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The Shire-Reckoning @shire-reckoning.bsky.social · 1d

The four Nazgûl pursuing Gandalf forsake the chase and turn back south. Three ride for the Last Bridge to prevent the Ring from crossing it.

The land is growing rocky, so Gandalf sends Shadowfax back to Rohan. The wizard sets out on an eleven-day hike through the Ettenmoors.

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The Shire-Reckoning @shire-reckoning.bsky.social · 1d

Daylight has returned. Frodo cannot walk, so Strider and the other hobbits put him on the pony and carry the baggage themselves.

They descend Weathertop and reach the Road—hearing distant Nazgûl-cries as they step across—and disappear into the heavy thickets to its south.

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The Shire-Reckoning @shire-reckoning.bsky.social · 1d

The Nazgûl have fled from the camp and its firelight. The other hobbits move Frodo near the fire’s warmth, and he slowly wakes.

Out of hearing of the others, Strider warns Sam that his master’s wound might prove fatal—which would explain why the Nazgûl are now content to wait.

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The Shire-Reckoning @shire-reckoning.bsky.social · 1d

The five Nazgûl advance slowly on the camp. Their terror compels Frodo to put on the Ring—making him suddenly visible to them. Even as he calls upon Elbereth, a Nazgûl rushes forward and stabs him in the shoulder with a Morgul-knife. He removes the Ring and collapses.

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The Shire-Reckoning @shire-reckoning.bsky.social · 2d

It’s dark. Sam asks for a tale. Strider tells of Tinúviel: ‘It is a fair tale, though it is sad, as are all the tales of Middle-earth.

‘The leaves were long, the grass was green,
The hemlock-umbels tall and fair,
And in the glade a light was seen
Of stars in shadow shimmering…’

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The Shire-Reckoning @shire-reckoning.bsky.social · 2d

On the Road far below, Frodo sees two specks approaching from the east and three from the west. Strider pulls him out of sight: they are Black Riders!

He leads Merry and Frodo back to the dell where Sam and Pippin are waiting and starts building a fire while the sun is still up.

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The Shire-Reckoning @shire-reckoning.bsky.social · 2d

While Sam and Pippin watch the pony, Strider and the other two hobbits climb Weathertop. Frodo and Merry see the Misty Mountains for the first time, away on the eastern horizon.

They find the grass scorched in the old ruin of Amon Sûl. Strider finds a fresh “G”-rune on a stone.

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The Shire-Reckoning @shire-reckoning.bsky.social · 2d

Merry asks who made this path along the hills. Strider’s answer reminds Sam of one of Bilbo’s old songs, and he sings the first few lines:

‘Gil-galad was an Elven-king.
Of him the harpers sadly sing:
the last whose realm was fair and free
between the Mountains and the Sea…’

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The Shire-Reckoning @shire-reckoning.bsky.social · 2d

After they break camp, Strider finds the ancient path that runs along the western feet of the Weather Hills—built during the war against Angmar and the Nazgûl-lord sixteen hundred years ago. Ruined forts line the ridge.

They follow the path south towards Weathertop and the Road.

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The Shire-Reckoning @shire-reckoning.bsky.social · 3d

After another day’s hike—their sixth since leaving Bree—Strider and the four hobbits reach the Weather Hills and camp where their slopes rise abruptly from the plain. For a second night in a row they set a watch.

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The Shire-Reckoning @shire-reckoning.bsky.social · 4d

It’s already dark when Strider and the four hobbits finally stop. They camp beneath alder trees on the banks of a small stream that runs down from the Weather Hills. For the first time on their journey they set a watch.

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The Shire-Reckoning @shire-reckoning.bsky.social · 4d

Strider and the hobbits reach the eastern edge of the Midgewater Marshes where the land begins rising. The hobbits see the Weather Hills for the first time, standing ahead of them along the horizon.

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The Shire-Reckoning @shire-reckoning.bsky.social · 4d

With the approach of dawn, the nine Nazgûl end their overnight attack. Gandalf cannot now search for Frodo without leading the Nazgûl themselves to the hobbit, so the wizard rides north, away from the Road. Four Nazgûl ride after him.

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The Shire-Reckoning @shire-reckoning.bsky.social · 5d

Gandalf takes his stand in the ruined ring of the fortress of Amon Sûl. The nine Nazgûl move forward in the dark and begin their attack.

Frodo and Strider, awake in their camp two days’ march to the west, see flashes of distant lightning in the direction of the Weather Hills.

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The Shire-Reckoning @shire-reckoning.bsky.social · 5d

Gandalf and Shadowfax reach Weathertop and climb to the crown of the hill. The nine Nazgûl surround them as the sun starts to set.

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The Shire-Reckoning @shire-reckoning.bsky.social · 5d

All nine Nazgûl are now gathered at Weathertop. Sensing Gandalf’s anger as he rides towards them, they abandon the hill to the wizard while the sun remains up.

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The Shire-Reckoning @shire-reckoning.bsky.social · 5d

Strider and the four hobbits spend a second day picking their way east through the Midgewater Marshes.

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The Shire-Reckoning @shire-reckoning.bsky.social · 6d

The hobbits and Strider camp, now several miles inside the Midgewater Marshes. They are swarmed by insects as they try to sleep.

Sam wonders, ‘What do they live on when they can’t get hobbit?’

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The Shire-Reckoning @shire-reckoning.bsky.social · 6d

Strider and the hobbits reach the edge of the Chetwood and walk out into the open country. The ground here is lower than in the Bree-land behind them, and is beginning to get boggy.

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The Shire-Reckoning @shire-reckoning.bsky.social · 7d

Strider and the four hobbits begin their second day of hiking through the Chetwood. They have been swerving to avoid pursuit, but now start taking paths that lead more directly east.

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The Shire-Reckoning @shire-reckoning.bsky.social · 7d

Before dawn, a company of at least five Nazgûl fling down the west-gate of Bree, gallop through town, and head east along the Road. Gandalf leaves the Prancing Pony and rides out after them on Shadowfax.

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The Shire-Reckoning @shire-reckoning.bsky.social · 8d

Gandalf reaches Bree. Butterbur confesses that the hobbits are gone—with Strider. ‘He got at them, in spite of all that I could do, and they took up with him.’

‘Ass! Fool! Thrice worthy and beloved Barliman! May your beer be laid under an enchantment.’ Gandalf spends the night.

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The Shire-Reckoning @shire-reckoning.bsky.social · 8d

Once they are several miles from Bree, Strider leads the hobbits north off the Road. At first they follow a narrow path leading north-east towards Archet, but will soon leave the path and walk directly out east into the wild. They will remain north of the Road for a full week.

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The Shire-Reckoning @shire-reckoning.bsky.social · 8d

Gandalf reaches Crickhollow. The door of Frodo’s new house is smashed open, and one of Frodo’s cloaks lies at the front door. Finding neither Frodo nor the Ring, Gandalf fears the worst and—not waiting to speak to anyone—rides east after the Nazgûl.

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The Shire-Reckoning @shire-reckoning.bsky.social · 8d

Strider and the four hobbits, walking east along the Road, set out from Bree in front of a crowd of onlookers. Bill Ferny—who earlier this morning sold them the scrawny pony who now carries their baggage—openly taunts them. In response, he gets an apple in the nose from Sam.

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