WK was slain by Eowyn and finished by Merry, because of the sword that they found. It was forged in the war against Angmar and there was a spell included. Small part of text just after WK is gone...

(Sorry lemon, I can’t resist a good LotR debate... and I missed out on the first go.)



That theory would first require you to ignore the sequence of events.

Here’s my take on it, an opinion formed after reading the whole trilogy several times and reading up on as much outside information as I feel possible.

During the 4 Hobbits’ perilous romp through the Barrow Downs, they ultimately acquired daggers enchanted at Gondolin to help fight against the foes of the Free Peoples: the minions of Morgoth and, by extension, Sauron. They were lost during the intervening years, and passed through the destruction of many cities until coming to rest in the holds of Carn Dum. When that place withered away, it became the Barrow-downs.

So these weapons - likely companions of many more littered through the area - were ancient in origin, seized by the Enemy who feared them but could not be rid of them (why Sauron couldn’t have just destroyed them is beyond me, and is probably one of the bigger holes in the storyline). And they found their way into the hands of the Hobbits.

Fast forward to the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. Merry is wielding such a dagger, a weapon enchanted to rip away the Power that the Dark Lord (either Morgoth or Sauron) spills over his minions. Note that this Power is *not* limited to the Nazgul. Indeed, after Sauron’s ultimate defeat with the Ring’s destruction, his minions swarming over Aragorn’s men at the Black Gate are freed from the Power, choosing then to flee in terror or slay themselves.

So Merry manages the unthinkable and stabs The Witch-king in the leg, stealing from the Black Captain the very same Power that holds each Orc in sway. At that moment The Witch-king is bound only to the trappings of the Ring, the last thread tying him to the earth. Unaware of any of this, Eowyn stabs him in the face (a nice place for any stabbing, I might add). Without the Power, The Witch-king is basically disintegrated into ’nothingness’. But any Tolkienite knows that ’nothingness’ does not mean ’gone forever.’ Both Morgoth and Sauron were slaves to nothingness, and both returned. Regardless of this, as long as the Ring persisted, so did he.

The Witch-king, as quoted many times in this thread, is stripped of his physical being. He can be heard by no one, and he is unable to interact or even really be consciously aware of himself. For all intents and purposes, he is destroyed. But Sauron too was in that very position and came back. As Sauron’s chief lieutenant, it’s only logical to assume the same ability passed down, though at an understandably-lesser extent (remember that Gandalf could defeat The Witch-king easily by RotK, since he is, ultimately, just a Man). Such a returned form would be frail and unusable by the Dark Powers, save as an instrument of fear.

Eowyn cast The Witch-king far beyond the confines of what we would call reality, but not even she could kill one of Sauron’s ultimate creations. In fact, if it was not for the destruction of the Ring, The Witch-king would have remained. When the Ring perished, all the Nazgul vanished along with the other minions of the Dark Lord.

Now, I am morbidly enchanted with the idea of The Witch-King somehow binding himself to another object and thus surviving the destruction of the Ring. However, I find such an act somewhat out of his reach - comparable in part to a person learning how to breathe water. The Witch-King was not only defined by the Ring, but controlled and continued by it. His existence was dependent upon the Rings continuation; without it, he - and the other 8 Nazgul - simply could not be. Not to mention his disembodiment and much-weakened form by that time.

As (AP i think) said, I don’t think WK did not die until the one ring was destroyed.

Ain’t nothing like a hobbit burger and a cold Smirnoff for breakfast. Or Second Breakfast for that matter.