Is a Nazgul a mythical creature?

Answer 1

The nine riders are called Nazgûl or ringwraiths, but the flying animals do not have a given name though they are often called fell beasts. These same Nazgûl rode horses earlier in the story, but those horses drown in the River Bruinen. The Nazgûl used to be kings of men before they were turned by their nine rings of power.

Answer 2

In the legendarium (mythology) of The Lord of the Rings the Nazgul are 9 human kings of long gone kingdoms. They had each been given one of the "nine rings for mortal men, doomed to die" and their rings (as Sauron planned) corrupted them and prevented them from dying, but had caused them to fade becoming wraiths.

The Nazgul in the Black Speech of Mordor is both singular and plural and means Ring Wraith(s).

• Nazg - derives from the Gaelic (nasc) and Scottish (nasg) both meaning ring
• gul - In the elvish Sindarin language it means secret/deep knowledge or arts, wise, skilled, but, over time, the word came to mean perverted knowledge, phantom, shadow, necromancer, slave, servant, evil spirit, wraith in the Black Speech.