The Attack at Weathertop

The Attack at Weathertop is the pivotal nocturnal battle in which Frodo Baggins, having yielded to the Ring's compulsion, is stabbed by the Witch-king of Angmar with a Morgul-knife, an act that nearly transforms him into a wraith and sets the desperate flight to Rivendell in motion.

The Setting and the Siege

After the Company's camp on the western flank of Weathertop is established, night falls and the hobbits huddle around a fire while Strider tells tales to keep their minds from fear. The moon rises over the hill, and a sense of dread intensifies. Sam, returning from the edge of the dell, reports a creeping fear that something is climbing the slope. Merry then sees two or three black shapes moving westward in the moonlight. Strider orders them to keep close to the fire with their faces outward and to ready longer sticks. For a breathless time nothing happens, and then over the lip of the dell, on the side away from the hill, three or four tall black figures appear, standing on the slope and looking down. They seem like black holes in the deep shade, and Frodo hears a faint hiss of venomous breath and feels a thin piercing chill. The shapes slowly advance.

Frodo's Yielding to the Ring

Terror overcomes Merry and Pippin, who throw themselves flat, while Sam shrinks to Frodo's side. Frodo himself is quaking, but his terror is swallowed up by a sudden, overwhelming temptation to put on the Ring. The desire to do so lays hold of him, and he can think of nothing else. He does not forget the Barrow or Gandalf's message, but something seems to compel him to disregard all warnings. He longs to yield, not with hope of escape or of doing anything good or bad, but simply feeling that he must take the Ring and put it on his finger. He cannot speak. He feels Sam looking at him, knowing his master is in great trouble, but he cannot turn toward him. He shuts his eyes and struggles for a while, but resistance becomes unbearable, and at last he slowly draws out the chain and slips the Ring on the forefinger of his left hand.

The Revelation of the Ringwraiths and the Wound

Immediately, though everything else remains dim and dark, the shapes become terribly clear. Frodo sees beneath their black wrappings: five tall figures, two standing on the lip of the dell and three advancing. In their white faces burn keen and merciless eyes; under their mantles are long grey robes; upon their grey hairs are helms of silver; in their haggard hands are swords of steel. Their eyes fall on him and pierce him as they rush toward him. Desperate, he draws his own sword, which seems to flicker red like a firebrand. Two of the figures halt. The third, taller than the others, with long gleaming hair and a crown on his helm, holds a long sword in one hand and a knife in the other; both the knife and the hand that holds it glow with a pale light. He springs forward and bears down on Frodo. At that moment Frodo throws himself forward on the ground and hears himself crying aloud, "O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!" At the same time he strikes at the feet of his enemy. A shrill cry rings out in the night, and he feels a pain like a dart of poisoned ice pierce his left shoulder. Even as he swoons, he catches, through a swirling mist, a glimpse of Strider leaping out of the darkness with a flaming brand of wood in either hand. With a last effort, Frodo, dropping his sword, slips the Ring from his finger and closes his right hand tight upon it.

Consequences and Aftermath

The Morgul-knife's fragment remains buried in the wound, working inward, and Frodo is carried to Rivendell where Elrond removes the splinter on the fourth night. Gandalf later explains that the Riders tried to pierce Frodo's heart with the knife; if they had succeeded, he would have become a wraith under the Dark Lord's dominion. Frodo's resistance—his heart was not touched, only his shoulder pierced—and his invocation of Elbereth are credited with saving him from immediate transformation. The attack also reveals the Ringwraiths' true, terrible appearance to Frodo and marks the point at which the Ring's pull over him becomes a conscious, almost irresistible force, a struggle that will define the remainder of his quest.