Falls of Rauros

Rauros marks the end of the upper Anduin. The lake of Nen Hithoel narrows past Tol Brandir and the whole river falls in a roaring sheet to the lower valley, with the Emyn Muil hills on the eastern side and the descent toward the Entwash mouth and the Gondor lowlands beyond.

Gondor kept a portage-way on the western bank in better days, a track with steps by which boats could be carried down past the drop. By TA 3019 it was overgrown but still there, and Aragorn expected to use it if the Company went west.

After Boromir was killed at Amon Hen, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli laid him in one of the Elven boats with his sword, his cloven horn and the weapons of his enemies, and pushed it out into the stream. The boat turned at the lip of the falls and went over. Days later Faramir, keeping watch in Ithilien far downstream, saw it float past him on the water below Rauros.

The falls also fix the shape of the last stage of the quest. Below them the Anduin leaves the hills and the roads part: west across open country toward Minas Tirith, or east into the Emyn Muil and the marshes. Frodo took the eastern shore with Sam, and everyone else in the Company ended up on the western side of the water.

Events at this place

1. TA 3019, February 26 · The Lord of the Rings

   Boromir's funeral boat

   Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli set Boromir's body adrift on the Anduin and the boat went over the falls of Rauros.

2. TA 3019, February 29 · The Lord of the Rings

   Faramir sees the boat

   Keeping watch on the river in Ithilien, Faramir saw the gray boat carrying his brother's body drift past on the Anduin.

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