There are lots of dangerous stones in Middle Earth, from the Arkenstone that drives the King under the Mountain mad with dragon sickness, to the Palantiri, the seven seeing stones that allow their users to communicate telepathically and see visions of the future, but which have been corrupted by Sauron. And among these unusual spheres of the world, is the Stone of Erech, a powerful and binding obsidian orb, that once desecrated an entire race of people.
The Second Age of Middle Earth was wrought with many perils and threats. Melkor, or Morgoth as others knew him, was the original dark lord of Middle Earth. Having been overthrown in the First Age of the world, Melkor left a void for a new evil master to arise, and his second in command Sauron rose to meet the challenge. The Second Age of the world saw a long and difficult battle wage against Sauron, in which a Last Alliance of elves and men banded together to try and stave off Sauron’s dominion, for they knew that is he won the battle, it would spell disaster for every peaceful nation in all the realms.
The onslaught lasted for more than 7 years, after which time Sauron appeared out on the battlefield himself, the first time he came in physical form from behind the Black Gates. But in doing so, he left himself vulnerable in a way that never could have been foreseen. Isildur, the son of the king who had just been slain by Sauron’s evil hands, took this chance to pick up a fallen sword and cut the One Ring of power from the evil lord’s fingers.
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Of course, removing the ring wasn’t enough to kill Sauron completely, who fled to some far corners of the world to regain his strength. But the battle had been hard-won, and many lives were lost, and Isildur grew wrathful, because he had demanded the allegience of the Men of the Mountains, who had sworn that they would come and fight for him, but had forsaken this holy vow, and had not turned up when they were needed most.
Unfortunately for the men, they had sworn this oath upon the Stone of Erech, an ancient relic of Numenor that lay in a valley on the edges of their borders. Unbeknownst to them, the stone had a terrible curse upon it, and would bind them to the world until they fulfilled the promise that they had sworn upon it, to serve the heir of Gondor until the great evil was defeated from the realm. It is not known clearly whether the Stone of Erech, in its cruel demand for recompense, killed the men with it’s unbelievable power and trapped them beneath the mountain, or whether it just kept their souls lingering there, never to be free, after they had died in other battles or of natural causes.
Either way, the soldiers who had promised their swords were trapped there for over a thousand years, restless under the mountains, with no way to free themselves of this torment. Thus they became known as the Army of the Dead, and the people in the lands all around were terrified of them, and no man dared go near their tunnels, as those who did were never seen again. Luckily for the Army of the Dead, the line of Isildur was not broken as they at first had believed. In the Third Age, during the War of the Ring, Aragorn comes to claim their services, and give them a chance to redeem their double-crossing behavior. As the last in line, he is the heir to the throne of Gondor, and intends to save the kingdoms from Sauron’s destruction, and prove himself worthy of his heritage.
In the dark of night, on the eve of battle, he and his fellow rangers of the Dunedain, known as the Grey Company, ride beneath the mountains to commune with the dead. Aragorn unfurls a banner that is a sign of his lineage, and shows the re-forged Narsil, the blade that was broken when the ring was cut from Sauron’s hands. This is enough to convince the army that he is who he says he is, and they travel with him and the Grey Company to the Stone of Erech.
Here the vow was made, and only here can it be absolved. So they vow to serve the heir of Gondor once more, and go forth with him into many hazardous situations. They defeat the Corairs of Umbar, pirates of sorts who are sailing up to ambush from the south. They help take down the mighty Mumakil, the oliphaunts of the Haradrim who are desecrating Pelennor fields, and they finally fulfill their long ago oath. Aragorn knows it would have been a very different outcome if the Army of the Dead had not fought for their side, so he releases them of their bonds, and the Stone of Erech is finally satisfied enough to let them go in peace.