Stone-Piles

Where the Coldfells blended into the Misty Mountains and the Giant Trace ran up from Dunland just below the tree line, a traveller wandering the vales and possessing a good eye could see three strange piles of stones, each on a separate mountain ridge, placed about ten miles apart. Each pile wass the size of a prosperous farmhouse, stacked in an open and obviously artificial way. The stones, hewn from local granite, were typically about the height of a small man and cut to differing cross sections with buttresses jutting off at odd angles. The length, shape, and positioning of the stones varied so as to form a complex and eerie pattern. It was so bizarre, in fact, that anyone looking at the assemblage with the intent of deciphering the pattern grew dazed and ill. The Stone Giants of the Misty Mountains came to worship the forces of creation at the Stone-piles, as did the Trolls of the Coldfells and Trollshaws. Dwarves attempting to exterminate the Trolls of Rhudaur had scattered the Stone-piles several times during the Second Age. Each time, the Giants rebuilt the strange conglomerations, and the Dwarven leaders died mysterious and unpleasant deaths. The Arnorians who came later heeded the Dwarves' warnings and never interfered with these shrines.