Erech

Find the Blackroot Vale on the map, the valley of the Morthond river below Dunharrow, and follow it up: Erech is the hill at its head. The stone is a black sphere roughly the height of a man, half sunk in the ground, and the country people avoided it. The Paths of the Dead come out at the head of the same valley, which is why Aragorn reached Erech on the same day he entered the mountains at Dunharrow.

Isildur brought the stone out of the wreck of Númenor and set it there when Gondor was founded. The King of the Mountains, chief of the hill men who had once worshipped Sauron in the Dark Years, swore fealty to Isildur on that stone. When the war against Sauron came, he refused the summons, and Isildur cursed him and his people never to rest until they fulfilled the oath.

Aragorn came out of the Paths of the Dead and reached the stone at midnight at the end of 8 March TA 3019, and blew a horn there. He declared himself Isildur's heir and called the Dead to follow him to Pelargir. They came, and after the Corsair fleet was taken he released them and they departed.

Events at this place

1. SA 3320 · The Lord of the Rings

   Isildur sets the stone

   Isildur brought the black stone from Númenor and placed it on the hill, and the King of the Mountains swore fealty on it.

2. SA 3429 · The Lord of the Rings

   The oath broken

   The mountain men refused to fight Sauron, and Isildur cursed them to have no rest until their oath was kept.

3. TA 3019, March 8 · The Lord of the Rings

   The muster of the Dead

   On 8 March Aragorn summoned the Oathbreakers at the Stone of Erech and led them south against the Corsairs.

Frequently asked questions