Kryptic Tales of Middle-earth - Page 4
© Michael Martinez
The paths of the Dead were renowned throughout the lands of the Dunedain, it seems. Malbeth the Seer, who lived in Arnor, foretold that one day an Heir of Isildur would walk those paths and wake the Dead. Centuries later when the Rohirrim settled in Calenardhon and Brego their second king had finished the construction of the golden hall of Meduseld, he and his sons passed up into the mountains and found an old man sitting at the entrance to the paths of the dead.
"The way is shut," he told them. "The way is shut. It was made by those who are Dead, and the Dead keep it, until the time comes. The way is shut." And then he died, and the prince Baldor resolved to enter the paths of the Dead and see for himself what secrets lay there. He never returned, and all Rohan wondered what became of him.
Probably the bones Aragorn found inside the passage were Baldor's: "Before him were the bones of a mighty man. He had been clad in mail, and still his harness lay there whole; for the cavern's air was as dry as dust, and his hauberk was gilded. His belt was of gold and garnets, and rish with gold was the helm upon his bony head face downward on the floor. He had fallen near the far wall of the cave, as now could be seen, and before him stood a stony door closed fast: finger-bones were still clawing at the cracks. A notched and broken sword lay by him, as if he had hewn at the rock in his last despair."
What could have happened inside that dark and lonely cave, that one of Rohan's bravest warriors would fall into madness and hew the very stone of the earth? He must have been assailed by an army of the Dead, and seeking a way of escape had been led astray. Or perhaps he merely succumbed to fear and dread, shaken to his very soul, and unreasoning fled headlong into the dark until he could no longer find his way, and slowly, sadly, spent his last days or hours vainly seeking admission to a refuge of dubious safety.
The Dead Men of Dunharrow were not the only haunts inhabiting Middle-earth in the Third Age. The Nazgul emerged from Mordor in the year 2000 and laid siege to the mountain city of Minas Ithil. After two years they took the city and turned it into a place of living horror, and it was said to be the abode of ghosts and other monsters. Even the Orcs who were stationed there were unnerved by the grisly creatures with which the Nazgul filled the city. All the nearby lands became deserted as people fled across the Anduin, and in time only the hardiest of Gondor's people dared to live anywhere in Ithilien, which had once been its fairest and most pleasant land.
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