Middle-earth from The Hobbit to the Grey Havens: Every Journey and Battle on One Map

A Map Made of Journeys

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are, more than anything, stories of people on the road. Thorin's company walks and rides from Bag End to the Lonely Mountain; Frodo carries the Ring from the Shire to Mount Doom; the Fellowship breaks apart and its members cross Rohan, Gondor and Mordor on separate paths that only meet again at the end. Tolkien kept careful track of where everyone was on every day, and printed much of it in Appendix B, The Tale of Years.

This map puts all those journeys on one map of Middle-earth, drawn in the manner of an old hand-inked map, with mountains and forests as little peaks and trees. Every company, rider and army is a token that slides along its route between dated stops, with the road behind it as a fading trail. The Ring-bearer's company is gold. The realms are a pale wash in the background, changing as Erebor is retaken, Isengard falls and Mordor is overthrown.

There and Back Again, 2941–2942

In the spring of 2941 Thorin Oakenshield's company leaves Bag End with Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf. They are caught by trolls in the Trollshaws, rest at Rivendell, and are captured by goblins in the Misty Mountains, where Bilbo finds a ring in Gollum's cave. Eagles carry the company to the Carrock; they stay with Beorn, cross Mirkwood, escape the Elvenking's halls in barrels and come to Lake-town. On Durin's Day they find the secret door of the Lonely Mountain. Smaug attacks Lake-town and is shot by Bard; the Elves and the Lake-men march on the Mountain, Dáin comes from the Iron Hills, and the goblins and Wargs of Bolg fall on them all in the Battle of Five Armies, where Thorin is mortally wounded. That same autumn the White Council drives Sauron out of Dol Guldur. Bilbo winters at Beorn's and is home at Bag End in June 2942.

The Hobbit gives durations and moons rather than dates, so the days of this part are reconstructed from the text; only the year and a few fixed points, such as Durin's Day, come from Tolkien himself.

The Long Years Between, 2942–3018

Between the two books the map runs quickly, but not empty. Sauron returns to Mordor and declares himself in 2951, and three of the Nazgûl reoccupy Dol Guldur. Gollum leaves the mountains to look for his precious. Balin leads a colony of Dwarves from Erebor to Moria in 2989, which perishes in 2994. Bilbo holds his farewell party on 22 September 3001 and leaves for Rivendell. Aragorn catches Gollum in the Dead Marshes and brings him to Thranduil. On 20 June 3018 Sauron attacks Osgiliath, and in July Gandalf is imprisoned by Saruman in Orthanc.

The Fellowship of the Ring, 3018–3019

From here the story is told almost day by day. Frodo leaves Bag End on 23 September 3018, hunted by the Black Riders, who split up to search the Shire, raid Crickhollow and the inn at Bree, and attack on Weathertop on 6 October. At the Ford of Bruinen, on 20 October, the river rises against them. After the Council of Elrond the Company of the Ring sets out on 25 December, is turned back by the snows of Caradhras, and goes through Moria, where Gandalf falls with the Balrog on 15 January 3019. They rest in Lothlórien, take the boats down the Anduin, and on 26 February the Fellowship breaks at Parth Galen: Boromir dies, Merry and Pippin are carried off by the Uruk-hai, Frodo and Sam cross the river alone.

The War of the Ring

March 3019 is the busiest month on the map. Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli run across Rohan after the Uruk-hai and meet Gandalf the White. The Ents march on Isengard and Helm's Deep holds on the night of 3 March. Frodo and Sam cross the Dead Marshes with Gollum, are taken to Henneth Annûn by Faramir, and climb the stairs of Cirith Ungol into Shelob's lair. The host of Minas Morgul takes Osgiliath and besieges Minas Tirith; the Grey Company takes the Paths of the Dead and the Dead scatter the Corsairs at Pelargir; and on 15 March the Rohirrim ride onto the Pelennor Fields at dawn, where the Witch-king is killed by Éowyn and Merry. In the north, Lórien is attacked from Dol Guldur and Dale and Erebor are besieged by the Easterlings. On 25 March the Host of the West stands before the Black Gate, and on Mount Doom the Ring is destroyed.

