The Tale
‘The light was still grey as
they rode, for the sun had not climbed over the black ridges of the Haunted
Mountain before them.’ Aragorn and the Grey Company (and Legolas and Gimli) pass
through a line of ancient stones and so come to the Dimholt and a stand of
ancient trees so black and gloomy that even Legolas (who was raised in
Mirkwood, remember) cannot stand it very long. Passing through they come to a
hollow place at the mountain’s root and a single tall stone like a warning
finger.
‘My blood runs chill,’ said
Gimli’ but his voice falls dead in that silent place. The horses will not pass
the stone until the riders dismount and lead them around. And behind the stone
in the sheer rock wall of the mountain is the Dark Door, gaping like a black
mouth of night. ‘Signs and figures were carved above its wide arch too dim to
read, and fear flowed through it like a grey vapour.’
All hearts quail ‘unless it
were the heart of Legolas of the Elves, for whom the ghosts of Men have no
terror.’ Halbarad, who may have some of the foresight of the Dunedain, predicts
his death lies beyond the Door, but he will go through nonetheless. But he does
not think the horses will go. Aragorn says they will need them once they pass
through, so go the horses must. Every lost minute would aid Sauron’s victory.
Aragorn leads the way in,
and his great will that the Rangers and their horses follow him. But Arod, the
horse of Rohan, won’t enter, trembling and sweating, until Legolas sings some
soft words, calming him, and then Legolas leads him through the Door. ‘And
there stood Gimli Gloin’s left all alone.’
The Dwarf’s knees shake and
he’s angry with himself that he does not go in immediately. ‘Here is a thing
unheard of! he said. ‘An Elf will go underground and a Dwarf dare not!’ His
pride stung, he plunges in. But his feet drag heavily over the threshold, ‘and
at once a blindness came upon him, even upon Gimli Gloin’s son who had walked
unafraid in many deep places in the world.’
Aragorn leads the company
with a torch and Elladan (one of Elrond’s sons) brings up the rear with
another. Gimli stumbles along, trying to catch up. If the company stops, he can
hear a whisper of voices all around them in an unknown tongue. He knows there
is no turning back.
There is a glint in the
darkness and Aragorn turns aside to investigate. Gimli would go to look for
gold any other time, but now he just wants to let it lie. It turns out to be a
corpse clad in gilded armor, with a belt of gold and garnets. He is clawing at
a closed door and his broken sword lies next to him, as if he died clawing
trying to open that closed door.
Aragorn guesses who he is,
one of the Kings of Rohan, but here no flowers will ever grow on his mound. No
one will ever know what he was trying to find beyond the door, what treasures
or secrets. Aragorn raises his voice and turns to face the whispering darkness
behind them. For that is not why they are here! They only seek to pass through.
He summons the Dead to the Stone of Erech!
The whispering falls into an
even more dreadful silence, and a blast of wind blows out the torches. They
cannot be kindled again. They pass on, and Gimli cannot tell how long they went
on in the dark. He is always in the rear, pursued by blind horror that seems to
grope at him. Finally, he is crawling along, thinking that he must either
escape or turn and face the following fear.
Suddenly he hears the tinkle
of water. The light grows, and he finds they are following a rill of water out
of another door to outside to a steep road between sheer cliffs. So deep is the
cleft that he can see stars above them, although it is still not sunset of the
day they entered. It has seemed a timeless journey.
The company gets back on
their horses and ride down through the deepening dusk in single file. Still the
fear pursues them. Gimli rides behind Legolas again. When the Elf turns back to
talk to the Dwarf, he sees Elladan bringing up the rear, but he is not the last
behind them.
‘The Dead are following,’
said Legolas, ‘I see shapes of Men and of horses, and pale banners like shreds
of cloud, and spears like winter-thickets on a misty night. The Dead are
following.’ Yes, says Elladan. ‘They have been summoned.’
The Company come at last out
of a ravine and into the uplands of a great and rich vale before them. Gimli
asks ‘Where in Middle-earth are we?’ and Elladan answers they are in the
Morthond Vale, carved out by the chill Blackroot river as it wends its way past
Dol Amroth down to the sea. The vale is rich and many Men dwell there.
