A Tolkien Lover's Guide To LOTRO, Part 4 By Jonathan and Michael Starkey

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The Passing of the Grey Company

Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and the Grey Company leave Dunharrow on horseback for the Paths of the Dead. They pass between lines of ancient stone until they come to Dimholt. Under the gloom a black trees they find a hollow place at the mountain's root. There stands a single mighty stone, like a finger of doom. So far so good. 

The Grey Company dismount and come at last to a glen with a sheer rock wall. In the wall is a gaping Dark Door, like the mouth of night. Signs and figures are carved above its wide arch. The door in the game is certaintly evil looking, but far too small, far too square and lacking carvings, apart from a few inappropriately dainty Pictish symbols.

Frustratingly, it is so dark in the Paths of the Dead that the Grey Company can't see anything apart from the path they are on. It opens out into a cavern which presumably means that they were walking through a wide rocky passageway. Away to the left something glitters. Aragorn goes to investigate. It is the bones of a mighty man, clad in mail. His hauberk is gilded. His sword is notched. He is beside a closed stoney door. The presumption, though it is never said explicitly, is that this is the body of Baldor, 2nd Lord of the Mark. We searched everywhere but couldn't find him. There is a dead Rohirrhim warrior on the path just before the stream and another just after, but they can't be Baldor. They are in the wrong place, they do not have gilded hauberks and their bodies have not decayed to bones. Baldor was a King of Rohan. These guys are just regular warriors. Considering it is the only thing described in the Paths of the Dead, it is rather disappointing that he isn't there. Never the less, if the Grey Company could see further than their lamps allow, we are failrly sure it would look exactly as it does in the game. It is a terrific bit of theatre.

 Eventually the Grey Company emerge from the Paths of the Dead through a high arched doorway. Once again, the door in the game is small and square. As they emerge a rill runs beside them. Elladan explains that it is the source of the Blackroot river and sure enough the game shows the area as Blackroot Vale. The path goes steeply down between sheer cliffs, knife-edged against the sky far above. Not quite like in the game, where the western cliffs are just little hills and the light is perfectly normal. 

As they emerge from the ravine as if it were a crack in a wall - or pretty wide crack in the game - they see that the Blackroot cascades down many waterfalls. They look out on the uplands of a great vale. The cross a bridge over the Blackroot and head off to the Hill of Erech. Not sure what's going on here. There is no bridge and no need to cross the river. It looks like Turbine have the Blackroot passing down the wrong wide of the vale. 

They come at last to the Hill of Erech, topped by the Stone of Erech that isuldur brought from Numenor. The Hill looks good but the Stone is a bit ridiculous. It is supposed to be black and the height of two men. It actually looks like a thirty foot high 10-pin bowling ball. Anyway the scene that follows with Aragorn summoning the King of the Dead and forcing them to fulfil their oath is all accurately played out in the role play instance "At the Stone of Erech". 

The Muster of Rohan

Merry meanwhile is with the Rohan riding from Helm's Deep to Underharrow along the foothills of the Ered Nimrais, the Whitehorn Mountains, to the south of Grimslade in the game. They pass through hills and vales, cross streams and enter a steep-sided downhill gorge which emerges beside a waterfall, all just like in the game.

The stream joins the Snowbourn in Harrowdale. Away to the right is the mountain of Starkhorn. The Rohirrhim cross the Snowbourn at a ford,presumably exactly where there is now convenient bridge. The head South through the tents of six thousand Rohirrhim riders then arrive at a cliff wall on the Eastern side of the vale. Here the path heads up, coiling like a snake. At each turn the figures in the likeness of men had been carved; huge, clumsy limbed, squatting cross-legged with stumpy arms folded across their fat bellies. Pukel-men they are named. The switchback climbs several hundred feet before cutting through walls of rock into a wide upland field known as the Firienfeld. All this is reproduced to perfection. 

Standing stones like rows of jagged teeth mark out the path through the Firienelfd. The same path that Aragorn had taken three days before. Theoden, Merry and crew head left off the path to a small camp in the midst of which stood a large pavillion. It is still there, with Eowyn standing outside.















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