Plenty of villains appear across J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the movies it inspired. Some of these are powerful forces of nature that have no real investment in the wider fate of Middle-earth, like Shelob and the Balrog. Others are glorified minions such as Gothmog, Grima Wormtongue, and the legions of orcs fighting for Mordor. Plenty of those were killed in the making of this movie.

In terms of the core villain group driving The Lord of the Rings‘ narrative, however, it’s curious that only a single major antagonist properly perishes. The Return of the King‘s ending feels so final, so victorious, that it’s easy to assume every enemy of significance has been fully vanquished. That’s even truer because, from the perspective of Middle-earth’s newly-liberated citizens, the bad guys are, indeed, dead. Little do they know that isn’t quite true.

The only main The Lord of the Rings villain who does actually die is the Witch-king of Angmar. A follower of Sauron he might be, but the Witch-King serves as the primary focus of evil throughout The Fellowship of the Ring and commands his own forces, elevating his status above your average hired goon. Imbued with one of Sauron’s nine rings for mortal men, the Witch-king’s magic is broken by a stab from Merry’s barrow-blade at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, and that allows Éowyn to strike Captain Nazgûl down permanently.

There’s no caveat to the Witch-king’s downfall here. As a mortal entity propped up by magic, he simply ceases to be following the attack by Merry and Éowyn.

Why The Lord Of The Rings’ Other Main Villains Don’t Completely Die

If the Witch-king of Angmar acts as the most prominent villain in The Fellowship of the Ring, his replacement for The Two Towers is Saruman. Alas, the misbehaving wizard’s death (or lack thereof) is a complicated thing. In the original version of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Saruman simply fades into the background after losing to some trees. In the extended editions, he dies after falling from the Tower of Orthanc onto a spike he probably now regrets having installed. In the books, however, Saruman’s body is killed in a revenge attack by Grima Wormtongue, then the physical remains give way to a gaseous spirit, which attempts fleeing back to Valinor before being blown away by a gust of wind.

As a result, Saruman is condemned to wander Middle-earth forevermore as a non-corporeal spirit, too weak to ever take form again. And it’s a similar story for Sauron too. The One Ring‘s destruction diminishes the Dark Lord so greatly, he becomes nothing more than a whisper in the air, never completely gone, but also never strong enough to manifest as anything tangible. As maiar, it’s not possible for Sauron or Saruman to die in the same way mortal characters die. But when maiar expend so much of their spirits for evil causes, as Sauron does with the One Ring, they risk being defeated and left as powerless floating spirits.

Even if one takes the position that The Lord of the Rings‘ real villain is actually Morgoth, he isn’t dead either. Upon being captured at the culmination of the First Age, Morgoth was bound in chains and exiled into the Timeless Void by the Valar. Unlike Saruman and Sauron, Tolkien even prophesied that Morgoth could eventually return through the Door of Night to trouble the world once again.

From a certain point of view, even the Witch-king of Angmar doesn’t technically die in The Return of the King. It could be argued that the Nazgûl already exist in an undead state, and being sliced by Éowyn is like a zombie being hit in the head by Simon Pegg’s cricket bat. Essentially, they’re already dead. If that’s true, not even a single one of The Lord of the Rings‘ main villains ever truly dies over the course of the entire story.

Cast

Norman Bird, Anthony Daniels, Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Sean Bean, Ian Holm, Andy Serkis, Brad Dourif, Karl Urban, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, James Nesbitt, Ken Stott, Benedict Cumberbatch, Evangeline Lilly, Lee Pace, Luke Evans, Morfydd Clark, Mike Wood, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Charlie Vickers, Markella Kavenagh, Megan Richards, Sara Zwangobani, Daniel Weyman, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Lenny Henry, Brian Cox, Shaun Dooley, Miranda Otto, Bilal Hasna, Benjamin Wainwright, Luke Pasqualino, Christopher Guard, William Squire, Michael Scholes, John Hurt

Created by

J.R.R. Tolkien