Gladden Fields

The Gladden Fields, Loeg Ningloron in Sindarin, spread along the Anduin where the Gladden River comes down from the Misty Mountains. They lie south of the Carrock and Beorn's country and north of Lothlórien, on the eastern side of the Great River. The name comes from the yellow iris, called gladdon, that grows across the marsh with the reeds.

Two years after the Last Alliance, Isildur rode north from Gondor with his three eldest sons and a small company, heading for Rivendell. Orcs out of the Misty Mountains ambushed them here in far greater numbers than expected. Elendur, Aratan and Ciryon were killed. Isildur put on the Ring and went into the Anduin to swim clear. The Ring slipped from his finger in the water, the river showed him, and he was shot with arrows as he reached the shallows. Only three of the company survived to carry the news.

The Ring lay in the riverbed for nearly two and a half thousand years. Stoor hobbits had settled by the Gladden by then. Around TA 2463 Déagol, fishing from a boat, was pulled into the water and found it in the mud. Sméagol killed him for it on the bank, and eventually took it into the Misty Mountains.

Everything in both books follows from those two accidents in the same stretch of marsh, which is why this unremarkable patch of reeds is one of the most important points on the map.

Events at this place

1. TA 2 · Appendices

   Disaster of the Gladden Fields

   Orcs ambushed Isildur's company by the Anduin. Isildur and three of his sons were killed and the One Ring was lost in the river.

2. TA 2463 · The Lord of the Rings

   Déagol finds the Ring

   A Stoor named Déagol pulled the Ring out of the riverbed. Sméagol strangled him for it on his birthday and kept it.

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