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LIBRARY
Edward.E.Beard
Dead Men of Dunharrow
The Dead Men of Dunharrow haunted the labyrinths of the ancient citadel of Rohan. These were once men of the White Mountains who in the Second Age of the Sun, swore allegiance to the King of the Dúnedain but,in time of war, broke that oath and betrayed him to the dark Lord sauron.
Thereafter they were cursed and became wanderering ghosts. For all the years of the Third Age of the Sun these Men haunted the Paths of the Dead. All who entered the corridors were driven mad with fear and were lost.
But in the last years of of the Age, Aragorn, son of Arathorn, the rightful heir of the king of the Dúnedain came from the northern wilderness. He summoned the Dead to fulfil the oath they had broken long ago. They rode with Aragorn to Pelargir and made war on the Corsairs of Umbar on land and sea,
and made them flee in terror. Thus the Dead Men of Dunharrow were redeemed. Their souls were released and the great army faded as mist in a wind at dawn.
Ted Nasmith
But what was Dunharrow ?
Dunharrow was one of the most ancient and mysterious fortress refuges on Middle earth,it was a part of Rohan during the war of the Ring, and was a refuge during various wars for those in the vale of Harrowdale
Dunharrow appeared to be almost impossible to attack successfully as it was approached by a switchback of a road, up the steep cliffs of the mountains. Each switchback doubled sharply back on the lower one, at each road side turning were huge round stones
in the shape of squatting men. It was a monumental piece of engineering, and snaked back and forth in a high pyramid of roads until it reached a wall of rock at the top, through which a gap was cut and an incline leading onto the Hold of Dunharrow.
This was a huge, broad and well-watered alpine meadow on which many thousands could encamp themselves in times of war. Upon this plateau was a great corridor in the form of a long line of unshaped black standing stones which marched across the plain in a straight line towards the Dwimorberg, the " Haunted Mountain ", and
a black wall of stone pierced by a tunnel called the Dimholt. This led to a secret glen that was haunted by the spirits of the dead who prevented living men from crossing to the far side of the white mountains by this abandoned pass.
Dunharrow was built during the second age, by the men of the white mountains who were ancestors of the Dunlendings,but who inhabited the land before the coming of of the Men of Gondor. Although they later swore allegiance to Gondor,these people had already been corrupted by Sauron, and so in time of war betrayed their new allies.
For the breaking of this oath, the spirits of these people were never allowed to rest, and for all the years of the Third Age the ghostly army known as the Dead Men of Dunharrow haunted this part of Dwimmorberg above Dunharrow which was called the Paths of the Dead.
It was not until the arrival of Aragorn that the Dead Men were allowed to make amends, and Dunharrow's haunting spirits were at last laid to rest.
Mormegil, the Vala Manwë
 
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