The Trollshaws
Also calledThe Troll-fells country, The woods of Rhudaur
The Trollshaws are the wooded highlands between the Hoarwell and the Loudwater, north of the Great East Road, where Bilbo and the dwarves met three trolls in T.A. 2941. Once part of Rhudaur, they were by the Third Age a wild country of crumbling hill-forts and troll-haunted woods.
Description
East of the Last Bridge, where the Great East Road crosses the Hoarwell, the land rises into a tangle of wooded hills and ridges that stretches north-east toward the Ettenmoors and east to the Loudwater and the hidden valley of Rivendell. This is the Trollshaws. The hills are steep and dark with pine and beech, the valleys deep and wet, and the ridges are crowned with the broken walls of old towers and castles. Some of these were built by the Dúnedain of Rhudaur; more, Strider believed, by the evil hill-men who took the kingdom over under the influence of Angmar. None of them was inhabited in the Third Age.
The country got its name from the trolls that came down into it from the Ettenmoors to hunt along the Road. It was in a clearing here that Bert, Tom and William held Thorin's company over a fire in 2941, and here that they were turned to stone by the dawn. Their stone shapes were still standing when Frodo's company passed through in October 3018, and Sam recited a rhyme about them beside the very fire-pit.
History
In the days of Arnor the Trollshaws were the southern heart of Rhudaur, the smallest and least Númenórean of the three kingdoms. Its Dúnedain were few, its hill-men many, and by the middle of the fourteenth century of the Third Age the hill-men's lords had thrown off the Dúnedain and allied themselves with Angmar. The forts on the ridges belong to that unhappy period. After the destruction of Angmar in 1975 the hills emptied, and trolls from the moors moved into the woods and the abandoned caves. Gandalf and Thorin's company met three of them in 2941 and found in their cave the swords Glamdring, Orcrist and Sting. Seventy-seven years later Strider led the hobbits through the same woods off the Road, found the trolls' stone remains, and brought the company down to the Road again just in time to meet Glorfindel and race for the Ford.
Geography
Wooded upland between the Hoarwell (west) and the Loudwater (east), north of the Great East Road, rising north-east toward the Ettenmoors; the Last Bridge lies at its western edge and the Ford of Bruinen beyond its eastern.
Associated figures
Visited
Ring-bearer
Bilbo Baggins
HobbitsBilbo Baggins of Bag End was the respectable Hobbit whom Gandalf sent as burglar with Thorin Oakenshield's company to the Lonely Mountain, and who came home with a golden ring from beneath the Misty Mountains. His finding of the One Ring, his mercy to Gollum and his book set the whole War of the Ring in motion.
The ShireKing of Durin's Folk
Thorin II Oakenshield
LongbeardsThorin Oakenshield, son of Thráin II and heir of Durin's line, spent most of his life as a king in exile after Smaug took Erebor. In T.A. 2941 he led twelve Dwarves and the hobbit Bilbo Baggins on the quest that ended the dragon and restored the Kingdom under the Mountain, and he died of his wounds in the Battle of Five Armies after reconciling with Bilbo.
Erebor; halls in the Blue Mountains during the exileLord of the House of the Golden Flower
Glorfindel
NoldorGlorfindel was lord of the House of the Golden Flower in Gondolin, golden-haired and reckoned among the mightiest of the Noldor of the Hidden City. He died killing a Balrog above the pass of Cirith Thoronath so that the refugees of Gondolin could escape, and by long tradition he is the same Glorfindel who returned to Middle-earth, routed the Witch-king at Fornost, carried Frodo to the Ford of Bruinen, and sat at the Council of Elrond.
Gondolin, later RivendellHeir of Thorin Oakenshield
Fíli
LongbeardsFíli, elder son of Thorin's sister Dís, was with his brother Kíli the youngest of the thirteen Dwarves on the quest of Erebor, and as Thorin's sister-son he was his uncle's heir. He fell in the Battle of Five Armies defending Thorin's body.
Blue Mountains; Erebor- Beasts and Birds
The white Elf-horse of Glorfindel of Rivendell, hung with silver bells, which carried the wounded Frodo Baggins across the Ford of Bruinen ahead of the Nine Riders in October of T.A. 3018.
Rivendell
Dwelt in
- Stone-trolls
Bert, Tom and William Huggins were the three stone-trolls who caught Bilbo and the Dwarves in the Trollshaws in T.A. 2941 and were tricked by Gandalf into arguing until the sun rose and turned them to stone. Their cave yielded the swords Glamdring, Orcrist and Sting.
The Trollshaws
Died in
- Stone-trolls
Bert, Tom and William Huggins were the three stone-trolls who caught Bilbo and the Dwarves in the Trollshaws in T.A. 2941 and were tricked by Gandalf into arguing until the sun rose and turned them to stone. Their cave yielded the swords Glamdring, Orcrist and Sting.
The Trollshaws
Peoples
Timeline
- c. T.A. 1350
Rhudaur falls to the hill-men
Evil lords among the hill-men seize Rhudaur and ally with Angmar; the forts of the Trollshaws are built or occupied by them.
- T.A. 2941, May
The trolls turned to stone
Bilbo and the dwarves are caught by three trolls; Gandalf keeps them arguing until dawn petrifies them.
- T.A. 3018, October
Strider's company in the Trollshaws
Aragorn leads the wounded Frodo through the hills off the Road and finds the stone trolls.
Sources
- The Hobbitchapter 2
- The Fellowship of the RingBook I, chapter 12
- The Lord of the Rings: AppendicesAppendix A, I (iii)
See also
Part of
Elsewhere in Eriador
- Breetown
- Rivendellrealm
- The Shirerealm
- Angmarrealm
- Arnorrealm
- The Barrow-downsregion
- The Old Forestforest
- The Ford of Bruinenplace
- The Great East Roadroad
- The Tower Hillsregion
- Forochelregion
- Lake Evendimlake
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