Dead Men of Dunharrow

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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.

1 Film adaptations
2 Adaptations
3 Notes
4 See also

[edit] Film adaptations

The Army of the Dead in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

In Peter Jackson's live-action adaptation, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, the Dead Men are only referred to as the "Army of the Dead". Aragorn proves his authority to them with Andúril, and only Legolas and Gimli are with him; his fellow Rangers of the North do not appear. Erech is also not featured.

In the film, the Dead are depicted as green and glowing, and "live" in a Petra-like spectral, similarly coloured underground city, which Aragorn and company go to. In the book, Aragorn summons them above ground to the Stone, and they serve him willingly, almost eagerly; the films have them at the verge of attacking the trio when Aragorn shows Andúril to their king, proving his authority.

Their king also recites the followings verses:

The way is shut.

It was made by those who are Dead.

And the Dead keep it.

The way is shut.

In the book, these verses were recited many years before, by a mysterious old man found by the Rohirrim shortly before he dies, shortly after Meduseld is built. The film omits the second-to-the-last line:

Until the time comes.

Rather than scaring the living daylights out of their foes (and mostly everyone else), the Dead appear to suck the life out of them.

The battle with the Corsairs occurs off-screen in the theatrical cut, but is glimpsed in the extended cut. The Army of the Dead also accompany Aragorn to Minas Tirith to decimate Sauron's entire army on the Pelennor Fields. They kill every foe in sight — Orc, Man, and Oliphaunt alike — and even move into the occupied area of the city, rescuing the defenders.

Only after a scene of silent vacillation, where Gimli even suggests that they keep them, does Aragorn declare their curse lifted.

According to a magazine article, Peter Jackson hated the Dead Men; he thought it was too unbelievable. He kept it in the script because he did not wish to disappoint diehard fans of the books.^[1]

Nevertheless, some readers dislike his expansion of the Dead Men into spirits explicitly able to inflict physical harm; some think that they were turned into a deus ex machina device, and others have jokingly dubbed them "radioactive scrubbing bubbles", after the way they "clean up" the battle in a manner similar to advertisements for Scrubbing Bubbles, while bearing a green glow similar to that associated with radioactivity.^[2]

In the earlier animated version of The Return of the King, they are omitted, and Aragorn just shows up at Minas Tirith with the warriors of southern Gondor, riding the Corsairs' ships.

[edit] Adaptations

The Dead Men of Dunharrow appear in various games:

In Iron Crown Enterprises' Middle-earth Role Playing Game, the King of the Dead is called Morthec Gruan, but this name is non-canonical.
The Dead are also featured in video and computer games based on the Jackson films, namely the real-time strategy games The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth and its sequel The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II, and the action platformer adaptation of The Return of the King. In the latter, the player actually has to fight them and their King, who is a boss with his own level, before they will fight for Gondor.
They are also part of Games Workshop's The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game.