Brown Lands
The Brown Lands was a region east of the Anduin between Mirkwood to the north and the Emyn Muil to the south.[1] When seen by the Fellowship of the Ring as they drifted by in boats upon the great river, the Brown Lands were long, formless slopes with a withered look, having no trees or even grass. What had caused such desolation not even Aragorn could tell.[2]
Later, Treebeard told of the Ents crossing the Anduin in search of the Entwives, who had worked in their gardens there before it became a desert after the passing of war. Treebeard appeared convinced that the Entwives were not all destroyed but were "lost".[3] Their ultimate fate remains a mystery.
Etymology
J.R.R. Tolkien describes in his unfinished index (for The Lord of the Rings) the Brown Lands as a 'translation' of Berennyn (containing Sindarin baran 'brown, yellow-brown') "a devastated region, east of Anduin, between Lórien and the Emyn Muil".[4]
References
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, "The West of Middle-earth at the End of the Third Age" [map]
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, "The Great River"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, "Treebeard"
- ↑ Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull (eds), The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, p. 343 (quoting from the manuscript "Index questions")