Hoarwell

"The Last Bridge" by Ralph Damiani
River
Hoarwell
General Information
Other names	Mitheithel (S)
Location	Eastern Eriador, running from the Misty Mountains to the southwest
Type	River
Description	A rushing river

The river Hoarwell, or Mitheithel was a river traversing eastern Eriador.

Course

It began in the northern Misty Mountains west of the Rhimdath River and about 100 miles north of Rivendell. The Hoarwell flowed west past the Ettenmoors and then curved southward, skirting the western edge of the Trollshaws. Flowing under the Last Bridge on the East-West Road, it coursed southward until it was joined by the Bruinen or "Loudwater". The Hoarwell turned south-west until at Tharbad it met with the Glanduin, forming the fenland called the Swanfleet or Nîn-in-Eilph. Beyond this point the combined waters were called the Greyflood or Gwathló.

History

After the founding of the realm of Arnor in 3320, the Hoarwell was within its boundaries. In T.A. 861, when Arnor was divided into the splinter-kingdoms of Arthedain, Cardolan and Rhudaur, the river was within the confines of Rhudaur.

Around 1150, the Fallohides, one of the three kinds of Hobbits, crossed over the Misty Mountains north of Rivendell, travelled down the river Hoarwell and eventually settled in Eriador. In the same year, the Stoors, another kind of Hobbits, left their homes at the bank of the river Anduin and migrated to the west, crossed the Misty Mountains over the Redhorn Pass and followed the course of the Loudwater southwards and settled in the Angle between the rivers Hoarwell and Loudwater or in Dunland.

When Angmar became powerful about 1300, some of the hobbits moved westwards over the Hoarwell and many settled at Bree.

Around 1409, the Stoors that had settled in the Angle fled westwards over the Hoarwell and southwards, because of the war with Angmar.

In May 2941, Thorin and Company crossed the Hoarwell on the Last Bridge (and later that night encountered the trolls).

On 11 October 3018, Glorfindel drove the Black Riders from the Last Bridge and left a beryl on the roadway to show that the path was safe. Two days later, after finding the elf-stone, Aragorn led the hobbits across the bridge.

Note

The name of the river between the confluence of the Loudwater with the Hoarwell and the confluence of the Glanduin with the combined river is not named on J.R.R. Tolkien's The First Map of The Lord of the Rings, The Third Map of The Lord of the Rings or the Map of the North of Middle-earth that he drew during the writing of The Lord of the Rings. However, it is named "River Hoarwell" and "Mitheithel" on the General Map of Middle-earth and The West of Middle-earth at the End of the Third Age map, respectively, which Christopher Tolkien drew for earlier published editions of The Lord of the Rings and for Unfinished Tales.

The wording in the narrative of The Lord of the Rings and in its Appendix A is ambiguous if that part of the river was called the Greyflood or continued to be called the Hoarwell or Mitheithel. Strider tells the Hobbits that the Hoarwell joins the Loudwater "away in the South" and that "Some call it the Greyflood after that". However he does not specify if that means that "some" call it the Greyflood already immediately after the confluence of the two rivers or after some other point further downstream from the confluence. Appendix A mentions that the Glanduin flows into the Greyflood and that the Greyflood and the Glanduin were the southern border of Eriador. It also mentions that Arnor at is greatest extent included all of Eriador, except "the lands east of Greyflood and the Loudwater, in which lay Rivendell and Hollin". However, if the river continued to be called the Hoarwell after its confluence with the Loudwater and if it only started to be called the Greyflood after the confluence of the combined river with the Glanduin, then Hollin was not east of the Greyflood, because the Glanduin formed the southern border of Hollin, except at the point of the confluence of the Glanduin and the Hoarwell at the very beginning of the Greyflood.

Etymology

The English name Hoarwell has the sense of "hoary spring". It is a combination of hoar ("greyish-white") and Old English well ("well", "spring", "stream").

The Sindarin name Mitheithel has the same meaning: "hoary spring". It is composed of mith ("pale grey") and eithel ("spring", "source").

Other versions of the legendarium

In the 1937 version of The Hobbit the Hoarwell was described as a rushing red river coming from the mountains in front of the company. In the 1966 edition the adjective "red" was removed and the river came from the north in order to match the geography of The Lord of the Rings.

Portrayal in adaptations

Hoarwell in The Lord of the Rings Online

2007: The Lord of the Rings Online:

Most of the Hoarwell is open to exploration, from its sources in the Ettenmoors to its confluence with the Gwathló. Only part of it between the Ettenmoors and the Trollshaws is inaccessible.