anghraine

There's an occasional fandom controversy over whether Éowyn or Merry killed the Witch-king. Usually it's resolved with general agreement that as their mutual actions resulted in his death, they both did. However, in-story, while Merry is honoured for his part, Éowyn is the Wraithslayer -- unsurprisingly, since she's the one that stuck a sword through him.

They both fit the prophecy, of course -- that no man could kill him. But the Witch King's overconfidence seems a bit ridiculous when you consider the sheer number of not-men wandering about Middle-earth. Along with females in general and hobbits, there are Elves, wizards, dwarves -- all of whom were present at the Pelennor Fields.

So, I was randomly wondering about this, when a question occurred to me: what language was the prophecy in?

No, seriously. Glorfindel is a Noldorin Elf; while he might have spoken in the Common Speech (represented in English), he's just as likely to have used something else -- say, Sindarin or Quenya. However, the Elvish languages, unlike English, distinguish between "mortal human being" with "sentient male"; if Glorfindel used his native Quenya, presumably he did not say no "atan" (genderless member of the race of Men) could kill the Witch King, but something like "nér," speaking male.

In that case, the Witch-King would be at least a little justified in his certainty that nobody on that battlefield could harm him. (I'm guessing he didn't go out of his way to cross paths with Galadriel.)

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Also, I found this style-analysis meme via

biichan . And giggled madly after I got the results for...

all my Austen fic: