The Witch-king’s Forgotten War Against Aragorn’s Ancestors

Before the Witch-king hunted Frodo, his armies had already destroyed the tower above the hobbits’ camp at Weathertop. That earlier war brought down the northern kingdom Aragorn’s ancestors had ruled. How did Angmar overcome the divided heirs of Arnor—and why did defeating the Witch-king’s army fail to restore their kingdom? Follow the campaign from Rhudaur’s secret alliance to the fall of Fornost, Arvedui’s doomed rescue, and the confrontation with Glorfindel. The northern kingdom fell, but its royal line survived. So did a weapon from that ancient resistance: the blade Merry would carry against the Witch-king. This investigation follows Tolkien’s books and distinguishes their account from the Witch-king’s burial story in The Hobbit films. It also separates the events Tolkien records from claims the text does not establish, including magical responsibility for the plague or Arvedui’s shipwreck. Book sources: • The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, I (iii), “Eriador, Arnor, and the Heirs of Isildur.” • The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, I (iv), “Gondor and the Heirs of Anárion.” • The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, “The Tale of Years.” • The Fellowship of the Ring, I.8, “Fog on the Barrow-downs,” and I.11, “A Knife in the Dark.” • The Return of the King, V.6, “The Battle of the Pelennor Fields.” Public reference notes: https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Angmar https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Battl... https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Arvedui https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Dagge... #Tolkien #WitchKing #LordOfTheRings Chapters: 0:00 The ruins above Frodo’s camp 0:47 The lord of Angmar 1:38 A divided northern kingdom 2:37 The fall of Weathertop 3:37 The haunted Barrow-downs 4:15 Arvedui and the last kingdom 5:25 Gondor arrives 6:26 A surviving royal line 6:55 What the films changed 7:28 The blade that survived