 | |
| Forest | |
| Chetwood | |
|---|---|
| General Information | |
| Location | Central Eriador, just north and east of Bree |
| Type | Forest |
The Chetwood was the woodlands that lay east and south of the town of Bree,[1] some forty miles east of the Shire[2]. The village of Archet was built on its edge.[3]
Prior to the settlement of the Shire many Hobbits lived in Bree and in the Chetwood nearby.[2] When Strider led the four hobbits out of Bree they spent three days in the Chetwood before descending to the Midgewater Marshes.[4]
Etymology
Chetwood is modelled on a relic of British nomenclature.[5] The first element chet (also found in Archet) is of Celtic origin and means "wood". The second element is the english word wood with the same meaning as the first element.[6] The first element is seen in the Welsh word coed for "wood".[7]
Inspiration
Tom Shippey mentions Chetwode,[8] a village in Buckinghamshire close to the border of Oxfordshire, whose existence was first recorded in the year 949 as Cetwuda.
Portrayal in adaptations
2007: The Lord of the Rings Online:
- The Chetwood consisted of three areas in the region of Bree-land. Chetwood South was located around the East Road south of Staddle, south-east of Bree and south-west of the Midgewater Marshes. Chetwood North was north of the marsh, between Combe and the Weather Hills. The Far Chetwood lay in the northeast of Bree-land beyond the Archet Dale, south of the lake of Nen Harn on the border with the North Downs. Early in the War of the Ring, bandits of the Blackwold gang lived in the woods.
References
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, "Unfinished index for The Lord of the Rings", in Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull (eds), The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, entry Chetwood, p. 16
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, "Prologue", "Concerning Hobbits", p. 4
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, "At the Sign of the Prancing Pony", p. 149
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, "A Knife in the Dark", pp. 182-5
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix F, "On Translation", p. 135
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, "Nomenclature of The Lord of the Rings" in Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull (eds), The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, entry Chetwood, p. 767 and 'entry Archet', p. 765
- ↑ David Salo, "Hobbitish Place-names (1.21)" 23 November 1998, Elfling, accessed 23 September 2022
- ↑ Tom Shippey, The Road to Middle-earth, Chapter 4 A Cartographic Plot, Getting started, p. 124