Strange Curses!

[Gelmir]

When reading "The passing of the grey company" a thought came to me. How were the men of the mountains cursed? I think it was Isildur who cursed them, (correct me if I’m wrong), If so, how did he do that? He was a mortal, how could he have such powers to curse someone so?
To me he would need to be an ainur of some description to have powers like this. Did he have a wizard friend or something?
Can anyone help?

[Morsul the Dark]

This conused me as well

ALthough perhaps being as powerful as he was he, at least in the beginning, could bend the ring ever so slightly (because I believe the ring was weakened mainly out of confusion at having a new master) and used it to curse them

[dancing spawn of ungoliant]

There's only this problem that Isildur cursed the men before he went to war against Sauron i.e. he didn't have the Ring then.
" And if the West prove mightier than thy Black Master, this curse I lay upon thee and thy folk..."
If Isildur had lost the battle the curse wouldn't have worked (or that is how I understand it).

[Morsul the Dark]

ALright and Ill now admit I thought it was after my mistake... but that does not explain how he did the curse and I think if a mortal can curse an entire army for an eternity then a red eye can manifest on top of a tower

here's my second less magical answers

He filled the souls of the warriors with such guilt that they did not feel worthy of death and stayed to the land.... but why curse them only if you win.... It would make more sense to curse them if you lose (indeed curse them either way) but if you lost it may have been the lack of warriors you had and their army was the amount need to overpower the dark lord...

[Son of Númenor]

I don't think, Morsul, that it was the power of the Ring that Isildur used to curse the dead army. If it were, then likely only the person who wielded the Ring could lift the curse; as it was, the person who lifted the curse was Aragorn, Heir of Isildur, not Frodo, Ring-bearer.

In many mythologies, curses (and oaths) are very serious business, no matter who the curser is. The 'curse' is tied up with the concept of 'fate vs. free will' that runs as a primary theme throughout Tolkien's works (Morgoth's curse on the House of Hurin, the Oath of Feanor, etc). In a world where two opposing entities - fate and free will - are constantly at work, where prophecies and oaths are being made and curses cast, and where only the Creator can see all ends, a being such as Morgoth has no more 'right' or 'ability' to curse than a mortal man.

[Mister Underhill]

There's a very old and very interesting thread that examines this topic: "The curse of Isildur..." Old-timers will remember Saulotus in his surfer-dude persona in this one.

That discussion spawned a more generalized -- but still quite interesting -- discussion of "Magic in Middle-earth".

For those who like perusing scrolls of ancient and nearly-forgotten lore...

[Gelmir]

I hate it when that happens, you think you've started a good topic, and then someone has to ruins it by directing you to another, it's alright Underhill. Any hoo, lets see the old and dusty topic then.
Its pretty cool.

Hooray, I'm now a pile o' bones!

[Mister Underhill]

Don't take me wrong, Gelmir. Those topics are very old and many of their participants don't even post here anymore. I thought they might be worth looking at to see what ideas others had had, but there's no reason the topic can't be continued here, perhaps fueled by and building from those older ideas.