The Dead and The Undead

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Huinesoron

I wondered that same thing. Aragorn may imply it, if you squint: he calls out "Keep your hoards and your secrets hidden in the Accursed Years!"

I was just thinking about this when I read Tolkien's poem The Hoard, collected in "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil". The Foreword only describes it as "depend[ing] on the lore of Rivendell, Elvish and Numenorean", but it the poem ends like this:

There is an old hoard in a dark rock,
forgotten behind doors none can unlock;
that grim gate no man can pass.
On the mound grows the green grass;
there sheep feed and the larks soar,
and the wind blows from the sea-shore.
The old hoard the Night shall keep,
while earth waits and the Elves sleep.

I think this poem has to be about the Paths of the Dead. Aragorn's description of Baldor, just before 'keep your hoards', reads in part:

Originally Posted by RotK

‘Nine mounds and seven there are now green with grass, and through all the long years he has lain at the door that he could not unlock.

That's too close for coincidence. My guess is that Tolkien wrote the poem first, and was thinking of it when he wrote about Dunharrow, though it certainly could be the other way round.

The poem seems to track the fate of a hoard of gold and jewels: made by elves in the First Age, taken by the dwarves, seized by dragons, claimed by a young warrior, and hoarded in the mountains by a king whose evil country was wiped out by an unknown enemy.

That looks a lot like an amalgam. As a hobbit-poem that's about what we'd expect, and the Rohan connection makes me wonder if it was written by Merry, who we know was into lore. He could have merged what little he knew about the Paths of the Dead with the tale of Fram and Scatha, and then blended the whole thing with Bilbo's adventures (Elven treasure taken by dwarves and then dragons). But as an informative tale about the Dead of Dunharrow, I think it's probably lacking.

hS