And then Sauron conquered the world. The end.

[rymenhild]

[Forgive crossposts; I posted something like this to FB.]

I am rereading The Lord of the Rings for the first time in eight years or so, now that the memory of the films has faded and I can enjoy the books as books again. Right now I am about halfway through Fellowship, and I am puzzled.

The Nazgul are immortal, ancient wraiths of mysterious and evil power. They can track Frodo by the smell of the Ring. They ride mortal horses, at least before the horses drown in the Bruinen.

Meanwhile, when Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin start their journey, they are almost entirely unaware of their danger. The hobbits go on foot, singing loudly. They eat frequent meals and take frequent naps. They are unarmed, unprotected and unafraid.

By this point, two Nazgul have entered the Shire itself, and are barely hours, if not minutes, behind our heroes. The Nazgul have horses. The hobbits don't. The Nazgul can smell the Ring. The hobbits can't track the Nazgul.

Gandalf has been trapped by Saruman. Aragorn is in Bree. Gildor and friends aren't immediately within the hobbits' reach. No one at all stands between the Nazgul and the hobbits. What I don't understand is, why don't the Nazgul capture Frodo and the Ring before Frodo ever leaves the Shire? As far as I can tell, there is no need for the remaining 2.5 volumes of The Lord of the Rings, because Frodo should have been lost by the middle of Fellowship Chapter 4. And then Sauron conquered the world. The end.

Comments

[applegnat]

I haven't re-read the book for some time now but the impression I had is that the powers we attribute to the Nazgul are very much in retrospect: Tolkien means for us to see that they grow stronger in time, but at least as far as they are in the Shire they are very much hampered by their distance from Sauron, and they are not yet as efficient as they will be later in the books. So they can be fought off in sunlight or hidden from.

[applegnat]

And they aren't immortal, of course, as Eowyn proves (As for ancient, it depends on whose perspective).

[cursor_mundi]

I see you have already gotten some excellent answers and speculations, so I shall offer a snarky one, just to be different: because if the Nazgul had gotten Frodo before he made it to Rivendell, there would have been no need for godawful poetry.

[newredshoes]

Brings to mind The One Ring Challenge of yore! I remember hope being very insistent on remembering, you know, how the Nazgul would probably curtail most of our self-indulgent AUs. :)