Midgewater Marshes

The marshes sit in the flat country between Bree and Weathertop, north of the Great East Road, which skirts them to the south. Anyone using the Road avoids them entirely; anyone trying not to be seen from the Road does not have that option.

Aragorn took the hobbits into them on 3 October TA 3018 after leaving Bree, reckoning that watchers on the Road were the greater danger. The crossing took days. Clouds of midges got into sleeves and collars, the ground would not hold a camp, and the nights were made worse by insects the hobbits called neekerbreekers, whose noise never stopped. Sam counted the marshes as the low point of the journey to that date.

From their eastern edge the company could see the Weather Hills ahead, and a flash of light in the distance that turned out to have been Gandalf, fighting the Nazgûl on Weathertop before they arrived.

Events at this place

1. TA 3018, October 1 · The Lord of the Rings

   Crossing the marshes

   Aragorn led Frodo's party off the Road into the marshes in early October to avoid watchers, and the crossing cost several days of hard going.

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