Trollshaws

The Trollshaws cover the ground between the two rivers that the Great East Road has to cross before it reaches Rivendell, with the Ettenmoors above them to the north. The country is steep and thickly wooded, littered with the ruined walls of the old kingdom of Rhudaur, and it has a reputation for trolls that is entirely deserved.

The famous incident belongs to The Hobbit. In TA 2941 Thorin's company saw a fire in the trees and sent Bilbo to investigate. Bilbo was caught picking a pocket, the dwarves were bagged one by one, and Gandalf kept the three trolls arguing about how to cook them until the sun came up and turned Bert, Tom and William to stone. Their cave held a hoard with three elven blades in it: Glamdring, which Gandalf kept, Orcrist, which Thorin carried, and the knife Bilbo named Sting.

Frodo's company came through the same woods in October TA 3018 and found the trolls still standing in a clearing with birds' nests behind their ears. Sam made up a rhyme about a troll and a bone on the spot, and the party camped at the trolls' feet, which is as safe a campsite as that country offers.

Events at this place

1. TA 2941 · The Hobbit

   The trolls take Thorin's company

   Bert, Tom and William captured the dwarves one by one until Gandalf's mimicry kept them arguing until sunrise turned them to stone.

2. TA 2941 · The Hobbit

   The troll-hoard opened

   In the trolls' cave the company found Glamdring, Orcrist and Sting, along with gold that Gandalf and Bilbo buried and recovered on the journey home.

3. TA 3018, October 18 · The Lord of the Rings

   Frodo passes the stone trolls

   On 18 October the hobbits found Bilbo's trolls in a clearing, weathered and harmless, and Sam recited a rhyme he had just invented.

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