[Boromir88]

Originally Posted by Huinesoron

See, now I'd always taken this story entirely at face value, but now you've got me thinking about it... could the 'old man' be a Drúedain watch-stone? We know the Púkel-men were considered to be carved by them, and the repeated references to stone suggest it - as does the fact that Tolkien bothered to write "The Faithful Stone" at all. There's no other stories which link them to animated statues, right? The idea of the 'old man' as an ancient watch-stone expending its last drop of energy does seem to hold up.

If so, this would mean there were four players in the drama of The Broken Oath: the men of the mountains, Sauron who had corrupted them, Isildur who wanted their alliegance - and the Woses, ignored by everyone else, who carefully set their watch-stones to guard the cursed caverns which the Oathbreakers still haunted.

hS

Well, it could have simply been an old man, that is I believe the traditional reading is the face value interpretation. Some 2500 years pass from when Isildur cursed them and Baldor finds the door. Despite that I think the area was still populated by Pukel-men and the Men of Dunharrow were ancestors of the Dunlendings, who had been pushed into the White Mountains by the Numenoreans and then the Rohirrim.

It seems like that would be an awful occupation, just sitting outside the entrance to a Sauron Temple to warn intruders the way is shut. In 2500 years it appears only Baldor and Brego stumbled upon it. When I read the part this last time, I can't shake out the image the old man is the bridge-keeper from Monty Python.

(Edit: and actually the quote from The Rivers and Beacon-hills of Gondor does suggest it was a living old-man, as the end suggests enemies snuck up from behind Baldor and broke his legs. Grim!)

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

I am curious about this. Is there any source to suggest this as Baldor's destination?

It comes from a later essay Tolkien wrote but did not complete, The Rivers and Beacon-hills of Gondor. The essay is referenced in HOME, but CT said was not completely published do to lack of space. I think the expectation is The Rivers and Beacon-hills of Gondor will be published in the new book, The Nature of Middle-earth.

The Men of Darkness built temples, some of great size, usually surrounded by dark trees, often in caverns (natural or delved) in secret valleys of mountain-regions; such as the dreadful halls and passages under the Haunted Mountain beyond the Dark Door (Gate of the Dead) in Dunharrow. The special horror of the closed door before which the skeleton of Baldor was found was probably due to the fact that the door was the entrance to an evil temple hall to which Baldor had come, probably without opposition up to that point. But the door was shut in his face, and enemies that had followed him silently came up and broke his legs and left him to die in the darkness, unable to find any way out.