Theories on the Identity of the Witch-King

[Alcuin]

Originally Posted by Olmer

It's quite obvious. Is not it?
The fact that in both official sources ("Annals" and “The Line of Elros”) were specified various dates of death I consider as an obvious indicator that the “digging” in all this mistery should be launched exactly from this point .
Here is a part of the table, made by me, with dates of birth, life and reign of the kings of Numenor.
In black - the dates which were taken from «The Line of Elros» and «The Chronology of the Westlands”(Appendices B).
In blue - my calculations .
In red - an inconsistent or suspicious dates.

Here’s a reasonably full discussion of when each of the kings Númenor, Gondor, and Arnor was born, when he took the throne, when and if he retired, when he died, with references and discussions of discrepancies. Buried in the footnotes is a similar discussion for the Ruling Stewards of Gondor and the Lords of Dol Amroth.

The dates of the births, ascensions to the throne, and deaths are pretty reasonable, I think. (Take a look at the graphs: it appears to me as if Tolkien charted or sketched them out for himself.) There is no evidence, in my opinion, of any assassinations of kings, royal princes, or undead kings. Anducal, husband of Tar-Vanimeldë, usurped throne from their son Tar-Alcarin for 20 years, but that took place 1000 years after the birth of Tar-Atanamir. (There is some weak evidence that Ar-Pharazôn eliminated Elendil’s uncle, Elentir; but I believe that Elentir appears in only two of three tellings of the tale, and even that is at the end of the history of Númenor, not midway through, as we are discussing here.)

Remember that the Númenóreans embalmed their dead, much as did the real-world Egyptians. The embalmers and courtiers and extended family would all have noticed any problems in this process, reported them, and midway through the history of Númenor, long before most of the population had fallen away from “true faith” in Eru and his design for Men, fought against either a usurper or an undead ruler.

The simpler argument is that the Witch-king was not a king of Númenor, but a close relative who had immediate and, for quite some time, unhindered access to the royal family.