Tower Hills

The Tower Hills, Emyn Beraid in Sindarin, are a short line of hills on the road between the Shire and the Grey Havens, west of the Far Downs. They are the first landmark a traveller sees after leaving hobbit country and the last high ground before the Gulf of Lune. Three white towers stand on them, visible from the Shire's western edge on a clear day.

The tallest tower is Elostirion, and Gil-galad raised it for his friend Elendil. In it was set the Stone of Emyn Beraid, a palantír unlike the other six: it did not look at the rest of the seeing-stones but only west over the Sea, and Elendil used it to gaze back toward Eressëa and the lands the Faithful had lost. Because it showed nothing of Middle-earth it played no part in the wars, and it was carried away over Sea at the end of the Third Age.

Hobbits treated the towers as scenery. The Shire-folk said you could see the Sea from the tallest of them, though few had gone to look. That changed in FoA 31, when King Elessar granted the Shire the Westmarch, the land between the Far Downs and the Tower Hills. Ten years later the Fairbairns settled at Undertowers as Wardens of the Westmarch, and the Red Book, the manuscript from which The Lord of the Rings is drawn, was kept in their house under these hills.

Events at this place

1. SA 3320 · The Silmarillion

   Gil-galad builds Elostirion

   The tallest of the three towers was raised for Elendil, and the Stone of Emyn Beraid was set in it.

2. FoA 31 · Appendices

   The Westmarch is granted

   King Elessar added the land up to the Tower Hills to the Shire. Ten years later the Fairbairns became Wardens of the Westmarch at Undertowers.

3. FoA 61 · Appendices

   Sam rides west past the Towers

   Samwise left the Red Book with his daughter Elanor at Undertowers and rode on toward the Havens.

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