Timeline Event
Travellers cross the Midgewater Marshes
Event Type: General
Age: 3rd Age - Ring War
Dates: October 2, 3018 ~ October 4, 3018
Description:
An event in Frodo's Departure from the Shire and in the prelude to the Attack on the Camp at Weathertop; see either entry for an overview.
[Strider's] plan... was... to steer as straight as he could over the wild lands to Weathertop Hill. In that way they would... cut off a great loop of the Road, which further on bent southwards to avoid the Midgewater Marshes. But, of course, they would have to pass through the marshes themselves, and Strider's description of them was not encouraging.
The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 11, A Knife in the Dark
2 October 3018
On the third day out from Bree they came out of the Chetwood. The land had been falling steadily..., and they now entered a wide flat expanse of country, much more difficult to manage. They were far beyond the borders of the Bree-land, out in the pathless wilderness, and drawing near to the Midgewater Marshes.
The ground now became damp, and in places boggy and here and there they came upon pools, and wide stretches of reeds and rushes filled with the warbling of little hidden birds. They had to pick their way [through] carefully.... At first they made fair progress, but as they went on, their passage became slower and more dangerous. The marshes were bewildering and treacherous, and there was no permanent trail even for Rangers to find through their shifting quagmires. The flies began to torment them, and the air was full of clouds of tiny midges that crept up their sleeves and breeches and into their hair.
'I am being eaten alive!' cried Pippin. 'Midgewater! There are more midges than water!'
'What do they live on when they can't get hobbit?' asked Sam, scratching his neck.
They spent a miserable day in this lonely and unpleasant country. Their camping-place was damp, cold, and uncomfortable; and the biting insects would not let them sleep. There were also abominable creatures haunting the reeds and tussocks.... There were thousands of them, and they squeaked all round, neek-breek, breek-neek, unceasingly all the night, until the hobbits were nearly frantic.
The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 11, A Knife in the Dark
3 October 3018
The next day, the fourth, was little better, and the night almost as comfortless. Though the Neekerbreekers (as Sam called them) had been left behind, the midges still pursued them.
As Frodo lay, tired but unable to close his eyes, it seemed to him that far away there came a light in the eastern sky: it flashed and faded many times....
[For] a long while he could still see the white flashes.... At last he passed into uneasy sleep.
The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 11, A Knife in the Dark
4 October 3018
They had not gone far on the fifth day when they left the last straggling pools and reed-beds of the marshes behind them. The land before them began steadily to rise again. Away in the distance eastward they could now see a line of hills.
The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 11, A Knife in the Dark
Contributors:
Elena Tiriel 11Jul06
