Black Riders

Also known as Black Rider, Black Riders Vision

creature

Tall cloaked hooded riders on large black horses, face completely shadowed and invisible, crouches low in saddle with only booted feet in high stirrups visible, sniffs air with head swaying side to side like hunting hound; ring-vision reveals tall wraiths in grey robes/silver helms, white faces merciless eyes, pale-glowing weapons, crowned chief

Category: creature
First appears: Book 1 · Ch. 5
Books: 2

The Black Riders begin as the terrifying, earthbound hunters of the Shire in The Fellowship of the Ring, cloaked figures on black horses whose very presence chills the air and whose ring-vision forms reveal the true dread of the Nazgûl. By the time of The Return of the King they have transformed into airborne terrors, the winged Nazgûl whose piercing cries echo across the battlefields of Gondor and whose presence signals the full might of Sauron’s war machine. Across the series their evolution from stealthy pursuers to aerial harbingers of doom mirrors the widening scope of the War of the Ring itself.

Evolution

BOOK 1The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of the Lord of the Rings
Tall cloaked hooded riders on large black horses, face completely shadowed and invisible, crouches low in saddle with only booted feet in high stirrups visible, sniffs air with head swaying side to side like hunting hound; ring-vision reveals tall wraiths in grey robes/silver helms, white faces merciless eyes, pale-glowing weapons, crowned chief
BOOK 3The Return of the King: Being the Third Part of the Lord of the Rings
Winged Nazgûl form with deadly cries, black shape against the sky