Nazgûl
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The Nazgûl, introduced as Black Riders and also called Ringwraiths, Dark Riders, the Nine Riders, or simply the Nine, are fictional characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. They were nine Men who had succumbed to Sauron's power through wearing Rings of Power, which gave them immortality but reduced them to invisible wraiths, servants bound to the power of the One Ring and completely under Sauron's control.
Tolkien stated that the Nazgûl's "fell beasts", while not intended actually to be pterodactyls, were "obviously ... pterodactylic". 1897 reconstruction of pterodactyls shown
A Nazgûl, depicted as a shadowy but solid body, cloaked and hooded, wearing a sword, and mounted on a horse
John Garth suggests that the Black Breath may derive from Tolkien's experience of gas in the First World War. Painting Gas Attack, Flanders by Alfred Bastien, 1915
The Nazgûl hacking and slashing at the hobbits' beds in the Prancing Pony inn at Bree, in Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated film version
Men in Middle-earth
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In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fiction, Man and Men denote humans, whether male or female, in contrast to Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, and other humanoid races.
Men are described as the second or younger people, created after the Elves, and differing from them in being mortal. Along with Ents and Dwarves, these are the "free peoples" of Middle-earth, differing from the enslaved peoples such as Orcs.
Tolkien modelled the Rohirrim, the Riders of Rohan, on the Anglo-Saxons (here in an 11th-century illustration).
The Variags of Khand are named for the Varangians, medieval Germanic mercenaries. Painting by Viktor Vasnetsov
A sword fit for a hero: Andúril, "Flame of the West" is forged anew, "for Aragorn son of Arathorn was going to war upon the marches of Mordor".