Mornan

The river Morthond or Blackroot emerged from a deep ravine on the southern side of the White Mountains, running out into a broad bay in the mountains and flowing on past the Hill of Erech toward the south. It formed a valley whose upper parts were shrouded in shadow by the mountains, and from this gloom, in part, the river got its name. The valley of Morthond was known by Men as the Morthond Vale or Blackroot Vale, but in Elvish it was Mornan, simply the 'black vale'.

The shadow of the mountains accounted in part for the darkness in the name, but the upper parts of the vale were a place of dread for other reasons, too. It was at the head of the valley, within the ravine where Morthond had its sources, that the Paths of the Dead reached their southern extent. From beneath the shadows under the mountains, the Dead Men of Dunharrow would emerge at times, and so living Men shunned the upper Mornan and the lands around Erech.

Though the Dead haunted the upper valley of Mornan, many Men dwelt along the lower stretches of the river Morthond. This lower valley formed a fief within Gondor, held by its own lord. At the end of the Third Age, this lord of the Blackroot Vale was named Duinhir, and he led five hundred of his people away from Mornan to aid in the defence of Minas Tirith during the War of the Ring. During that War, Aragorn led the Dead Men away from their haunts beneath the mountains, and would eventually release them from the curse that bound them to Middle-earth. As the Fourth Age began, then, the living Men of Mornan were finally freed from the fear that kept them from the upper part of their valley.