Brown Lands

From Tolkien Gateway
Rhovanion - The Brown Lands by Šárka Škorpíková

The Brown Lands (S. Berennyr) was a devastated region east of the Anduin between Mirkwood to the north and the Emyn Muil to the south.[1][2][3]

The area was the home of the Entwives who made their gardens there; but during the War of the Last Alliance at the end of the Second Age, they were driven away when Sauron ruined the land against the advance of the Allies down the Anduin.[4] The Ents vainly had crossed the Anduin in search of the Entwives. Treebeard appeared convinced that the Entwives were not all destroyed but were "lost".[5]

Even by the end of the Third Age, when the Fellowship of the Ring drifted by in boats upon the Great River, they saw only long, formless slopes with a withered look, without trees or even grass. What had caused such desolation not even Aragorn could tell.[6]

Etymology[edit | edit source]

J.R.R. Tolkien describes the "Brown Lands" as a translation of Sindarin Berennyr,[1][2] from the plural forms of baran ("brown", "yellow-brown")[1] and dôr ("land").[7]

Portrayal in adaptations[edit | edit source]

The Brown Lands in adaptations
Gardens of the Entwives in the Brown Lands in The Lord of the Rings Online  

2012: The Lord of the Rings Online:

A portion of the Brown Lands is accessible across the Anduin from Field of Celebrant, hosting encampments of the Easterlings preparing to attack the Wold. It contains the Gardens of the Entwives, long abandoned and desolate.

References