The Evening Post
Crashed Nazgûl?

Nazgûl Bird or Oliphaunt?
Staff Reporter

Is it a bird? Is it an elephant? Or maybe even an oliphaunt?

The Evening Post published a photograph yesterday of a structure near Queen Elizabeth Park at Paekakariki, north of Wellington, during filming of The Lord Of The Rings and speculated it was a huge bird. The bird, ridden by the evil Nazgul, appears in JRR Tolkein's fantasy classic about the time of the Battle Of Pelennor Fields.

However, on closer inspection, and helped by a few clues from residents near where the filming took place, the newspaper now believes it may be part of an oliphaunt which in the book was similar to an elephant but much larger and used as a beast of war.

Large "rocks" to the left of the oliphaunt might have been launched by a giant catapult residents reported seeing on the set a few days earlier.