[Macalaure]

Originally Posted by narfforc

Yes you are right Macalaure and I know that, what I was suggesting was, did the One Ring once in the posession of Isildur give added power to the curse. The word spoken in anger, coming to fruition.

Possible, yes. But I don't see a real connection there.

The word IF in the sentence suggests that if Sauron had not been defeated, then the Men of the Mountains would have died quite normally, why not just say: You let us down therefore you're cursed whoever wins.

The way I understand it is, that if Sauron won, then the power of the Dark Lord was greater than theirs. After the victory it would have been unchallenged in Middle-earth. And since the West, and I understand "The West" as more than just the Last Alliance but also the Valar who are 'in alliance' with it, was then powerless in M-E, any curse would have been null anyway.

When did this curse start to take effect anyway, did they all die very quickly or did the Army of the Dead get a new recruit every so often until they all died, if so what about their children and their childrens children, was this army getting bigger by the day?

I think there are two possibilities to read it.
One: The curse only applies to those who swore oaths to Isildur, so their children shouldn't be affected by it. Those who swore live and die like everybody and are then forced to remain. The house of the king is extincted and the remaining people have no king anymore.
Two: The curse applies to all of the king's folk and every child is pertained by it. Not nice. What about the children of the children? It's unthinkable in my mind that all dead people of this folk go to the mountain once their dead.
Unless, one might say that all these children had no children. Then the curse not only condemns the oathbreakers, but lets their whole folk die out! Eru must have had one hell of a genocidal mood at the end of the second age.

You are also right I think about Isildur not having the power to do this thing under normal circumstances, where did the power to invoke this curse come from, I do not believe it was from Eru, yet I would admit that he permitted it, and at the time only he would know why.

It is interesting that the curse contains a prophetic component. Where does this come from? I don't recall Isildur prophecies things anywhere else. Was somebody else leading his thoughts as he spoke?
The only one who knows all fates is Eru. Mandos is not powerful enough and wouldn't oppose Eru, and the curse doesn't have Manwe's 'handwriting' to me. Who else could it have been?