Matt

We know that.

Good analysis.

That's right.

And more than that, we read that their mission might be guessed by folks like Gandalf, Elrond, Galadriel, et cetera.

Even Saruman is in that equation.

Yes.

Yeah.

Can't, can't send them out with trumpets blaring at their, at their departure.

Yeah.

You know, these are the, yeah, exactly.

Yeah, and the story here says towards the end of June 3018, and the tale of years says June 20th is when Sauron attacked Osgiliath and Thranduil was attacked, allowing Gollum to escape.

Now, sure, it turns out Denethor was more ready than he would have preferred, but Sauron's totally cool with that.

The real purpose was just to disguise the reason he'd sent the Nazgul out.

And we'll get a look at that terror in the next reading.

For now, though, we get a brief rundown of who is where in terms of the Nazgul.

Now we have another slight complication.

The Tale of Years says that in 2951, Sauron sent three Nazgul to occupy Dol Guldur.

But Christopher says this conflict can be resolved by simply assuming that one of those three went back to Minas Morgul between 2951 and 3018.

Yes, yeah.

Not the right tenant, the left tenant.