Who are the Dead Men of Dunharrow?

who are the dead men of dunharrow why did they help Aragorn and where did they go afterwards hi everyone this is Robert welcome to in deep geek this video is brought to you by my wonderful patreon community from now on I'll be bringing you regular j.r.r tolkien and Lord of the Rings content on this channel as well as the best of other great fantasy and science fiction like a Song of Ice and Fire if you're interested in seeing more of that please click on the subscribe button in the bottom right of your screen and the Bell icon to understand what's going on here with the dead men of dunharrow we need to go way back thousands of years into the second age of middle-earth humanity's greatest civilization Numenor with its island kingdom held sway over the seas and some coastal regions of the mainland but during what became known as the dark years most of the south and east of the map that we know of now as middle-earth was under the rule of seller the elves remember that time as the days of flight when they fled from Saran's dark rule to many he seemed unstoppable some who only heard of him in whispers and legends but could see his influence everywhere started seeing him as some kind of dark God controlling their fate from afar among these were the men of the white mountains the white mountains are those mountains that stretch east-west across middle-earth ending at Minas Tirith the men of the white mountains were in tokens words primitive but I don't think we should judge them too harshly Sauron was apparently immortal and apparently the undisputed lord of much of middle-earth people lived and died by his word he was a Dark Lord indeed but Sauron did fall his fall brought an end to the mighty Kingdom of númenor though some did escape the faithful they established post númenórean kingdoms in middle-earth Gondor and Arnall the rule of Gondor extended over the White Mountains and the men of the mountains swore fealty to their new overlords the king of the mountains met healed the hiking of the númenórean realms in exile at a place called NH a hill far west of ministereth there was a stone there black spherical and six feet in diameter that Isildur had brought with him from númenor to represent his authority the king of the mountains swore fealty to Issel duel but then Sauron returned the last alliance of elves and men was formed and a seal door called those who had sworn fealty to him to join the cause they all did except one the men of the mountains refused to honor their promise to Issel duel they had once worshipped Sauron and would not fight against him even if it meant breaking a solemn vow of fealty he'll do a cursed of the men of the mountains for breaking their vows he said thou shalt be the last king and if the west prove mightier than thy black master this curse I lay upon thee and thy folk to rest never until your oath is fulfilled for this war will last through years uncounted and you shall be summoned once again ere the end in other words that King and those soldiers who refused to honor their oath to come to the aid of the rightful king of Gondor will find no rest until they do just that answer the call of the rightful heir of Isildur to fight against Sauron of course Sauron was defeated in that battle we saw it in the flashback at the beginning of the movies the ring was cut from his finger the forces of darkness were pushed back once more and sealed doors curse became operational the wraiths or spirits of those men of the mountains stayed in their home of the White Mountain specifically the caves under their duma burg one of the mountains over the centuries to follow this whole area became seen as being cursed a sighting of the wraiths in the valley of Herod L was a harbinger of troubled times and the narrow mountain pass that led past their home became known as the paths of the Dead no one ever went there we should probably note in passing that the strength of this curse binding the souls of these men there for over three millennia is probably not so much a reflection of any magical powers that Isildur may have had but of the importance of ODEs and oath breaking in Tolkien's world there's enough here for another video on that very subject but suffice it to say here that breaking a solemn oath like this made on a sacred stone is enough for this curse to be very effective and so the dead men have done Harrow were left there cursed for almost the entire third age of middle-earth they had retreated to those caverns for fear of Isildur ruff and now they had to wait for Isildur as air to call on them to fulfill their oath at which point we need to fast forward to the kingdom of Arnor for that is where Isildur Zaire's ended up and and otherwise rather obscure seer called Mel Beth who came out with this prophecy over the land there lies a long shadow westward reaching wings of darkness the tower trembles to the tombs of kings doom approaches the dead awaken for the hour is come for the oath breakers to the stone of edit they shall stand again and here they're a home in the hills ringing whose shall the horn be who shall call them from their grey twilight The Forgotten people the heir of him to whom the oath they swore from the north shall he come need shall drive him he'll pass the door to the paths of the dead this was still some few hundred years before the events of the Lord of the Rings but Elrond remembered it Aragorn knew the prophecy - and when Elrond through his sons reminded Aragorn of it he knew what he needed to do he was the heir of Isildur and it was his place to call on the dead to finally honor their that of course is what happened Aragorn travelled through the paths of the Dead with Legolas and Gimli and elder ones twin sons he called on the dead to follow him and led them out of the caverns up through the hills to the hill of erection to that black spherical stone where they had made their oath to Isildur Aragorn dismounted and standing by the stone he cried in a great voice breakers why have ye come and a voice was heard out of the night that answered him as if from far away to fulfill our oath and have peace then Eragon said the hour is come at last now I go to pull our gear upon and doin and ye shall come after me and when all this land is clean of the servants of Sauron I will hold the oath fulfilled and ye shall have peace and depart forever for I am Elessar Isildur's heir of Gondor and with that he bad halberd unfurl the great standard which he had brought and behold it was black and if there was any device upon it it was hidden in the darkness then there was silence and not a whisper nor a sigh was heard this was a serious moment undertaken in darkness and fear and when Aragorn marched on the dead followed him this was the moment he finally truly embraced his role and destiny as the rightful king the heir of Isildur the evidence was here that the dead followed him the dead who could only be freed by Isildur as heir Aragorn did not take them director ministereth though one of the reasons for him going this way was to counter the threat of the Corsairs of umber a bunch of sea raiders with a long history linked to the númenóreans but here playing a role effectively in support of scions attack on Minas Tirith they were raiding the south coast of Gondor causing huge amounts of damage and preventing much of the host of Gondor from actually defending the capital Aragorn brought the army of the Dead to Pelagia where the attack was happening he called on the army of the Dead to fulfill their oath of their and they did they charged over the water and across the boats of the Corsairs with fear as their weapon dread fear the Corsairs fled jumping into the sea or running for their lives the victory there allowed Aragorn to capture the raiding boats and head with the Gondor Ian army who had been defending their and the gray company of Doudna Dane ranges to head up to relieve the siege of Minas Tirith the dead men of dunharrow had finally fulfilled their oath answering the call of Isildur as heir to defend Gondor and face up to the forces of their former master Sauron we talked a lot about redemption arcs in fantasy fiction but this truly is redemption for them long slow and terrible but Redemption and Aragorn spoke in a loud voice to the dead men crying here now the words of the heir of his sealed or your oath is fulfilled go back and trouble not the valleys ever again depart and be at rest and thereupon the king of the Dead stood out before the host and broke his spear and cast it down then he bowed low and turned away and swiftly the whole gray host drew off and vanished like a mist that is driven back by a sudden wind if you'd like to see more videos in the world of junior art Okun and Lord of the Rings please click on the link to the playlist on the left of your screen or if you'd like to support this channel or get access to some content I produced just for my patrons please click on the link to my patreon page on the right of the screen thanks for watching that's all for this time and I'll see you again soon

Channel: In Deep Geek

Views: 181,631

Rating: 4.964561 out of 5

Keywords: in deep geek, deep geek, lord of the rings, lotr, the hobbit, tolkien, jrr tolkien, dead men of dunharrow, oathbreakers lord of the rings, oathbreakers lotr, oathbreakers, army of the dead lord of the rings, army of the dead game of thrones, paths of the dead lord of the rings, paths of the dead, king of the dead, the king of the dead

Id: yj2I-T4ZMXk

Length: 11min 5sec (665 seconds)

Published: Sat May 30 2020