Dead Men of Dunharrow
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In J. R. R. Tolkien's high fantasy world of Middle-earth, the Dead
Men of Dunharrow (also referred as the Shadow Host, the Grey Host,
the oathbreakers, or simply the Dead) were the shades of Men of the
White Mountains (Ered Nimrais), who were cursed to remain in
Middle-earth by Isildur after they abandoned their oath to aid him
in the War of the Last Alliance. They were formerly known as the
Men of the Mountains, and they were related to the
Dunlendings.
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Their king was known as the King of the Mountains, and later, the
King of the Dead. At the end of the Second Age, he pledged
allegiance to Isildur at the Stone of Erech (Erech was a hill where
the latter had set a black spherical monolith from Númenor, half
protruding from the ground).
However, these Men refused to aid Isildur in his war against
Sauron, for they had worshipped the Dark Lord during the Dark
Years. Isildur said that they would not have peace or rest till
they fulfilled their oath upon his command or that of his heirs.
During the War, they came to the aid of neither side, but hid in
the mountains.
Their spirits haunted the caverns beneath the Dwimorberg, the
Haunted Mountain, and the valley of Harrowdale that lay in its
shadow — though they were said to appear in the valley only in
times of trouble or death, haunting the hill of the Stone of
Erech.
Malbeth the Seer prophesised that a day would come when need and
haste would drive one of Isildur's heirs to take the Road under the
Mountain and that the Dead would answer to his call.
Thousands of years later, the Prophecy was fulfilled. In the War of
the Ring in the late Third Age, Isildur's Heir and direct
descendant, Aragorn, called upon the Dead to fulfill their oath at
last. Summoning them to the stone of Erech, Aragorn commanded them
to fulfill their oath and be free. On this occasion, he first uses
the royal banner of Gondor, made by Arwen and delivered by the Grey
Company (a group of Rangers of the North accompanied by Arwen's
brothers).
They followed him through Gondor's lands and fiefs south of the
Mountains, and at the port of Pelargir they drove away the Corsairs
of Umbar, allies of Sauron. Having fulfilled their oath, Aragorn
granted them their freedom, and they vanished at last from the
world. After this, Aragorn gathered the warriors of the region to
him. They sailed to Minas Tirith on the Corsairs' own ships, and
saved the day at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.
The Men of the Shadow Host appeared to be grey shades; some still
rode ghostly horses, but all moved at the same speed. They bore
swords and spears and banners, and answered a horn-call with their
own horns. However, they did not need weapons (it is left vague
whether they and their weapons are "material" at all), for their
chief weapon was fear.
In the battle with the Corsairs, as recounted by Legolas and Gimli
to Merry and Pippin, the Corsairs abandoned their ships in terror,
which Aragorn then commandeered. Those who did not flee drowned in
the sea. In fact, they terrified Mordor and Gondor's soldiers alike
so much (as they passed through the land, people hid in terror, and
they even disrupted a local battle), that the folk of Southern
Gondor only joined Aragorn after he had released the Dead from
their oath. This is probably why Aragorn had to release them in the
first place; more people would not join him if he had not.
