Erech
Also calledThe Hill of Erech, The Stone of Erech
Erech was a bare hill in the vale of Morthond where Isildur set a great black stone brought from Númenor. On it the King of the Mountains swore allegiance to Gondor and broke his word, and there Aragorn summoned the Dead to fulfil that oath in March 3019.
Description
The hill of Erech rose at the head of the vale of the Morthond, the Blackroot, on the southern side of the White Mountains, where the river came out of the Paths of the Dead. On its summit stood the Stone of Erech, a smooth black sphere as tall as a man, half-buried in the ground. Local tradition said it had fallen from the sky, but the Dúnedain knew that Isildur had brought it out of the wreck of Númenor and set it there when he founded Gondor. Beside it the King of the Mountains had knelt and sworn allegiance. In the Third Age the folk of the valley shunned the stone, and the hill was said to be the meeting-place of the Dead in troubled times; no house stood near it.
History
The Stone was set on the hill in S.A. 3320 at the founding of Gondor. When Isildur summoned the King of the Mountains to war against Sauron a decade later, the mountain people, who had served the Dark Lord in earlier days, would not come, and Isildur laid on them the doom that they should have no rest until they kept their oath. For more than three thousand years the Dead Men of Dunharrow haunted the hills between Erech and Harrowdale. On the night of March 8, 3019 Aragorn and the Grey Company came down from the Paths of the Dead and reached the hill at midnight. Elrohir gave Aragorn a silver horn, which he sounded, and Halbarad unfurled the standard that Arwen had made. Aragorn declared himself Isildur's heir and called on the Dead to follow him to Pelargir. The Shadow Host came behind him through Lamedon and Lebennin, and when the Corsair ships were taken he released them, and the oath was ended.
Geography
Erech stood in the upland of Morthond, in the region of Lamedon in western Gondor. The vale ran south from the mountains to the coast, and the road from Erech led east through Calembel on the Ciril, across the Ringló and into Lebennin.
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 GondorSecond High King of Arnor and Gondor
Isildur
NúmenóreansIsildur, elder son of Elendil, stole a fruit of the White Tree in Númenor, founded Minas Ithil in Gondor, and cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand at the end of the Last Alliance. He refused to destroy it, and two years later he was slain by Orcs at the Gladden Fields when the Ring slipped from his finger, so that his name was bound to it as Isildur's Bane.
Gondor; later Arnor as High KingKing 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 DeadLords of Rivendell
Elladan and Elrohir
Half-elvenElladan and Elrohir, the twin sons of Elrond and Celebrían, rescued their mother from the Orcs and afterwards spent the Third Age hunting Orcs with the Rangers of the North. Companions of Aragorn, they brought him Elrond's counsel to take the Paths of the Dead and rode with him from Dunharrow to the Black Gate.
RivendellRanger 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
Peoples
Timeline
- S.A. 3320
The Stone set up
Isildur places the black stone from Númenor on the hill at the founding of Gondor.
- S.A. 3430
The oath broken
The King of the Mountains refuses to fight for Isildur and is cursed with his people.
- T.A. 3019, March 8
Aragorn summons the Dead
At midnight the heir of Isildur calls the Dead to the Stone and they follow him to the coast.
Sources
- The Return of the KingBook V, chapters 2 and 9
- The Lord of the Rings: AppendicesAppendix B, T.A. 3019
See also
Part of
Elsewhere in Gondor
- Minas Tirithcity
- Ithilienregion
- Osgiliathruin
- Pelennor Fieldsplain
- Drúadan Forestforest
- Anfalasregion
- Belfalasregion
- Cair Androsisland
- Lebenninregion
Reader notesFrom members
Notes are written by readers and sit beside the entry. They are not part of the article.
No notes on this entry yet. The first one could be yours.
Sign in to add a note, or create an account. Reading needs no account.
DiscussionFrom members
No discussions on this entry yet.
Sign in to start a discussion, or create an account. Reading needs no account.