The Violation of the Soul Through Nazgûl and Dementors

Table of Contents

1. Soul-Suckers and Ringwraiths: Assaulting Ghost Creatures

2. Victims, Reasons and Methods
2.1 Doomed Convicts, Prey and Ring-Thieves
2.2 Hunger and Desire, Malice and Obedience
2.3 Abulia, Dark Breath, Death and Total Destruction

3. Soul-Suckers Destroy, Ringwraiths Harm

Works Cited

1. Soul-Suckers and Ringwraiths: Assaulting Ghost Creatures

Although there has been written a lot of investigative literature about the works of both J.R.R. Tolkien and J.K. Rowling, the research topic of this paper is still widely unexplored. Comparing the concepts of Tolkien´s Nazgûl and Rowling´s Dementors suggests itself since - besides their physical appearance - they offer distinct parallels but also, considering the background of their stories, are very different from each other. The analysis of this paper is supposed to determine the consequences fictional characters experience from encounters with those ghost-like creatures; the thesis underlying the analysis is that both Nazgûl and Dementors violate their victims in harming and/or destroying their souls.

In order to shed light on both the similar and different aspects, this paper is intended to give answers to the study questions at hand, which are briefly to be introduced. In 2.1, this paper starts with a general analysis of the Dementor´s and Nazgûl´s victims and which of the characters they actually attack. The consequential question that is going to be addressed thereafter (and dealt with in 2.2) concerns the different reasons for those assaults, which implies the respective motivation of these two fictional beings. And finally, to come full circle, in 2.3 the focus will be on the various effects the Dementors and Nazgûl have on their victims and on the question if and how they actually harm or destroy souls. Every subchapter contrasts the findings regarding the study questions by first presenting the Dementors and then the Nazgûl.

Since the concept of the soul is a highly abstract and complex one, the reader may be provided with a definition all further investigation is based upon: “[The soul is] the principle of thought and action in man¹, commonly regarded as an entity distinct from the body; [it is] the spiritual part of man in contrast to the purely physical and the seat of the emotions, feelings, or sentiments; the emotional part of a man’s nature” (OED Def. 2.a and 3.a).

2. Victims, Reasons and Methods

2.1 Doomed Convicts, Prey and Ring-Thieves

In Rowling´s world, the term 'prey' is to be taken literally concerning all the victims of the Dementors, because those black, hooded and hovering creatures actually absorb positive feelings and memories of individuals from their environment, in order to continue their existance. In HPA², the Ministry of Magic even utilizes the Dementor´s way of ingestion as an exceedingly cruel punishment, in order to keep prisoners of the wizarding world at bay (39).

Here Rowling connects despair with madness and suggests that it is the loss of hope that makes us demented, that promotes criminality and destroys the heart. The Dementors, those who are supposed to guard prisoners, keep them in such a state of despair that they don´t even try to escape. (Natov 135)

Moreover, the terrifying prospect of being confronted with the prison guards of Azkaban works as a very effective preventive treatment for witches and wizards to not break the law. Since committing felonies such as performing one of the three Unforgivable Curses inevitably leads to the incarceration of the perpetrator to Azkaban, few people in the wizarding world dare to commit those crimes. “[Hagrid:] ’An´ - an´ I´m scared o´ breakin´ the law …’ He looked up at them, tears leaking down his face again. ‘I don´ ever want ter go back ter Azkaban’” (HPA 164).

The Nazgûl, however, attack merely those who intentionally or unintentionally hinder them in pursuing their main purpose of existance, which is finding the One Ring so that their master Sauron may throw the world into another darkness. “‘Also,’ he [Strider] added, [...] ‘the Ring draws them.’ - ‘Is there no escape, then?’ said Frodo, looking around wildly. ‘If I move I shall be seen and hunted! If I stay, I shall draw them to me!’” (LOTR 158)³. As the Nine Black Riders, they interrogate the inhabitants of the Shire in order to find and pursue Frodo after they detect him of being the ring-bearer (90). On Weathertop, Frodo gets physically wounded with a cursed dagger by the Lord of the Nazgûl in order to make him hand out the Ring to them (191).

Besides their task of searching for the Ring, the Morgul-lord and his eight companions are used by Sauron to lead his armies and to daunt his enemies. In disguise of a soldier of Rohan, Éowyn is attacked by the chief Ringwraith merely because she tells him to “leave the dead in peace” (822) after her uncle Théoden fell beneath his horse´s dead body in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.

2.2 Hunger and Desire, Malice and Obedience

“[Dumbledore:] ’It is not in the nature of a Dementor to understand pleading or excuses’” (HPA 72). First and foremost, self-preservation is the reason for Dementors to attack somebody. They are absolutely indifferent about whom they feed on as long as their victims provide them with what they need; their unscrupulousness manifests itself in the fact that they affect people who are guilty of committing a crime as well as people who are completely innocent. In his confession after being convicted of multiple murder - among other things - the deatheater Barty Crouch Jr. describes the way of how the Dementors guarding him got deceived by him and his mother in order to save him from death in prison. Both of them used Polyjuice potion, which caused them to take on the appearance of each other. The Dementors were not able to recognize the disguise (HPGF⁴ 740f).

The Dementors are blind. They sensed one healthy, one dying person entering Azkaban. They sensed one healthy, one dying person leaving it. My father smuggled me out, disguised as my mother, in case any prisoners were watching through their doors. (741)

Dementors even defy commands of official authorities such as the Ministry of Magic or the Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore, when they are tempted and cannot resist. “‘They´re getting hungry,’ said Lupin coolly, [...]. ‘Dumbledore won´t let them into the school, so their supply of human prey has dried up’” (HPA 140); Dementors are literally throughout evil because they consume everything that is good from their surroundings. Nevertheless, they do have a will of their own; in HPA they are merely employed by the Ministry of Magic to guard the prisoners (until the story´s villain Lord Voldemort returns and everybody realize their defection to his side). However, they fulfill that task only because it is consistent with their nature and supplies them with food in return. Indeed, it is doubtless that Dementors hold no true loyalty; they are their own masters as long as their hunger and desire is satisfied.

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¹ Since both Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings contain characters that are non-human but are also affected by Dementors or Nazgûl, this definition requires an extension to other races than humanity.

² HPA = Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by Joanne K. Rowling

³ LOTR = The Lord of the Rings by John R. R. Tolkien

⁴ HPGF = Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by Joanne K. Rowling.