The East Bight was a great indentation in the eastern edge of the south of Mirkwood.
It was a clearing with roughly the shape of a square that stretched for approximately fifty miles from north to south and from east to west.[1] To the west of the East Bight lay the Narrows of the Forest, the narrowest part of the forest where the forest was less than one hundred miles across.[2]
The East Bight had mostly been created by the felling of trees by the Northmen and contained most of their permanent homes.[3]
Etymology
Hammond and Scull have explained that the word bight (in this context) refers to "a curve or recess in a coastline or other geographical feature".[4]
References
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), Unfinished Tales, "The West of Middle-earth at the End of the Third Age" [map]
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), Unfinished Tales, "Cirion and Eorl and the Friendship of Gondor and Rohan", "Notes", Note 13
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), Unfinished Tales, "Cirion and Eorl and the Friendship of Gondor and Rohan", "(i) The Northmen and the Wainriders", p. 288
- ↑ Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull (eds), The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, p. lxvii