[Lalwendë]

This chapter begins with a wonderful description of Harrowdale, and yet we have already been here with Aragorn and the Grey Company. It wasn't described to us that time. It is left to the character of Merry to see it for us. Tolkien often describes a new place to us through the eyes of a character, so did he 'save' this one for the more wondering eyes of Merry. Or does it fit more with his character to have him describe it? Maybe Aragorn has seen the place before, or maybe it is that Tolkien wished to impress upon us the haste of the Grey Company's passing and in so doing not linger on description.

This chapter is filled with references to the Rohirrim's love of tale and song. Merry has been in appropriate company on his journey to Harrowdale:

Then he had talked to Theoden, telling him about his home and the doings of the Shire-folk, or listening in turn to tales of the Mark and its mighty men of old.

He has had a good audience and his efforts in telling tales have been repaid by hearing some others in return. Only Pippin and Bilbo might have appreciated this chance to chatter more!

You shall sit beside me, as long as I remain in my own lands, and lighten my heart with tales.'
Room was made for the hobbit at the king's left hand, but no one called for any tale.

It also seems that meals are accompanied with tales and that they form a great part of entertainment in this culture. That nobody at first called for any tales at this point shows that they were subdued and did not wish for entertainment. But these tales also serve a more serious purpose as it seems that they are used to record history. When Merry asks about The Paths of the Dead, he is told about them by way of a tale, a spine chilling story. I wonder how many small children in Rohan had been told that tale before? It is no surprise that the people of Harrowdale have superstitions about the Dead riding out and put their lights out when they fear them.

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.

At times some Rider would lift up his clear voice in stirring song, and Merry felt his heart leap, though he did not know what it was about.

and so without horn or harp or music of mens' voices the great ride into the East began with which the songs of Rohan were busy for many long lives of men thereafter.

When the Rohirrim are in a more pleasant or optimistic mood they sing, and it seems that when they ride off to fulfill their duties they also sing. This must serve not only as an entertainment and a way of recording history, but it must also raise the spirits, as Merry himself feels it even though he does not fully understand the words. That they do not sing as they ride off to Gondor speaks volumes about how they felt about the fate they were riding to meet. As though he does not want us as readers to also feel too disheartened, Tolkien here gives the game away a little by telling us that there would be people in Rohan to sing about this event afterwards, that they would not all be killed. Strangely enough, I don't recall noticing any of these little plot spoilers the first time I read LotR, it is only now, when I'm not carried away with the excitement of the plot that I notice them!

The Firienfeld men called it, a green mountain-field of grass and heath, high above the deep-delved courses of the Snowbourn, laid upon the lap of the great mountains behind

I like the name Firienfeld. The place is like an alpine meadow high up on the mountainside and the name of it is evocative of Switzerland - it even makes me think a little of the Heidi books! But the Firienfeld isn't entirely like one of those beautiful alpine meadows because it is the location of ancient and mysterious remains.

Dividing the upland into two there marched a double line of unshaped standing stones that dwindled into the dusk and vanished in the trees. Those who dared to follow that road came soon to the black Dimholt under Dwimorberg, and the menace of the pillar of stone, and the yawning shadow of the forbidden door.

Such was the dark Dunharrow, the work of long-forgotten men. Their name was lost and no song or legend remembered it. For what purpose they had made this place, as a town or secret temple or a tomb of kings, none in Rohan could say. Here they laboured in the Dark Years, before ever a ship came to the western shores, or Gondor of the Dunedain was built; and now they had vanished, and only the old Pukel-men were left, still sitting at the turnings of the road. Merry stared at the lines of marching stones: they were worn and black; some were leaning, some were fallen, some cracked or broken; they looked like rows of old and hungry teeth. He wondered what they could be, and he hoped that the king was not going to follow them into the darkness beyond.

