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Places in Middle-earth

Brandywine Bridge

Type: Fords, Bridges, Crossings

Region: Bree/The Shire

Other Names
Great Bridge
Bridge of Stonebows

Location: The stone bridge on the Great East Road crossing the Baranduin (Brandywine River) north of Buckland in the Shire.

Description:

For it was in the one thousand six hundred and first year of the Third Age that the Fallohide brothers, Marcho and Blanco, set out from Bree; and having obtained permission from the high king at Fornost, they crossed the brown river Baranduin with a great following of Hobbits. They passed over the Bridge of Stonebows, that had been built in the days of the power of the North Kingdom and they took all the land beyond to dwell in, between the river and the Far Downs. All that was demanded of them was that they should keep the Great Bridge in repair, and all other bridges and roads, speed the king's messengers, and acknowledge his lordship.

The Lord of the Rings, Prologue, Concerning Hobbits

Forty leagues [the Shire] stretched from the Far Downs to the Brandywine Bridge, and fifty from the northern moors to the marshes in the south.

The Lord of the Rings, Prologue, Concerning Hobbits

Occasionally the Hobbits of Bree went as far as Buckland, or the Eastfarthing;... their little land was not much further than a day's riding east of the Brandywine Bridge....

The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 9, At the Sign of the Prancing Pony

[On] the outskirts of Bucklebury [they] struck the main road of Buckland that ran south from the Bridge.

The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 5, A Conspiracy Unmasked

[Buckland] was originally unprotected from the East; but on that side they had built a hedge: the High Hay.... It ran all the way from Brandywine Bridge, in a big loop curving away from the river, to Haysend....

The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 5, A Conspiracy Unmasked

The four hobbits stepped off the [Buckleberry Ferry]....

On the far stage..., they could just make out a figure....

'Thank goodness you don't keep any boats on the west-bank!' said Frodo. 'Can horses cross the river?'

'They can go ten 1 miles north to Brandywine Bridge — or they might swim,' answered Merry. 'Though I never heard of any horse swimming the Brandywine.'

The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 5, A Conspiracy Unmasked

It was a good forty miles from the Bridge to Bag End....

The Return of the King, LoTR Book 6, Ch 8, The Scouring of the Shire

As evening fell they were drawing near to Frogmorton, a village right on the Road, about twenty-two miles from the Bridge.

The Return of the King, LoTR Book 6, Ch 8, The Scouring of the Shire


Notes
1Editions of The Lord of the Rings prior to 2004 gave this distance as twenty miles.

Contributors:
Moriel 8Jun03
Lyllyn 15Nov03
Elena Tiriel 28Oct05

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