The Middle-earth Mysteries

they get there? Why didn't anyone stop them? And where did Ungoliant live at the time? It doesn't seem likely Isildur would build a city right next to a monstrous spider which fed on Men and Elves. Something that has always bothered me is who those mysterious Men were who traded with Laketown in The Hobbit. They lived south of the Long Lake and were apparently Northmen, but where did they live? The Old Forest Road, according to the book, "was overgrown and disused at its eastern end and led to impassable marshes where the paths had been long lost." The road was originally made by Dwarves. They used it to reach the Celduin and from there somehow passed northeast to the Iron Hills. If there were men still living along Celduin (the Running River, which arose in Erebor), why didn't they settle at the point where the Old Forest Road met the river? Or perhaps they had at one time lived there but had been driven off. Then there is the question of why Gandalf and Beorn decided to take Bilbo all the way around the northern skirts of Mirkwood when they returned to the west. There were, in fact, men living in those regions in ancient times, and probably still men living there at the end of the Third Age, but there is no indication of that on the Hobbit map or in the text. It just seems a very strange decision given that the Elvenking probably would have ensured their safe passage through the forest. Turning south, we can look at Pelargir and ask what became of Gondor's fleet. Aragorn's raid on Umbar was the last time any Gondorian ships moved against an enemy in the Third Age. By the time of the War of the Ring the threat from Umbar and other southern havens was so great that Denethor was willing to leave 9/10ths of the strength of Gondor's forces near the coastlands to ward them against attack from the sea. Had he disbanded Gondor's fleet after becoming Steward, perhaps because it had been Thorongil, his rival, who had led the attack on the City of the Corsairs? And why did no one attempt to recolonize Eriador after the destruction of Angmar? The presence of the Barrow-wights in Tyrn Gorthad, the Barrow-downs, explains why no one tried to settle there again. But where the plains south of Sarn Ford that uninhabitable? What about

Go To Page: 1 2 3 4

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic