as the Balchoth, when unexpectedly the cavalry of the Éothéod (forebears of the Horsemen of Rohan) join forces with the Men of Gondor and turn the tide of battle. This has an historical precedent in the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields in AD 451 when the Roman army formed an alliance with the Visigoths (West Goths) and the Lombard cavalry, and defeated the massive barbarian horde of Attila the Hun. This is often considered one of the most crucial battles in the history of Europe as it turned back what seemed an unstoppable wave of Asiatic conquest of the West. In the wake of the Battle of the Field of Celebrant, the Easterling and Balchoth confederacies rapidly disintegrate, as did the Hunnish confederacies after the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields, when its various factions fought among themselves.

  In the 6th-century AD history of Rome called the Romana – one of Tolkien’s primary sources for the history of Gondor and Arnor – its author, the Eastern Roman Jordanes, described how the allies of the Hun confederacy met their destruction in the Battle of Nedao in AD 454:

  And so the bravest nations tore themselves to pieces. For then, I think, must have occurred a most remarkable spectacle, where one might see the Goths fighting with pikes, the Gepidae raging with the sword, the Rugi breaking off the spears in their own wounds, the Suavi fighting on foot, the Huns with bows, the Alani drawing up a battle-line of heavy-armed [warriors] and the Heruli of light-armed warriors.

  The defeat at the Catalaunian Fields combined with the sudden and unexpected death of Attila the Hun resulted in a chaotic dispute over succession that brought about the collapse and dissolution of the Hunnic Empire. It is easy to see how such vivid historic records might have inspired Tolkien in his own accounts of the Easterling wars.

  EASTERLINGS AND SOUTHRON ALLIES OF THE DARK LORD

  SOUTHRONS OF UMBAR AND HARADRIM

  Tolkien relates how Gondor also has mighty rivals to the south with whom it struggles to control the vast Bay of Belfalas. These are the Lords of Umbar, whose war fleets are the terror of the seas, and whose powerful mercenary armies – supported by divisions of war elephants – are a terror over many lands. This is comparable to ancient Rome’s great rivals to the south – the rulers of Carthage – in a contest over control of the Mediterranean Sea. The mighty war fleets of the Carthaginians were the terror of the seas and their powerful mercenary armies – supported by war elephants – were a terror over many lands.

  Just as Umbar is originally a colony of the mighty sea power Númenor for a thousand years, so Carthage was originally a colony of the mighty sea power of Phoenicia. And in the wake of the destruction of the island nation of Númenor, Umbar became an independent and powerful maritime rival to Gondor. This was comparable to the rise of Carthage as an independent and powerful maritime rival to Rome in the wake of the destruction of the Phoenician island city-state of Tyre. In the Third Age, after centuries of rivalry, the Ship-kings of Gondor engage in the century-long wars (TA 933–1050) on sea and land that result in the conquest and subjugation of Umbar and its dominions in Harad. This is similar to the Rome’s century-long Punic Wars (256–146 BC) on sea and land that resulted in the eventual conquest and subjugation of Carthage and its North African empire. The Black Númenórean rulers of Umbar were slain or scattered, and the city and port served as Gondor’s southern fortress controlling its vast Haradrim territories. This was a fate comparable to that suffered by Carthage and the Carthaginians.

  Southron Tribesman of Far Harad

  Subsequently, Tolkien’s chronologies inform us that, after five centuries, Gondor’s grip on power over Umbar slips from its grasp. In the year TA 1448, Gondor rebels and lords among the Haradrim capture Umbar. These new lords become known as the Corsairs of Umbar and use their pirate fleets to harass and attack Gondor and its allies.

  Similarly, in European history, we learn that, after seven centuries, Rome’s grip over Carthage slipped from its grasp. In AD 439, the Vandals (who had formerly been allies of Rome) rebelled and captured Carthage. With the native Berbers, they ruled North Africa and the Mediterranean and, with their pirate fleets, became a terror of the seas, harrying Rome and its allies.

