Before The Lord of the Rings, Middle-earth Faced Two Deadly Winters (2024)

The Lord of the Rings

By Sterling Ulrich

Published 3 days ago

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The Long Winter Trapped the Rohirrim in Helm's Deep

The Fell Winter Nearly Destroyed the Shire

The Shire's Deadly Winters Led to the Events of The Lord of the Rings

Summary

The Long Winter and the Fell Winter were two devastating periods of snow in Middle-earth's history.
The Long Winter mainly affected Rohan and the Shire, and it caused the death of a king.
The Fell Winter froze the Brandywine River, which gave ferocious creatures access to the Shire.

The Long Winter Trapped the Rohirrim in Helm's Deep

The Lord of the Rings' Calendar Was Better Than Ours

The appendices of The Lord of the Rings revealed that hobbits used a unique calendar that improved upon real-world calendars in some surprising ways.

Winter Months	Events in The Lord of the Rings
December	The Fellowship leaves Rivendell
January	The Fellowship goes through the Mines of Moria, the Fellowship visits Lothlórien
February	The Fellowship leaves Lothlórien, the Fellowship breaks at Amon Hen, Frodo and Sam meet Gollum

The Long Winter began in the year 2758 of the Third Age, about 260 years before the events of The Lord of the Rings. Bitter temperatures and heavy snow began in November, and these conditions lasted until March of the following year. The Long Winter affected most of the Westlands, but one region suffered more than any other: Rohan. The Long Winter could not have come at a worse time for the Rohirrim, as they were at war with the Dunlendings. This conflict will be the focus of the upcoming animated film The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. Shortly before the Long Winter, the Dunlendings forced the Rohirrim out of their capital city, Edoras. King Helm Hammerhand led the people of Rohan to the Hornburg, which would come to be known as Helm's Deep. When the snow came, it all but trapped them there.

The Long Winter was harmful to both sides of the war, but it was worse for the Rohirrim, as they had limited supplies in Helm's Deep. Helm's son died of cold while attempting to attack the Dunlendings during a blizzard, and Helm met the same fate shortly thereafter. Only once the snow thawed were the Rohirrim able to drive back the Dunlendings and reclaim Edoras. By the time of The Lord of the Rings, the Long Winter had passed from living memory, but the legend of Helm Hammerhand remained an important part of Rohan's culture. The Long Winter also had an impact on the Shire; the cold snap caused a food shortage that lasted until 2760. This would have been a problem for any civilization, but it was especially devastating for the Shire, as hobbits were accustomed to eating copious amounts.

The Fell Winter Nearly Destroyed the Shire

Why Did it Take 17 Years for Frodo to Leave The Shire?

Frodo was the most famous user of the One Ring. But after he obtained it, why did it take him so long to leave the Shire with Gandalf?

Gondor faced attacks from the Haradrim and Corsairs of Umbar during the Long Winter, so the Gondorians and Rohirrim were unable to help each other.

The Long Winter was not the only period of deadly cold in the Shire. The Fell Winter began in 2911 of the Third Age when Bilbo was 21 years old. Like the Long Winter, it lasted from November to March. It was the second of two Fell Winters; the previous happened during the First Age, and though it must have been important to receive the moniker, Tolkien wrote little about it. The second Fell Winter caused a famine in the Shire like the Long Winter did, but that was not the greatest threat that the hobbits faced. The frigid temperatures caused the Brandywine River to freeze over, allowing creatures from the wilderness outside the Shire to cross the water. Among these creatures were vicious white wolves from the north who attacked the Shire's inhabitants. Tolkien did not specify whether they were Wargs or ordinary wolves, but their unusually aggressive nature made the former a likely possibility.

The Lord of the Rings mentioned this event when the Nazgûl invaded the Shire in the chapter "A Knife in the Dark" from The Fellowship of the Ring: "The Brandybucks were blowing the Horn-call of Buckland, that had not been sounded for a hundred years, not since the white wolves came in the Fell Winter." Unfortunately, the end of the Fell Winter was not the end of the hobbits' troubles, as the melting snow and ice caused mass flooding. Tharbad, a city of Men southeast of the Shire, was destroyed by one of these floods. This was the last bout of severe weather in the region before the events of The Lord of the Rings; in the chapter "The Ring Goes South" from The Fellowship of the Ring, Tolkien wrote, "Except on the high moors of the Northfarthing a heavy [snow] fall was rare in the Shire, and was regarded as a pleasant event and a chance for fun. No living hobbit (save Bilbo) could remember the Fell Winter."

The Shire's Deadly Winters Led to the Events of The Lord of the Rings

Before The Lord of the Rings, Middle-earth Faced Two Deadly Winters (5)

The Lord of the Rings: What Was in the Far North of Middle-earth?

In Prime Video's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Galadriel traveled north to one of Middle-earth's most obscure and dangerous locations.

The white wolves might have come from Forodwaith, the Northern Waste.

The Long Winter had a silver lining. At some point in either 2758 or 2759, Gandalf learned of the hobbits' plight and came to their aid. Tolkien only wrote a short sentence about this in the timeline of The Lord of the Rings, but he expanded on it in a passage from Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth. In the section "The Quest of Erebor," Gandalf tells Frodo about his first meeting with hobbits:

And then there was the Shire-folk. I began to have a warm place in my heart for them in the Long Winter, which none of you can remember. They were very hard put to it then: one of the worst pinches they have been in, dying of cold, and starving in the dreadful dearth that followed. But that was the time to see their courage, and their pity one for another. It was by their pity as much as their tough uncomplaining courage that they survived. I wanted them to survive.

That was Gandalf's first time coming to the Shire, and it began his deep love for hobbits. He would later befriend the Old Took, and he helped the Shire again during the Fell Winter in Bilbo's youth. Since Gandalf was associated with fire, it is fitting that he helped combat the cold.

Tolkien believed that everything happened for a reason and that good could arise from tragedy. In the section "Ainulindalé" from The Silmarillion, Eru Ilùvatar, the god of Tolkien's legendarium, told the future Dark Lord Morgoth, "And thou... shalt see that no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me... For he that attempteth this shall prove but mine instrument in the devising of things more wonderful, which he hath not imagined." This quote was particularly pertinent to the Long Winter and Fell Winter, as Morgoth was responsible for extreme temperatures in Middle-earth. The Long Winter and Fell Winter brought suffering to the hobbits, but they also introduced them to Gandalf, and thanks to the connection he formed with them, he was eventually able to save the world by sending Frodo on his journey to destroy the One Ring in The Lord of the Rings.