The Dead and The Undead

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Boromir88

This is Theoden's account and I like the feel that it's an urban legend telling of what's been passed down through the Kings of Rohan. It leaves me to wonder that the old man outside the door was already dead, re-animated by one of the cursed spirits because it spoke "as it were out of the ground." The spirit exits and "the old man died in that hour and fell upon his face." Creepy, necromancy Sauron-worship!

See, now I'd always taken this story entirely at face value, but now you've got me thinking about it... could the 'old man' be a Drúedain watch-stone? We know the Púkel-men were considered to be carved by them, and the repeated references to stone suggest it - as does the fact that Tolkien bothered to write "The Faithful Stone" at all. There's no other stories which link them to animated statues, right? The idea of the 'old man' as an ancient watch-stone expending its last drop of energy does seem to hold up.

If so, this would mean there were four players in the drama of The Broken Oath: the men of the mountains, Sauron who had corrupted them, Isildur who wanted their alliegance - and the Woses, ignored by everyone else, who carefully set their watch-stones to guard the cursed caverns which the Oathbreakers still haunted.

hS