The Encyclopedia of Arda - an interactive guide to the world of J.R.R. Tolkien
Dates
Originally a bridge; became a ford at some point after the War of the Last Alliance at the end of the Second Age1
Location
At the crossing of Anduin by the road that carried on into Mirkwood as the Old Forest Road
Settlements
Lay some miles to the south and west of the house of Beorn
Passes
Associated with the road descending from the High Pass through the Misty Mountains

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About this entry:

  • Updated 6 January 2020
  • Updates planned: 1

Old Ford

The main crossing of the Anduin in the north

Map of the Old Ford

The point where the Old Forest Road crossed the River Anduin, about forty miles downriver from the Carrock. In older times, the river was crossed by a stone bridge here, but by the end of the Third Age, the bridge had long since disappeared, and the crossing was no more than a simple ford.


Notes

1

According to comments reproduced in Unfinished Tales, at the end of the Second Age the road that ran down from the High Pass led to a bridge across Anduin. Indeed, at the time of the War of the Last Alliance the bridge was strengthened to accommodate the southward-marching armies of Elves and Men. This crossing point is the location later occupied by the Old Ford, so at some point during the Third Age the bridge must have been broken.

Given that the crossing was known as the Old Ford at the end of the Third Age, this was presumably some time beforehand, though we have no specific date. We know that the bridge of Tharbad was ruined in the widespread flooding the followed the Fell Winter in III 2912, and perhaps the same is true of the lost bridge that once spanned Anduin. If so, the Old Ford would have been a little more than a hundred years old by the time of the War of the Ring.

Indexes:

About this entry:

  • Updated 6 January 2020
  • Updates planned: 1

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