The White Council

Re: PATHS OF THE DEAD

Tolkien and Inklings Discussion

: : Gandalf, Theoden and Aragorn talk about the origins of The : : Paths of the Dead and more specifically, the oath that the King : : of the Mountains swore to Isuldur to fihjt against Sauron. I : : am trying to get a better handle on that event. Does anyone : : have a suggestion as to which of the books of the History of : : Middle Earth delves into that more fully?

: : Much appreciated.

: : Hama

: There is nothing which specifically deals with that legend, other than "The Passing of the Grey Company". It does appear, from THE WAR OF THE RING, that Aragorn originally named the skeleton they found as Baldor, the Rohirric prince who entered the Paths of the Dead centuries before. Christopher Tolkien suggests that his father changed the passage because it was, at that time, coming before Theoden's story concerning the Paths. Later on JRRT moved Theoden's story to the earlier chapter ("The Passing of the Grey Company") and let stand his changes.

: There are some interesting notes attached to the story of the Paths of the Dead which have absolutely nothing to do with it. :)

: For instance, it appears that Tolkien devised the list of names for the Kings of the Riddermark while working on the story. Some of the names which did not make it were: Beorn, Haeleth, Leod, Oretta, Sigeric, and Sincwine. These names would probably be appropriate for application to Riders of Rohan and/or Beornings (since "Beorn" is included) -- in case anyone wishes to name a character in a role-playing game who happens to be a Northman.

: There are many entries in the index of THE WAR OF THE RING for "Paths of the Dead" and I'm afraid I don't have time to read them all right now. Sorry.

Speaking of names for Northmen and role-playing games (which I love greatly), if needing inspiration for names and background plots, try studying the Roman- German relationship and history- especially the history of such peoples as the Goths, Vandals, Franks and Anglo-saxons. It is VERY interesting, anyone interested can mail me for a list of litterature in English, Danish (sorry) and German (sorry again, but a lot of the history of the germanic peoples are written in their own language). However, I reserve the right to wait with my response till I have finished my bachelor's project on German-Roman warfare. If it gets a very favorable response I might translate it to english for those interested :).