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Region · Eriador

Enedwaith

The empty middle country between the Greyflood and the Isen, stripped of its forests by Númenor

View on map Eriador
Appears in
Appendices
Region
Eriador
Enedwaith on the map of Middle-earth

Enedwaith means Middle-folk or middle region, and the name fits its place on the map. It is the land between Eriador and the realms of the south: the river Gwathló, called Greyflood, marks its northern border, the Isen its southern one, the Misty Mountains close it on the east, and the sea on the west. Anyone traveling from the Shire toward Rohan by the old road crossed it after passing Tharbad.

In the Second Age this country carried dense forest. The Númenóreans, hungry for timber, felled it from the haven of Lond Daer at the mouth of the Gwathló and worked steadily inland along both riverbanks. The wild men of the region fought the fellings, lost, and drifted east into the hills of Dunland or south. What the axes left behind turned to moorland, heath and reedy fen.

Gondor and Arnor claimed Enedwaith between them but never truly settled it. Tharbad on the Greyflood kept the road open for centuries, garrisoned by both kingdoms. When the Fell Winter and the floods that followed wrecked Tharbad, the bridge and causeway collapsed and the region was left to shepherds and to the occasional ranger.

By the time of the War of the Ring, Enedwaith is a place travelers hurry through. Aragorn knew its fords and its grasslands, and the Grey Company rode down through it from the north. On the map it explains a gap that otherwise looks strange: hundreds of miles of well watered land with no town marked on it at all.

Events at this place

  1. SA 1800 · Appendices

    Númenórean felling of the forests

    Shipwrights working out of Lond Daer cut the woods of Enedwaith along the Gwathló. The native men resisted and were driven into the eastern hills.

  2. TA 2912 · Appendices

    Ruin of Tharbad and abandonment

    Great floods after the Fell Winter destroyed Tharbad and its bridge. The road through Enedwaith fell out of use and the region emptied further.

Frequently asked questions

Where is Enedwaith on the Middle-earth map?

It lies between the river Gwathló in the north and the river Isen in the south, west of Dunland and south of Minhiriath, roughly halfway between the Shire and Rohan.

Why is Enedwaith so empty?

The Númenóreans cut down its forests for shipbuilding in the Second Age and drove out the people who lived there. The land turned to moor and was never resettled.

Does Enedwaith appear in The Lord of the Rings?

It is not named in the main narrative, but the Fellowship and the Grey Company cross or skirt it, and it is described in the Appendices and in Tolkien's later writings on the Gwathló.