So I’ve been reading the various LOTR threads here hoping to find some sort of answer that I’ve had about the third movie essentially since I saw it.
When I read the books, I assumed that Aragorn took some mountain pass to a hidden glen where a society of people had developed: a society of people whose ancestors had done some terrible and awful deed. I suppose I took ‘dead’ as a figurative, rather than literal term. He rallied them, calling upon the sins of their fathers, and they create an army. He takes them with him to steal the Black Ships, then lands on the fields of Pelennor, and wins the day.
Where the hell did Ghostly (Unnatural) Forces come into play. Honestly, I’d be content with page cites showing me where I skipped over Tolkien describing them as ghosts. I totally skipped over long parts of the trilogy (particularly the first volume) in my several readings of it, but never did I pick up the idea that the reinforcements were supposed to actually be insubstantial creatures from beyond.
Did Jackson’s movies actually get this idea from a firm basis in Tolkien ‘scripture’?
-The Passing of the Grey Company, The Return of the King
When they attacked the corsairs, they boarded the ships the ships that hadn’t set sail like normal, but they walked on the water to board those that were sailing away.
Like everything else, Wikipedia has an article. They were men who pledged allegiance to Isildur, but when the time came, scuttled off to safety and refused to fight Big Bad Sauron. Isildur, understandably miffed, cursed them to have neither rest nor peace until they fulfilled their oath by fighting against Sauron, either with him or one of his heirs. They were stuck in ghostly limbo until Aragon came along and gave them a break.
I’ll likely get ostracized for this but I enjoyed this fanfic story Isildur. It’s been a few years since I’ve read it and it looks like it may have been updated in the meantime however if I remember correctly, it tells the story of Isildur and the Army of the Dead.
Some people complain about Tom Bombadil, but in my opinion he’s a natural and organic part of the narrative in comparison with the “Stone of Erech.” I can certainly understand why Peter Jackson elected to omit that detail from the film in favor of the “City of the Dead.”
Apparently Isildur brought this gigantic black stone sphere all the way from Numenor (how?!), and made the King of the White Mountains swear an oath of fealty on it. When the King later backed out of the deal, he and all his people were cursed to restless undeath until the King could fulfill his oath.
Tolkien never comes out and says it, but it seems like the Stone had some kind of freaky necromantic power to guarantee the curse; otherwise why roll the thing all the way up to the Dwimorberg just so the King could swear his oath on it? The Stone of Erech was evidently a unique artifact, so the King of the White Mountains was presumably notorious for his untrustworthiness in such matters.
Now I love Armies of the Dead as much as the next guy, and I’m glad Tolkien figured out a way to work one into his epic. On the other hand, the image of a big black sphere half-buried on a hill doesn’t really exude the supernatural menace that the stone circles of the Barrow-Wights did. I personally am unable to envision the Stone of Erech in a way that doesn’t suggest a giant nipple or Pop-O-Matic. “Press this Stone to dispense Army of Dead.”