This description often reminds me of Avebury somehow moved wholescale from its English Downs landscape to an alpine meadow. Avebury is a neolithic complex which includes not only a stone circle, but the West Kennet Avenue, which is around two miles long, a double line of stones marking a path from the Avebury stone circle to the Sanctuary, which according to archaeologist Aubrey Burl may once have been a charnel house or mortuary for the bones of the dead - was this the original purpose of the Paths of the Dead? In the same 'complex' is West Kennet Longbarrow which looks very much like the descriptions of the Dimholt Door.

This reminded me so much of the Avebury area that I decided to find out more, and it seems that Tolkien did indeed visit Avebury and gained some inspiration from it. This page I found has some photos of the Longbarrow and avenue, and it also has a picture of a tree which Tolkien is said to have admired and sat beneath. Some links I've found on t'internet also suggest that he may have sat there and written parts of LotR. He's a legend himself...

These remains must have been in use long before the Numenoreans came to the shores of Middle Earth, so the Oathbreakers must have taken possession of an existing place. I wonder were the original inhabitants still dwelling there or was it long abandoned? They may have been attracted to it as a dwelling place if it already had a reputation of being abandoned due to Men's fear of it. The Barrow Downs always intrigue me as a place as they are an echo of an ancient past of Men in Middle Earth, but we are given a 'back story' for them which ties in with what we know of Men. However, we are given no such back story for the remains at Dunharrow which makes them all the more enigmatic.

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. Some in the wearing of the years had lost all features save the dark holes of their eyes that still stared sadly at the passers-by. The Riders hardly glanced at them. The Pukel-men they called them, and heeded them little: no power or terror was left in them; but Merry gazed at them with wonder and a feeling almost of pity, as they loomed up mournfully in the dusk.

The Pukel-men always fascinate me too. I cannot place them within the idea of Avebury moved to an alpine meadow, but they are reminiscent of the Woses who we will meet later on. I'm sure I'm not the first to wonder if the Woses aren't the remnants of the culture which built the stone avenue, the Paths of the Dead and the Pukel Men.

I like how they are decribed as now not instilling fear in Men, as they do not sound intimidating to me either; they are quite Buddha-like. But Merry also feels pity when he sees them which is strange. perhaps that is like our own sad feelings when we see ancient ruins and wonder what they might have been like in their splendour. Maybe he is also a little sad for the loss of the culture which built them, an echo from the past?

On the threshold sat an old man, aged beyond guess of years; tall and kingly he had been, but now he was withered as an old stone. Indeed for stone they took him, for he moved not, and he said no word, until they sought to pass him by and enter. And then a voice came out of him, as it were out of the ground, and to their amaze it spoke in the western tongue: The way is shut.

'Then they halted and looked at him and saw that he lived still; but he did not look at them. The way is shut, his voice said again. It was made by those who are Dead, and the Dead keep it, until the time comes. The way is shut.
'And when will that time be?' said Baldor. But no answer did he ever get. For the old man died in that hour and fell upon his face; and no other tidings of the ancient dwellers in the mountains have our folk ever learned.

Here is another mystery. Could this old man have been kin to the Oathbreakers? He is not one of the Woses' kin as he is clearly described as once having been noble, which must still be apparent in his appearance. He also uses the common speech. Maybe he was a Numenorean who used his long life to wait by the door until such time as someone who could take his story away would appear (which by this time is only a warning as he is obviously a dying man). He has an important function as he is the gatekeeper to an underworld place, and eerily his voice seems to have issued from the ground itself. It is interesting how the Rohirrim, who so obviously love tales and legends, have made him more mysterious by presenting him as a gatekeeper; the story is so good in the telling that the truth may have been very different.

He loved mountains, or he had loved the thought of them marching on the edge of stories brought from far away; but now he was borne down by the insupportable weight of Middle-earth. He longed to shut out the immensity in a quiet room by a fire.

This is how Merry feels at the beginning of the chapter, his fear and his pressure presented in a remarkable image. But this is also about us as readers. We loved the thought of mountains marching on the edge of stories, maybe even got excited about them like Bilbo, but now we have seen innumerable mountains and a great deal of Middle earth too. It has been a lot to take in by this point in the story, and there is yet more to come.