WHO IS “THE NECROMANCER?
” For the greater part of the Third Age, Sauron’s existence was hidden under the alias of “the Necromancer of Dol Guldur.” The Wise surmised that this mysterious figure might have been one of the Nazgûl, but apparently they didn’t let on about their suspicions to anybody else, since the kings of Gondor and Arnor were incapable of perceiving any unified threat to themselves until c. TA 1940, and it was not until the Nine Ringwraiths actually manifested themselves in the invasion of Minas Ithil in 2000 that the Dúnedain figured out that the “Witch-king” was one of them. One of the questions that has been vexing me lately is: When rumor came to the Gondorian kings that some guy called the Necromancer was their next-door neighbor in Rhovanion, how did they react? What was their perception of this personage, and how did their perception affect their frontier policy in that direction? Part of the answer to this question would depend on what the word “Necromancer” connoted to them, and that i