  The Umbar fleets are ultimately destroyed by Aragorn II (the future King Elessar of Gondor) as part of his quest to win control of the seas and reunite the kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor. Suffering a similar fate, the historic Vandal fleets of Carthage were ultimately destroyed by the Emperor Justinian the Great in his quest to win control of the seas and reunite the Eastern and Western Empires of Rome.

  Fleet of the Corsairs of Umbar

  EASTERLINGS AND SOUTHRON WARS 490–3019 TA

  THE WITCH-KING OF ANGMAR

  Just as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in the biblical Book of Revelation were seen as harbingers of an age of destruction and catastrophe, so the reappearance of the ghastly undead Nazgûl Horsemen at the end of the 13th century of the Third Age may be considered the harbinger of an age of destruction and catastrophe. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse symbolize Pestilence, War, Famine and Death, while the reappearance of the Ringwraiths as the chief servants of the Necromancer brings down each of these calamities upon the inhabitants of Middle-earth over the following two millennia. One reading of Revelation (written during the reign of Emperor Diocletian, AD 81–96) ties the Four Horsemen to contemporary history, so that it can be seen as a prophecy of the eventual decline and fall of the Roman Empire. And, certainly, one may see in the return of the Ringwraiths a foreshadowing of the pestilence, war, famine and death that soon came down upon the inhabitants of Arnor and Gondor.

  The Nine were also something of a variation on the Old Germanic tradition of the Wild Hunt: a procession of ghostly horsemen or supernatural huntsmen riding through the forests and fields in a mad pursuit of their quarry. In Old English, it was known as the Herlathing (“Herla’s Assembly”), in Old Norse as the “Ride of Asgard”, and in Swedish the “Hunt of Odin”. A memory of it survives in the American country-and-western song “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky: A Cowboy Legend”. Witnessing the Wild Hunt was thought to presage some catastrophe such as war or plague or, at best, the death of the one who saw the cavalcade. Those encountering the hunt might also be abducted to the Underworld or the fairy kingdom. In some instances, it was also believed that people's spirits could be pulled away during their sleep to join the hunt.

  Witch-king of Angmar

  The leader of these lost souls and undead horsemen was – according to the oldest traditions – Wotan, the German counterpart to the Norse god Odin, but this varied from nation to nation and age to age: other leaders included the Danish King Valdemar, the Swiss Dietrich von Berne, the French Charlemagne, the German Fredrick Barbarossa, the Welsh Gwyn ap Nudd, ruler of the Otherworld, and even the British King Arthur.

  The leader of Tolkien’s nine phantom horsemen is variously known as the Witch-king, the Black Captain and the Lord of the Nazgûl. Around TA 1300, the Witch-king became the ruler of Angmar (meaning “Iron Home”), a realm on the northern borders of Eriador in the foothills of the Misty Mountains. Angmar was the realm of the Hill-men: a pre-Númenórean people descended from the mountain tribes of the White and Misty Mountains. In the context of European history, the Hill-men of Angmar most resemble the Basques, the indigenous mountain people of the Pyrenees straddling modern France and Spain.

  For centuries, the Basques fought against Roman, French and Spanish incursions into their lands, and constantly rebelled against those powers. Much as the Basques were resentful of the Roman Empire – or, later, of Charlemagne’s Holy Roman Empire – the Hill-men are resentful of the Númenórean kings of Arnor. Consequently, the Hill-men are easily corrupted by the Witch-king and persuaded to enter into a disastrous war of attrition. After seven centuries, the Witch-king’s long war ended in TA 1975 with the Battle of Fornost and the mutual destruction of both Arnor and Angmar.

  Tolkien’s Witch-king of Angmar is a variation on the widespread tradition of the phantom horseman. In some respects, the Witch-king resembles the Irish Dullahan, the “Dark Man”, a terrifying demonic horseman. By some accounts, each time the Dark Man halts his ride, a death occurs. By other accounts, the Dullahan calls out a name, and whoever is named is seized by death. There are many cultures worldwide where a “Pale Rider” is the archetypal personification of death. On the Irish poet W. B. Yates’s gravestone is the epitaph: “Cast a cold eye / On life, on death, / Horseman, pass by!”