Mirkwood
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Mirkwood is a name used for two fictional and distinct forests in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy legendarium, located in Rhovanion, east of the Misty Mountains in Middle-earth.
The term is borrowed from the forest Myrkviðr of Norse mythology. Projected into Old English, it appears as Myrcwudu in Tolkien's The Lost Road, as a poem sung by Aelfwine (King Sheave, The Lost Road and Other Writings:91) [1]:
- Sea-danes and Goths, Swedes and Northmen,
- Franks and Frisians, folk of the islands,
- Swordmen and Saxons, Swabes and English,
- and the Langobards who long ago
- beyond Myrcwudu a mighty realm
- and wealth won them in the Welsh countries
- where Ælfwine Eadwine's heir
- in Italy was king. All that has passed.
[edit] Middle-earth narrative
In The Silmarillion, the highlands of Dorthonion eventually fell under Morgoth's spell, and was renamed to Taur-nu-Fuin ("Forest under Deadly Nightshade") in Sindarin, a name which Tolkien translated as Mirkwood in English. Along with the rest of Beleriand this forest disappeared after the cataclysm of the War of Wrath, although part of its peaks may have survived as an island far off the coast of Lindon.
In The Lord of the Rings and associated writings, Mirkwood is used as a translation of the unknown Westron name for the great forest in Rhovanion. The forest held the dwelling of a Silvan Elven realm ruled by Sindarin lords, firstly the Elvenking Oropher and subsequently his son Thranduil after the fall of Sauron. It had been called Greenwood the Great until around the year 1100 in the Third Age of the Years of the Sun, when a shadow of the dark lord Sauron fell upon it, and men began to call it Taur-nu-Fuin and Taur-e-Ndaedelos in the Sindarin tongue. Sauron established himself at the hill-fortress of Dol Guldur on Amon Lanc, and drove Thranduil and his people ever northward, so that by the end of the Third Age they were a diminished and wary people, who had entrenched themselves beyond the Mountains of Mirkwood (Emyn Fuin, formerly the Emyn Duir or "Dark Mountains"). The Old Forest Road or Old Dwarf Road crossed the forest east to west, but due to its relative proximity to Dol Guldur, the road was mostly unusable. The Elves made a path farther to the north, which ended somewhere in the marshes south of the Long Lake of Esgaroth.
In The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, along with Thorin Oakenshield and his band of Dwarves, ventured into Mirkwood during their quest to regain Erebor from the Dragon Smaug. There, they came across many great spiders, the breed of Shelob. Shortly after the dwarves' escape they were captured by the Elves. After or during these events the White Council attacked Dol Guldur, and Sauron fled to Mordor, and his influence in Mirkwood diminished for a while.
Years later, Gollum, after his release from Mordor, was captured by Aragorn and brought as a prisoner to Thranduil's halls. He escaped during an Orc raid, and fled south to Moria.
After Sauron was reduced to a powerless "spirit of malice" at the conclusion of the Third Age, the darkness was lifted from Mirkwood, and it became known as Eryn Lasgalen, Sindarin for the Wood of Greenleaves.
Mirkwood lies east of the Misty Mountains' rain shadow and has a humid-continental climate; winters are cold throughout but much longer in the north, while the south has hotter summers.
Mirkwood was one of the few Elven havens in the Fourth Age, as it contained Silvan elves, who were more relunctant to depart Middle-earth than their Noldorin kin. Those from Lothlorien who didn't already leave Middle-earth migrated to Mirkwood during the early Fourth Age.
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| Realms of Men: | Arnor • Gondor • Lond Daer • Númenor • Rohan • Umbar |
| Realms of the Elves: | Dorwinion • Edhellond • Eregion • Lindon • Lórinand • Greenwood the Great • Rivendell |
| Realms of the Dwarves: | Belegost • Khazad-dûm |
| Realms of the Ents: | Fangorn forest |
| Realms of the enemy: | Cirith Ungol • Mordor |
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| Realms of Men: | Arnor • Arthedain • Breeland • Cardolan • Corsairs of Umbar • Dale • Dol Amroth • Dunland • Éothéod • Esgaroth • Gondor • Harad • Khand • Rhovanion • Rhudaur • Rhûn • Rohan • Umbar |
| Realms of the Elves: | Lindon • Lothlórien • Northern Mirkwood • Rivendell |
| Realms of the Dwarves: | Belegost • Erebor • Grey Mountains • Iron Hills • Khazad-dûm |
| Realms of the Hobbits: | Breeland • Gladden Fields • The Shire |
| Realms of the Ents: | Fangorn forest |
| Uncertain population: | Dorwinion |
| Realms of the enemy: | Angmar • Barad-dûr • Dol Guldur • Isengard • Mordor |