The Return and the Havens, 3019–3021

Aragorn is crowned on 1 May 3019 and marries Arwen at Midsummer. The hobbits ride home with Gandalf by Isengard, Rivendell and Bree, and find the Shire in the hands of Saruman's ruffians; on 3 November they raise the Shire and win the Battle of Bywater, and Saruman dies at Bag End. Two years later, on 29 September 3021, Frodo and Bilbo sail West from the Grey Havens with Gandalf, Elrond and Galadriel, and Sam comes home to Bag End.

How to Read the Map

Each company or army is one token per person or host across the whole story, so you can follow Gandalf from the Lonely Mountain in 2941 to the Havens in 3021. Tokens become small boats on the Anduin and at sea, and darts in the air for the Eagles and Smaug. Trails show the last weeks of each route. Colours follow the peoples: gold for the Ring-bearer, dark grey and black for Mordor and the Nazgûl, steel grey for Isengard, green for Rohan, blue for Gondor, red-brown for the Dwarves. Large pins mark the turning points; small dots mark the many smaller events around them. Hover over a token, a trail or a pin to see who or what it is. The pale realms are only a backdrop: Tolkien drew few borders, so their edges follow mountains and rivers.

Dates are Shire Reckoning as Tolkien prints them. The Shire calendar has thirty days in every month, so the 29th and 30th of February 3019 are squeezed into one day of ours. Where the books give no date, the days in between are reconstructed from distances and travel times. During the quiet years between the two books the map plays faster, and it slows down when the story gets busy.

How the Map Was Made

The routes come from dated itineraries for about ninety companies and armies, with about a thousand waypoints, each marked as documented, reconstructed, disputed or inferred. The main sources are The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and its Appendices A and B, and Unfinished Tales (The Quest of Erebor, The Hunt for the Ring and The Battles of the Fords of Isen), with Tolkien Gateway and the LotR Project timeline for cross-checks; where reconstructions of The Hobbit differ, the map follows Andreas Möhn's chronology. The basemap is drawn from the ME-GIS data of the ME-DEM project (monks, SeerBlue and jvangeld), used with the permission of its maintainer; everything the source marks as invented for the Middle-earth Role Playing game was left out, so only Tolkien's own geography remains. Middle-earth is the work of J.R.R. Tolkien and copyright The Tolkien Estate. This is a non-commercial fan map: it may not be used commercially.

Chronological Timeline

• Spring 2941 — Thorin and Company leave Bag End with Bilbo and Gandalf
• Summer 2941 — Bilbo finds the Ring under the Misty Mountains
• Autumn 2941 — Smaug killed at Lake-town; the White Council drives Sauron from Dol Guldur
• Autumn 2941 — Battle of Five Armies; Thorin dies
• June 2942 — Bilbo returns to Bag End
• 2951 — Sauron declares himself in Mordor
• 2989–2994 — Balin's colony in Moria
• 22 September 3001 — Bilbo's farewell party
• 20 June 3018 — Sauron attacks Osgiliath
• 23 September 3018 — Frodo leaves Bag End
• 6 October 3018 — Frodo wounded on Weathertop
• 20 October 3018 — Flight to the Ford of Bruinen
• 25 October 3018 — Council of Elrond
• 25 December 3018 — The Company of the Ring leaves Rivendell
• 15 January 3019 — Gandalf falls in Moria
• 26 February 3019 — Breaking of the Fellowship; death of Boromir
• 3 March 3019 — Battle of the Hornburg; the Ents take Isengard
• 15 March 3019 — Battle of the Pelennor Fields; Battle under the Trees
• 17 March 3019 — Battle of Dale
• 25 March 3019 — The Ring destroyed; Battle of the Morannon; fall of Barad-dûr
• 1 May 3019 — Aragorn crowned King
• 3 November 3019 — Battle of Bywater
• 29 September 3021 — Frodo and Bilbo sail from the Grey Havens