Town · The Shire
Bywater
The village by the Pool east of Hobbiton, where the last battle in the Shire was fought
- Appears in
- The Lord of the Rings
- Region
- The Shire
Bywater is the Westfarthing village on the Pool, downstream of Hobbiton and on the road that runs east to join the Great East Road. Its inn, The Green Dragon, is where Sam Gamgee argued about walking Trees and strange news from the South before the journey began, and where the Shire's gossip was generally settled.
The village gave its name to the fight that ended Saruman's hold on the Shire. On 3 November TA 3019 Merry blew the horn of Rohan in the lane, the hobbits trapped a company of Men between hedges and drove them into the field, and the fight cost the ruffians seventy dead and the Shire nineteen. The Battle of Bywater was the only battle fought inside the Shire's borders apart from the Greenfields skirmish of TA 2747.
Afterwards the prisoners were marched out and the new mill on the Water was pulled down. Sam's replanting put the Bywater Pool and its lanes back the way they had been.
Events at this place
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TA 3018, April 12 · The Lord of the Rings
The Green Dragon before the journey
Sam Gamgee heard rumours of Elves leaving, walking Trees and trouble beyond the Shire's borders in the Bywater inn.
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TA 3019, November 3 · The Lord of the Rings
The Battle of Bywater
On 3 November the hobbits, led by Merry and Pippin, destroyed Sharkey's band of ruffians in the lane and field by the village.
Frequently asked questions
Where is Bywater on the Middle-earth map?
In the Shire's Westfarthing, on the Bywater Pool about a mile east of Hobbiton and close to the road that leads to the Brandywine Bridge.
What was the Battle of Bywater?
The fight on 3 November TA 3019 in which returning hobbits under Merry and Pippin destroyed Saruman's ruffians. Nineteen hobbits and about seventy Men died.