Shrill and clear he crowed, recking nothing of wizardry or war, welcoming only the morning that in the sky far above the shadows of death was coming with the dawn.Īnd as if in answer, there came from far away another note. And in that very moment, away behind in some courtyard of the City, a cock crowed.
Do you not know Death when you see it? Die now and curse in vain!' And with that he lifted high his sword and flames ran down the blade.
From a mouth unseen there came a deadly laughter. The red fires shone between it and the mantled shoulders vast and dark. The Black Rider flung back his hood, and behold! he had a kingly crown: and yet upon no head visible was it set. 'Go back to the abyss prepared for you! Go back! Fall into the nothingness that awaits you and your Master. 'You cannot enter here,' said Gandalf, and the huge shadow halted.
There waiting, silent and still in the space before the Gate, sat Gandalf upon Shadowfax: Shadowfax who alone among the free horses of the earth endured the terror, unmoving, steadfast as a graven image in Rath Dinen. In rode the Lord of the Nazgul, under the archway that no enemy ever yet had passed, and all fled before his face.Īll save one. A great black shape against the fires beyond he loomed up, grown to a vast menace of despair. Spoilers, if you've been in a dank, dark hole for sixty years. I've had to quote the relevant bit of the book so as to banish the memory of the movie version. Tl dr: Gandalf's defeat elevates the Witch King, which in turn makes Eowyn's triumph over him all the more powerful. Eowyn isn't just a puny human she's also been discounted and left behind by her own brother, who thought she was unfit for battle. This pays off in the final confrontation between Eowyn and the Witch King, which anyone unfamiliar with the books will now go into thinking, "Oh shit, she dead! This motherfucker took down Gandalf himself! She ain't got a chance!" So when Merry attacks him and gives her an opening, it's a massive release of that dramatic tension, and also an affirmation of a theme common in Tolkien: the triumph of the small and the weak over the mighty and the power-hungry.
This scene both downplays Gandalf's strength (so that he's not an overwhelming force against the bad guys) and elevates the Witch King, ratcheting up the stakes and the tension by making it seem even less likely that the side of the good will win. While you're right it has no basis in the text, it's not arbitrary.
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