Middle-Earth Tours

Tour 2: The Places of Middle-Earth

Dunharrow

Dunharrow, by Roger Garland


from the Framecap Library

While he was peering from side to side the King's party came up under the looming cliff on the eastern side of the valley; and there suddenly the path began to climb, and Merry looked up in amazement. He was on a road the like of which he had never seen before, a great work of men's hands in years beyond the reach of song. Upwards it wound, coiling like a snake, boring its way across the sheer slope of rock. Steep as a stair, it looped backwards and forwards as it climbed. Up it horses could walk, and wains could be slowly hauled; but no enemy could come that way, except out of the air, if it was defended from above. At each turn of the road there were great standing stones that had been carved in the likeness of men, huge and clumsy-limbed, squatting cross-legged with their stumpy arms folded on fat bellies. --RotK, "The Muster of Rohan"
Dunharrow, by Alan Lee


from the Framecap Library


Lady Éowyn and Aragorn Take Leave, by Alan Lee		 When the light of day was come into the sky bu the sun was not yet risen above the high ridges in the East, Aragorn made ready to depart. His company was all mounted, and hwas about to leap into the saddle, when the Lady Éowyn came to bid them farwell. She was clad as a Rider and girt with a sword. In her hand she bore a cup, and she set it to her lips and drank a little, wishing them good speed; and then she gave the cup to Aragorn, and he drank...
    Then it seemed to Gimli and Legolas who were nearby that she wept, and in one so stern and proud that seemed the more grievous. --RotK, "The Passing of the Grey Company"

So Aragorn has come, then,' said Éomer. 'Is he still here?'
    'No, he is gone,' said Éowyn, turning away and looking at the mountains dark against the East and South.
    'Whither did he go?' asked Éomer.
    'I do not know,' she answered. 'He came at night, and rode away yestermorn....He is gone.'
    'You are grieved, daughter,' said Théoden. 'What has happened? Tell me, did he speak of that road?' He pointed away along the darkening lines of stones towards the Dwimorberg. 'Of the Paths of the Dead?"
    'Yes, Lord,' said Éowyn. 'And he has passed into the shadows from which none have returned. I could not dissuade him. He is gone.'--RotK, "The Muster of Rohan

There under the gloom of black trees that not even Legolas could long endure they found a hollow place opening at the mountain's root, and right in their path stood a single mighty stone like a finger of doom.
     'My blood runs chill,' said Gimli, but the otheres were silent, and his voice fell dead on the dank fir-needles at his feet. The horses would not pass the threatening stone, until the riders dismounted and led them about. And so they came at last deep into the glen; and there stood a sheer wall of rock, and in the wall the Dark Door gaped before them like the mouth of night. Signs and figures were carved above its wide arch too dim to read, and fear flowed from it like a grey vapour.
     The company halted, and there was not a heart among them that did not quail, unless it were the heart of Legolas of the Elves, for whom the ghosts of Men have no terror. --RotK, "The Passing of the Grey Company"
image courtesy of theonering.net


image courtesy of theonering.net

Long had the terror of the Dead lain upon that hill and upon the empty fields about it. For upon the top stood a black stone, round as a great globe, the height of a man, though its half was buried in the ground....None of the people of the valley dared to approach it, nor would they dwell near, for they said that it was a trysting-place of the Shadow-men and there they would gather in times of fear, thronging round the Stone and whispering.
     To that Stone the Company came and halted in the dead of night. Then Elrohir gave to Aragorn a silver horn, and he blew upon it; and it seemed to those that stood near that they heard a sound of answering horns, as if it was an echo in deep caves far away. No other sound they heard, and yet they were aware of a great host gathered all about the hill on which they stood; and a chill wind like the breath of ghosts came down from the mountains. --RotK, "The Passing of the Grey Company"

The Ride of the Oathbreakers,
by Ted Nasmith		 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.--RotK, "The Passing of the Grey Company"


The Vale of Erech, by Rob Alexander
To the Stone of Erech, by Inger Edelfeldt

Full-size versions of these pictures are on display at Rolozo Tolkien, the official LotR movie site, and theonering.net.