Paths of the Dead

The road under the mountain

Behind the Hold of Dunharrow, past the double line of standing stones and the dark pine wood of the Dimholt, a single upright stone marked the way to a sheer cliff in which the Dark Door opened. Beyond it a road ran through the roots of the Dwimorberg, the Haunted Mountain, and came out on the southern side of the White Mountains in the upper vale of the river Morthond, above the hill of Erech. It was a true road, made by the Men of the Mountains in the Second Age, wide enough for horses, and it emerged among a dead landscape of dark rocks and gloomy trees.

The Dead

The way was named for the Dead Men of Dunharrow, the shades of the mountain people who had sworn on the Stone of Erech to serve Isildur and then, having worshipped Sauron in the Dark Years, refused to fight against him. Isildur cursed them never to rest until their oath was kept, and they lingered in the caves and the road, and were sometimes seen coming down the road to Erech in the dark. Fear alone guarded the door: the Dead did not attack, but no living man had passed the Paths and returned, and Rohan's horses would not go near the Dimholt.

The road was cut by the Men of the Mountains, whose temple stood on the Firienfeld and whose king swore to Isildur at Erech. In T.A. 2570 Baldor, son of King Brego, entered the Dark Door and was lost; Aragorn's company found his mail-clad skeleton lying before a closed door within, an axe-mark on the stone showing how he had died trying to open it.

On March 8, 3019 Aragorn came to Dunharrow with the Grey Company. Elrond had sent word to remember the Paths of the Dead, and Aragorn, having looked into the palantír of Orthanc and seen the Corsair fleet gathering against Gondor, knew that only by this road could he reach the southern coast in time. With Legolas, Gimli, Halbarad, the Rangers and the sons of Elrond, he passed the Dark Door. In the dark he called the Dead to follow him, and they came behind the riders as a rumour and a chill. The company emerged at dusk in the Morthond vale and rode to Erech, where Aragorn summoned the Dead at midnight and named himself heir of Isildur. After the Dead had fulfilled their oath at Pelargir Aragorn released them, and the Paths were haunted no longer.

The Paths ran roughly south beneath the Dwimorberg from Harrowdale, north of the mountains, to the head of the Morthond vale on the south. The Blackroot rose near the exit and flowed down past Erech to the sea near Dol Amroth.