Aragorn turns and cries to
the Company that they must ride in haste to the Stone of Erech before the day
passes. They pass like a wild hunt down through the land, and the inhabitants
flee before them, crying that the King of the Dead is upon them. They come to
the Stone just before midnight. It is ‘a black stone, round as a great globe,
the height of a man, though its half was buried in the ground. Unearthly it
stood, as though it had fallen from the sky, as some believed; but those who
remembered still the lore of Westernesse told that it had been brought out of
the ruin of Numenor and there set by Isildur at his landing.’ Nobody from the
valley gets near it, as it is said to be a meeting place of ‘the Shadow-men’.
When they get there, Aragorn
turns and blows a silver horn that Elrohir (Elrond’s other son) hands him, and
he is answered by dim horns like an echo in a mountain pass. The Company is
aware of a great host all around them and ‘a chill wind like the breath of
ghosts came down from the mountains.’ Aragorn dismounts, stands by the Stone
and cries out ‘Oathbreakers, why have ye come?’
A voice answers, as if from
far away: ‘To fulfil our oath and have peace.’
Aragorn says the hour has
come at last. If they will follow him and clean the land of the servants of
Sauron, he will hold the oath fulfilled, and they can depart and have peace.
For he is Elessar, Isuldur’s heir of Gondor.
He bids Halbarad unfurl his
standard, and in the darkness, it looks completely black; whatever is on it is
hidden by darkness. There is a silence from the ghostly host. The Company camps
by the Stone that night, and not a noise is heard from the Dead, but there is
little sleep for dread.
When the dawn comes Aragorn
raises the Company, and urges them forward, though they are still weary. They
ride, and ‘only his will held them to go on. No other mortal Men could have
endured it, none but the Dunedain of the North, and with them Gimli the Dwarf
and Legolas of the Elves.’
They pass Tarlang’s Neck,
and come to Lamedon, then to Calembel upon Ciril. The land before them is
deserted; many have gone to war, and others have fled before the terror of the
Dead. The Company stay overnight at the fords of Ciril. ‘But the next day there
came no dawn and the Grey Company passed on into the darkness of the Storm of
Mordor and were lost to mortal sight; but the Dead followed them.’
Bits and Bobs
Halbarad is a kinsman of
Aragorn and has some of the foresight of the Dunedain; unfortunately, his
premonition of his death comes true on the Pelennor Fields. He is, however,
staunch and heroically faces his doom as necessary.
Dimholt translates as ‘the
obscure, secret (dim) wood.’
The passage through the
Paths of the Dead is told through Gimli’s eyes, who might be considered the ‘lowest’
of the Company, and so the most affected by the fear. It is only his Dwarvish
pride that compels him to enter the caves.
The corpse they find is that
of Baldor son of Brego, grandson of Eorl, who boasted he would take the Paths
of the Dead and was never heard of again. That was 450 years ago. Tolkien wrote
in a later note that the door that his body was found in front up was to an
evil temple; it was shut in his face and the Dead broke his legs and left him
to die.
It is said that when they
finally emerge into a steep valley that it is so deep that, although it is
still daylight, Gimli can see the stars. This so-called ‘chimney effect’ has
since been disproved to exist. I think (and I’m not absolutely sure) that when
Gimli uses the term Middle-earth that this is the first time it occurs used by
a character in the story itself; at least it is the first place I ever noticed
it.
The Stone of Erech seems
like a strange artifact to lug all the way from Numenor; perhaps it had some
significance that was never explained. Pelargir is ‘the Garth of Royal Ships’ where
the Men of Westerness first landed and was the haven of the Faithful of the
Numenoreans. Tolkien wrote of Tarlang’s Neck that it was named after one of the
legendary Giants who built those mountains; when he died, he was built into the
mountain wall, his neck becoming the ridge. He also said it could have been
named because it was a difficult way for ‘stiff-necked’ people to take who
would brook no delay. Calembel (Greenham’, ham as in town) sits on the Ciril, a
river that cuts through the land (cir = cleaves).
Pippin sees the same sun go
down redly from the walls of Minas Tirith; Sam and Frodo have seen it as they
pass from Minas Morgul to Osgiliath. Now we are reminded of where most of the
players are on the board.
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