The Attack on Weathertop

On the night of October 6, 3018, the Company of the Ring, camped in a dell on the western flank of Weathertop, faced their first direct assault from the Nine Riders. The attack was the culmination of days of pursuit since the hobbits left the Shire, and it marked a decisive escalation: the Enemy's servants, who had until then shadowed and scouted, now struck openly to seize the Ring and destroy its bearer.

The Setting and the Siege

The Company had reached Weathertop after a hard march from Bree, hoping to find Gandalf or at least a vantage point. Instead, they found the hill-top scarred by recent fire and a cairn of blackened stones—signs that Gandalf had been there before them and had fought. Strider read a G-rune scratched on a flat stone, dated October the third, confirming the wizard's passage and his haste. As evening fell, the hobbits lit a fire in the dell for warmth and protection, for Strider knew that the Riders feared fire. Legolas and Gimli kept watch, but the night grew cold and still. Suddenly, Sam, returning from the edge of the dell, reported a creeping fear; Merry thought he saw black shapes moving in the moonlight on the flats beyond the hill's shadow. Strider ordered everyone to keep close to the fire with their faces outward and to ready long sticks.

The Appearance of the Riders

Without warning, three or four tall black figures rose over the lip of the dell on the side away from the hill. They seemed like black holes in the deep shade, and Frodo thought he heard a faint hiss of venomous breath and felt a thin piercing chill. Terror overcame Merry and Pippin, who threw themselves flat; Sam shrank to Frodo's side. Frodo himself was seized by an overwhelming temptation to put on the Ring—a compulsion that felt external, as if something in the room were commanding him. He struggled, but the desire became unbearable. Slowly he drew out the chain and slipped the Ring onto the forefinger of his left hand.

The Stabbing and the Rescue

Immediately, the shapes became terribly clear. Frodo saw five tall figures: two standing on the lip of the dell, three advancing. In their white faces burned keen, merciless eyes; under their mantles were long grey robes; upon their grey hairs were helms of silver; in their haggard hands were swords of steel. Their eyes fell on him and pierced him as they rushed towards him. Desperate, he drew his own sword, which flickered red like a firebrand. Two of the figures halted. The third, taller than the others, with long gleaming hair and a crown on his helm—the Witch-king himself—sprang forward, bearing down on Frodo. In one hand he held a long sword, in the other a knife that glowed with a pale light. Frodo threw himself forward on the ground, crying aloud "O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!" and struck at the enemy's feet. A shrill cry rang out, and he felt a pain like a dart of poisoned ice pierce his left shoulder. As he swooned, he caught a glimpse of Strider leaping out of the darkness with a flaming brand of wood in either hand. With a last effort, Frodo dropped his sword and slipped the Ring from his finger, closing his right hand tight upon it.

Consequences and Aftermath

When Frodo came to himself, he was still clutching the Ring desperately. His three companions were bending over him. Sam, who had seen nothing but vague shadowy shapes, had found his master vanished and then heard his voice crying out strange words before stumbling over his body. Strider had disappeared and returned, reporting that the Riders had drawn off but were not far away. He examined Frodo's wound and found it had been inflicted by a Morgul-knife—a weapon whose blade melted when Strider held it up, leaving only the hilt. The wound was small but deadly: a splinter of the blade remained buried in Frodo's shoulder, working inwards, and a deadly chill was spreading from his shoulder to his arm and side. Strider used athelas leaves to bathe the wound, which lessened the pain and the sense of frozen cold, but Frodo's arm remained lifeless. The attack forced the Company to abandon Weathertop immediately and begin a desperate flight to the Ford of Bruinen, with Frodo weakening by the hour. The event also revealed the Ring's power to betray its bearer: Frodo had put it on not by his own desire but by the commanding wish of his enemies, and he now perceived that he had obeyed an external will. The wound, which Elrond later removed a splinter from after seventeen days, nearly turned Frodo into a wraith under the dominion of the Dark Lord.