Dunharrow

Dunharrow lies in the valley of Harrowdale, south of Edoras, under the Starkhorn and the Dwimorberg in the White Mountains. It is not a building but a shoulder of the mountain: a level field called the Firienfeld, high above the valley floor, reached by a road that switches back and forth up the cliff.

The road and the field were made long before the Rohirrim came. At every turn of the climb stands a squat carved figure, weathered almost featureless, which Rohan called the Púkel-men. They were cut by the same people as the Drúedain of the Drúadan Forest. At the far end of the Firienfeld a line of standing stones leads to the Dimholt wood and the Dark Door under the Dwimorberg.

Rohan used Dunharrow as the place where the people of the surrounding country hid when armies were in the Mark. Éowyn brought them up there when Théoden rode west in March TA 3019.

It then became the mustering ground. Théoden reached it on 9 March, and the éoreds of the Mark gathered on the Firienfeld. Aragorn came there ahead of the king with the Grey Company at nightfall on 7 March, and at daybreak on 8 March entered the Paths of the Dead through the Dark Door. When the host rode for Gondor on 10 March, Merry was carried along in front of a rider who gave his name as Dernhelm and was in fact Éowyn.

Events at this place

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

   Aragorn takes the Dark Door

   From the Firienfeld Aragorn led the Grey Company, Legolas and Gimli into the Paths of the Dead under the Dwimorberg.

2. TA 3019, March 9 · The Lord of the Rings

   The muster of Rohan

   Théoden gathered the riders of the Mark at Dunharrow on 9 March and set out for Minas Tirith the following day.

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