Dunharrow
Also calledThe Hold of Dunharrow, Dunharg, The Firienfeld
Dunharrow was an ancient mountain refuge above Harrowdale in Rohan, reached by a switchback road lined with the stone Púkel-men. Here the muster of Rohan gathered in March 3019, and from its edge Aragorn entered the Paths of the Dead beneath the Haunted Mountain.
Description
The Hold
South of Edoras the valley of Harrowdale ran up into the White Mountains beside the Snowbourn, between the Starkhorn on the west and the Írensaga on the east. High on the eastern side, on a shelf of the mountains, lay the Firienfeld, a wide upland meadow reached by a road cut into the cliff in a series of hairpin bends. At each turn of this stair stood a squat, weathered statue of a seated man, the Púkel-men, carved by forgotten hands; the Rohirrim gave them no thought, but they were images of the Drúedain, the Wild Men who had lived in these mountains in the Elder Days.
The Firienfeld was the Hold of Dunharrow. It could not be reached except by the stair, and a handful of men could hold it against an army; the people of the valley kept it stocked as a refuge, as the Westfold kept Helm's Deep. Across the plateau ran a double row of standing stones leading to a dark wood of pine, the Dimholt, and beyond it a single tall stone before the Dark Door in the flank of the Dwimorberg, the Haunted Mountain. That door was the entrance of the Paths of the Dead, which no living man had passed and returned since the Dead Men of Dunharrow were cursed by Isildur.
Who built it
The Rohirrim inherited the Hold; they did not make it. The Men of the Mountains, a people related to the Dunlendings who in the Second Age had worshipped Sauron in the Dark Years, built the road and the stones and the temple that had once stood on the Firienfeld. Their king had sworn allegiance to Isildur at the Stone of Erech and then betrayed him, and his people dwindled and vanished, leaving only their works and their restless dead.
History
In T.A. 2570 Baldor, son of King Brego, passed the Dark Door in fulfilment of a rash vow and never came out; his bones were found by Aragorn's company near a closed door deep in the mountain. Thereafter no Rider would go near the Dimholt. On March 8, 3019 Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, the Rangers of the North and the sons of Elrond came to Dunharrow on their way to the Paths of the Dead, and Éowyn, who was keeping the Hold, begged Aragorn in vain to let her ride with him. Théoden arrived on March 9 with the host from Helm's Deep, and the muster of Rohan assembled on the Firienfeld and in the valley below. That night the errand-rider Hirgon of Gondor came with the Red Arrow. On March 10, in the darkness sent out of Mordor, the King rode down from the Hold with six thousand spears, leaving Éowyn as lady of the Rohirrim in his absence, though she rode after him in secret as Dernhelm, carrying Merry with her.
Geography
Dunharrow lay in Harrowdale a few miles south of Edoras, some hundreds of feet above the valley floor on the eastern side. The Dwimorberg rose behind it, and behind the mountain the Paths of the Dead led through to the vale of the Morthond on the southern side of the range.
Associated figures
Visited
Chieftain of the Dúnedain of the North
Aragorn II
Dúnedain of the NorthAragorn II, son of Arathorn, was the last Chieftain of the Dúnedain of the North and the first King of the Reunited Kingdom of Gondor and Arnor. Fostered in Rivendell as Estel, he spent sixty years as a Ranger and a captain in foreign lands before the War of the Ring, in which he guided the Fellowship, walked the Paths of the Dead, won the Pelennor Fields and the Black Gate, and took the crown as King Elessar. He reigned for a hundred and twenty years with Arwen as his queen.
Arnor and GondorThird Marshal of the Riddermark
Éomer
RohirrimÉomer son of Éomund, nephew and foster-son of Théoden, was Third Marshal of the Mark when he met Aragorn on the plains of Rohan and lent him horses against the king's orders. He fought at the Hornburg and the Pelennor, took the kingship when Théoden fell, and reigned for sixty-five years as the eighteenth King of Rohan, the friend of King Elessar and the renewer of the Oath of Eorl.
RohanLady of Rohan
Éowyn
RohirrimÉowyn, sister of Éomer and foster-daughter of King Théoden, rode to the Pelennor Fields in disguise as the Rider Dernhelm and there, with Merry's help, slew the Witch-king of Angmar whom no man could kill. Healed of the Black Breath by Aragorn, she found in the Houses of Healing a love for Faramir that turned her from despair, and became Lady of Ithilien.
RohanKing of the Mark
Théoden
RohirrimThéoden son of Thengel was the seventeenth King of Rohan, the king whom Gríma Wormtongue and Saruman had made old before his time and whom Gandalf roused to lead his people again. He won the Battle of the Hornburg, mustered the Rohirrim at Dunharrow, and broke the siege of Minas Tirith in the great charge across the Pelennor, where he died beneath his horse after felling the chieftain of the Haradrim.
RohanMaster of Buckland
Meriadoc Brandybuck
HobbitsMeriadoc Brandybuck, heir of Buckland and organiser of the conspiracy that brought Frodo's friends on the quest, became esquire to King Théoden and helped Éowyn destroy the Witch-king on the Pelennor. He later led the hobbits at Bywater, ruled Buckland as Master, and wrote the Shire's first books of lore.
BucklandKing of the Mark
Brego
RohirrimBrego, son of Eorl the Young, was the second King of Rohan. He cleared the last Easterlings from the Wold and built the Golden Hall of Meduseld at Edoras, and at the feast for its completion his eldest son Baldor vowed to walk the Paths of the Dead and never returned. Brego died of grief the following year.
RohanRanger of the North
Halbarad
Dúnedain of the NorthHalbarad was a Ranger of the North and a kinsman of Aragorn who led the thirty Dúnedain of the Grey Company south in the War of the Ring. He carried Arwen's standard through the Paths of the Dead and unfurled it on the Pelennor Fields, where he was killed.
Eriador
Dwelt in
King of the Men of the White Mountains
The King of the Dead
Dead Men of DunharrowThe King of the Dead was the ruler of the Men of the White Mountains who swore allegiance to Isildur on the Stone of Erech and then refused his call to war against Sauron. Cursed to find no rest until the oath was kept, he and his people haunted the Paths of the Dead for three thousand years, until Aragorn summoned them to Pelargir and released them.
The White Mountains; later the Paths of the Dead
Peoples
Timeline
- Second Age
Built by the Men of the Mountains
The stair, the stones and the Hold are made by the Men of the White Mountains in the Dark Years.
- S.A. 3430 to 3441
The oath-breakers cursed
The King of the Mountains refuses to fight for Isildur; his people are cursed to rest neither in life nor death.
- T.A. 2570
Baldor enters the Dark Door
Brego's son passes into the Paths of the Dead and does not return.
- T.A. 3019, March 8
Aragorn departs by the Paths of the Dead
The Grey Company leaves Dunharrow through the Dimholt despite Éowyn's plea.
- T.A. 3019, March 9 to 10
The muster of Rohan
Théoden's host gathers at the Hold, receives the Red Arrow, and rides for Gondor.
Sources
- The Return of the KingBook V, chapters 2 and 3
- The Lord of the Rings: AppendicesAppendix A II; Appendix B, T.A. 2570 and 3019
- Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earthThe Drúedain (on the Púkel-men)
See also
Part of
Elsewhere in Rohan
- Edorastown
- Helm's Deepfortress
- Fords of Isenriver
- Entwashriver