I haven’t read the book in a long time but I thought there was something about one of the hobbits dealing the final blow, if that was the case it would have definitely meant man in the race sense, if not (and in the case of the movie) it definitely means the gender sense
If I remember correctly (now that I'm think about it) it was really just that "no man can kill me" was really just a boast, Pippin dealt a nasty blow to his foot which caught him off guard which allowed Aoewin (no I'm not looking up how that's fucking spelled) to deal a killing blow. Her saying "I am no man" was just a counter boast. Hypothetically if a male character had been there he could had done the same.
I think there was an actual prophecy saying no man could kill him. Tolkien made it Eowyn and Pippin who killed the Witch King because he thought it was lame that there was a prophecy in Macbeth that "no man of woman born" could defeat Macbeth, and he was beaten by a guy who was born by C-Section.
I see, now that opens up a third interpretation too though which only makes it worse, that interpretation being that the prophecy was a load of horse shit the whole time
I mean maybe it was one of those troll interpretations where it's technically true but only because the person who wrote it knew what would ACTUALLY happen and worded it funny to trick people, kinda like "No man born of woman can harm me!" Like yeah, technically true but clearly meant in a way for the witches to fuck with MacBeth.
So IDK maybe the profit knew a lady would kill him but said "MAN" to trick him into being overly confident when dealing with humans.
fun fact, the "I am no man" line is specifically a response to Macbeth's "no man of woman born" line, because Tolkien thought Macduff being cut from the womb was a lame way around it, and thought that a woman should have killed Macbeth instead
This video explains it, one of the hobbits had a wraith-killing dagger that had been forgotten to time and that weakened the Witch King, and the masculine/feminine angle may have had nothing to do with it, beyond it being a funny little irony or example of how prophecy could misdirect or be misinterpreted.
I haven’t read the book in a long time but I thought there was something about one of the hobbits dealing the final blow, if that was the case it would have definitely meant man in the race sense, if not (and in the case of the movie) it definitely means the gender sense
If I remember correctly (now that I'm think about it) it was really just that "no man can kill me" was really just a boast, Pippin dealt a nasty blow to his foot which caught him off guard which allowed Aoewin (no I'm not looking up how that's fucking spelled) to deal a killing blow. Her saying "I am no man" was just a counter boast. Hypothetically if a male character had been there he could had done the same.
I think there was an actual prophecy saying no man could kill him. Tolkien made it Eowyn and Pippin who killed the Witch King because he thought it was lame that there was a prophecy in Macbeth that "no man of woman born" could defeat Macbeth, and he was beaten by a guy who was born by C-Section.
I see, now that opens up a third interpretation too though which only makes it worse, that interpretation being that the prophecy was a load of horse shit the whole time
I mean maybe it was one of those troll interpretations where it's technically true but only because the person who wrote it knew what would ACTUALLY happen and worded it funny to trick people, kinda like "No man born of woman can harm me!" Like yeah, technically true but clearly meant in a way for the witches to fuck with MacBeth.
So IDK maybe the profit knew a lady would kill him but said "MAN" to trick him into being overly confident when dealing with humans.
fun fact, the "I am no man" line is specifically a response to Macbeth's "no man of woman born" line, because Tolkien thought Macduff being cut from the womb was a lame way around it, and thought that a woman should have killed Macbeth instead
Tolkien being surprisingly woke about Shakespeare, who'da thunk it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XCSAuKwLpE
This video explains it, one of the hobbits had a wraith-killing dagger that had been forgotten to time and that weakened the Witch King, and the masculine/feminine angle may have had nothing to do with it, beyond it being a funny little irony or example of how prophecy could misdirect or be misinterpreted.