After the Shire has been closed off for big people how did the humans reach Annúminas?

Odola

Well-Known Member
There seems to be no crossing of the Baranduin up there and no highways on the Eastern side of the river with a ford near the Lake and the Brandywine Bridge is now unpassable for humans?
 
the most detailed map I saw is this:

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There is where I first noticed the problem - but it is visible on other maps too if one looks for it. Aragorn comes to the bridge as king and meets his friends there but does not cross it. Does his whole court travel North cross country? And how do they cross the river up there?
 
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Why not. Butbtbh i do not buy that map entirely!
Is sarnford really actually part of the shire itself? And wheres the northernnborders of the northfarthing? Is it really the evendim hills?
lots of grey area if you ask me. Humans would have to go around the shire, but not necessarily very wide, also...what would they want in the empty west, theres only lindon and a few rundown dwarven mines...

Tbh i never understood why they put Annuminas there innthe first place...
Was anduinnonce navigable up to the nenuial?then it would make sense... they could go by boat VERY deep inland!
 
Baranduin. Must be. Either with sails or with tows as it is stream up. But toting a barge needs some cleared out road for the men doing it and a treeless riverbank and there seems to be no road along the Eastern side of the river.
 
Smaller ships or boats can be moved on land for quite a stretch ,but it needs lots of manpower. I wouldn't say there was no road just because it doesn't show up at the map.Even when there was no road in 3019, that doesn't say there hadn't once been one or there will be one in the 4th Age, as they will certainly build roads!

The shire also,is far smaller... i realized when i amalgated the smaller maps into the big map... the known shire takes only a tiny space between sarnford and Evendim

In my mind they must have had a lock at sarnford at the height of their power and technological advancement...but it fell out of use in later times.They may have rebuilt it in the fourth age though.
 
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I agree and i'd say that'd still be possible for the time after the fall of the Arnorian Kingdoms, but numenorean ships are supposed to be HUGE. Plus i'd trust them to have the knowledge and technology to construct a lock! Doesn't mean that didn't get out of repair and out of use someday with their descendants having other problems...
 
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I always assumed there had to be an overland route from Fornost to Annuminas. We know that Annuminas was founded around SA 3320, and that in TA 861 Amlaith moved the capital from Annuminas to Fornost. "Moved the capital", not "founded a new city", which suggests that Fornost was already a major city while Annuminas was the capital. And especially since the main north south road goes to Fornost, not Annuminas, that suggests that Fornost was a major city going back into the Second Age. I can't imagine that back during the heyday of the Northern Kingdom they schlepped down to the Brandywine Bridge, crossed the river, hiked out to Bree, and then headed back north to Fornost. So even if it's not marked on the map there was presumably and east-west road between the two. At the Annuminas end of that road there are three possibilities - either they had a bridge close to the point where the Brandywine flows out of Lake Evendim, or they had ferries (either in the river or the lake), or a road could have gone north around the lake. I'd assume the bridge option, though perhaps it collapsed at some point since the reign of Amlaith (over two millennia ago), but if so could be rebuilt during Aragorn's reign.

Anyway, if so, Fourth Age travelers from Gondor would come up the Greenway from the south, stop by Bree for a beer at the Prancing Pony, continue north to Fornost, then hang a left and go out to Lake Evendim. They'd never even have to come near the Brandywine Bridge.

On the navigation of the Brandywine north of Sarn Ford, maybe ships could sail up from the south stopping short of the ford, and then cart goods overland to a station north of the ford where barges could take them the rest of the way north.
 
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They'd never even have to come near the Brandywine Bridge.

We are explicitly told Aragorn came to the Bridge to greet his hobbit friends but that he has not crossed it - in accordance with his own law.

On the navigation of the Brandywine north of Sarn Ford, maybe ships could sail up from the south, and then cart goods overland to a station north of the ford where barges could take them the rest of the way north.

This I think the most probable solution.
 
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