Dead Men of Dunharrow

The Men of the Mountains

Before the Númenóreans came to Middle-earth the valleys of the White Mountains were held by a people of Men akin to the Dunlendings, who worshipped Sauron in the Dark Years. They built the Hold of Dunharrow with its winding stair and the rows of Púkel-men, and made a temple in the Dwimorberg, the Haunted Mountain, whose door gave on to a road under the mountains. When Isildur came to Gondor after the Downfall of Númenor he set up the black Stone of Erech, brought from Númenor, on a hill at the southern end of the mountains, and the King of the Mountains swore on it to be his ally.

The oath broken

When Sauron returned and Isildur summoned the Men of the Mountains to the war of the Last Alliance, they would not come, for their old fear of Sauron was greater than their new oath. Isildur laid a curse on their king: they would have no rest until the oath was fulfilled, and if it never was they would never rest. He called them the last of the Men of the Mountains, and it proved true. They fled from the Dúnedain into the hidden places, dwindled and died, and their valleys emptied. But they did not pass away, and the Hill of Erech and the road under the Dwimorberg became places of dread. Fear of the Dead kept even the Rohirrim from the Dark Door, and Baldor son of Brego, who vowed to enter it, went in and never returned.

The prophecy

Malbeth the Seer, in the days of Arvedui, foretold that a time would come when the heir of Isildur would pass the Door of the Dead and call the Oathbreakers to Erech, and that they would answer him. Elrond sent this word to Aragorn by his sons at the muster in Rohan.

The passing of the Grey Company

On 8 March 3019 Aragorn, with Legolas, Gimli, Elladan and Elrohir and thirty Rangers of the North, entered the Dark Door at Dunharrow and rode the Paths of the Dead. They found the bones of Baldor before a locked door and passed on with the Dead gathering behind them. Emerging into the valley of the Morthond, they rode through the night to Erech, where Aragorn blew a horn and summoned the Dead. The King of the Dead answered, and Aragorn named himself Isildur's heir and called them to follow him to Pelargir and be released.

Pelargir

The Shadow Host followed Aragorn through Lamedon and Lebennin. Terror of the Dead cleared the road, emptied Calembel, and at Pelargir on 13 March emptied the ships of the Corsairs of Umbar, whose crews leapt overboard or fled. The Dead did not fight so much as drive: the living could not stand before them. When the fleet was in Aragorn's hands he declared the oath fulfilled, and the King of the Dead broke his spear and the host vanished like mist. The freed ships, manned by the Men of the coastlands, carried Aragorn up Anduin to the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.

Nature

The Dead were shadows, seen as grey shapes with a glimmer of eyes and old banners and spears, riding pale horses or walking. They made no sound but the rustle of a wind, and could be felt as a cold at the back and a fear in the heart. Whether they could kill is not certain; their weapon was dread. They were bound by the curse and the oath, not by Sauron, and they were released by justice done, not by force.

Legacy

The summoning of the Dead was one of the great deeds of the War of the Ring and the clearest sign that the King had returned. After their release the Paths of the Dead were no longer feared, and Gimli and Legolas afterwards led a company of Dwarves through them to visit the Glittering Caves.

The Dead appeared as grey and shadowy shapes of Men, tall and pale, some mounted, bearing the memory of spears, swords and banners. Their eyes glimmered; their forms were seen best out of the corner of the eye and in darkness. They brought a cold that struck through cloaks and a fear that broke the courage of the living.

In life they were hill-folk with their own kings, sacred places and temple, worshippers of Sauron in the Dark Years and unwilling vassals of the Númenóreans. In death they kept their king, their order and their memory of the oath, and answered only to the heir of Isildur.

The Men of the White Mountains swore fealty to Isildur on the Stone of Erech, broke faith when he called them against Sauron, and were cursed to a sleepless half-existence in the mountains until the oath should be fulfilled.

Released by Aragorn at Pelargir on 13 March 3019 and departed to whatever rest was appointed for them.