The Path of the Dead

[KYOTE FIELDS]

Does anyone know the significance of the dead warrior Aragorn finds and says a little poem to on the Path of the Dead?

[Inoldonil]

I can make a guess. Ponder the conversation concerning the Paths in Muster of Rohan. The dead warrior, I guess, was Baldor, son of Brego of the House of Eorl. I believe there's more of the story to be found in The Appendices.

[RKittle]

I think the dead warrior was a literary device used to increase the terror of the Paths and to inject more history into the story. It reminds the reader that the Paths have been a place of dread to the people of Rohan since they settled near the White Mountains.

[HerenIstarion]

+ introducing pukel men, to wich not to obscure allusion can be made afterwords with Gan-buri-Gan and his Woses

[Tar Elenion]

"The Men of Darkness built temples, some of great size, usually surrounded by dark trees, often in caverns (natural or delved) in secret valleys of mountain-regions; such as the dreadfall halls and passages under the Haunted Mountain beyond the Dark Door (Gate of the Dead) in Dunharrow. The special horror of the closed door before which the skeleton of Baldor was found was probably due to the fact that the door was the entrance to an evil temple hall to which Baldor had come, probably without opposition up to that point. But the door was shut in his face, and enemies that had followed came up and broke his legs and left him to die in the darkness, unable to find any way out."
The Rivers and Beacon Hills of Gondor as cited in VT 42

[EZ Board Nomad]

What about the old man that was found sitting outside the door who said something like 'no one living may come here' or something, and then keeled over and died? Where did he come from?

[Snowdog]

Ponder the conversation concerning the Paths in Muster of Rohan. The dead warrior, I guess, was Baldor, son of Brego of the House of Eorl. I believe there's more of the story to be found in The Appendices.

Yes, that is what I thought the second time I read the Trilogy. I hadn't read the appedix the first time.

We once made a whole D&D scenario based on Baldor. It was lots of fun!

[Michael Martinez]

Originally posted by EZ Board Nomad
What about the old man that was found sitting outside the door who said something like 'no one living may come here' or something, and then keeled over and died? Where did he come from?

He was a curious old fellow. He may have been a Dunadan, one of the last inhabitants of the region, or just one of the locals, trying to keep the newcomers from trespassing on ancient holy ground. It sounds very much (from the passage Tar Elenion cited, which I actually read only a few hours ago while looking for something else) like there were secret guardians for the Paths of the Dead who watched over the area throughout the Third Age. They must have been closely associated with the Gwathuirim whom the Rohirrim drove off as they took control over Calenardhon. Those Gwathuirim joined their kinsfolk in Dunland and fought with Rohan on occasion.

[Snowdog]

He may have been a Dunadan, one of the last inhabitants of the region Dont you mean Druadan?? Dúnedain were the Numenorean descendents wheras the Druadan were the ancient inhabatants of the hills near Rohan.

[Michael Martinez]

I do mean Dunadan, a Numenorean. He is described as being very tall, and doesn't sound anything like a Druadan to me.

[Snowdog]

I guess I need to read it all again... memories and such fade with time.

[entss89]

I DONT UNDERSTAND!

[Spock]

Originally posted by EZ Board Nomad
What about the old man that was found sitting outside the door who said something like 'no one living may come here' or something, and then keeled over and died? Where did he come from?

I think that it was said he was one of the Pukel-men of old. After he said his warning he crumbled to dust from age, his message having been delivered.

[Sminty_Smeagol]

Refresh my memory... what are pukel men and woses? I recognize the names but the people behind them have fled my mind...


-~*Sminty*~-

[Michael Martinez]

The pukel-men were statues lining the road which led up to the refuge in Dunharrow. The Woses were the folk of Ghan-Buri-Ghan, whose ancestors (or a closely related people) probably made the Pukel-men in the early Second Age. The Pukel-men bore a vague resemblance to the Woses in physical shape and appearance. In Unfinished Tales, we learn that the ancient Druedain (Woses) made statues in their own images to guard their campsites or the homesteads of Edainic families whom they served.

[Ñólendil]

I guess I always thought vaguely that the old Man before the gate who said "the way is shut" was Malbeth the Seer, but I suppose that's impossible.

[Michael Martinez]

Malbeth the Seer had lived many hundreds of years before Eorl led his people to Calenardhon.