Minor Places in Middle-earth - B

B

Bamfurlong

The farmland of Farmer Maggot located in the Marish of the eastern part of the Shire. The boggy nature of the land makes for above ground habitation rather than the traditional hobbit-hole. Tolkien himself suggested the name Bamfurlong comes from Old English meaning roughly bean-field.

Barazinbar

The Dwarvish name for Caradhras, one of the largest mountains in the Misty Mountains. It lies in close proximity to Redhorn Pass and the Dimrill Stair.

Barrow-downs

The Barrow-downs or Tyrn Gorthad were a series of low hills east of the Shire, behind the Old Forest, and west of the village of Bree. Many of the hills were crowned with standing stones and barrows, hence their name.

The Barrow-downs were first inhabited by Men related to the Edain in the First Age, together with the Hills of Evendim to the north. They fled west as Easterlings invaded Eriador and passed on to Beleriand, but after these had left or been killed in the War of Wrath the Edain returned to their old homes.

During the Second Age they were fairly numerous, and when they met with the Númenóreans the Barrow-downs were the first places where the Dúnedain émigrés from Númenor settled. When Elendil returned to Middle-earth, the Barrow-downs were incorporated in the kingdom of Arnor. The Downs were revered by the Númenóreans because they were rightly recognized as the first tombs of their ancestors, long before they had encountered the Elves of Beleriand.

After the split of Arnor the Barrow-downs became the capital of Cardolan. After Rhudaur fell to Angmar, the Dúnedain of Cardolan entrenched themselves here, but in T.A. 1409 the realm fell and the Great Plague in 1636 killed any remaining Dúnedain hiding in the barrow-downs. The Barrow-wights were now sent there by the Witch-king. In the 1850s King Araval of Arthedain tried to recolonize Cardolan, but this failed because of the Barrow-wights.

Travelling from the Old Forest to Bree, Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin while travelling through the downs were ensnared by a barrow-wight, probably in the same cairn which held the grave of the last prince of Cardolan. They were rescued by Tom Bombadil, and from the burial treasure received enchanted daggers — designed to slay the evil servants of Angmar.

When the Nazgûl attacked Aragorn and the hobbits on Weathertop, Frodo slashed at one of them with his dagger but only damaged its cloak. Merry used his weapon to help destroy the Lord of the Nazgûl in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, Sam left his beside Frodo in Cirith Ungol and later had it returned to him by Gandalf, while Pippin made use of his dagger in the Battle of the Black Gate to slay a Troll-chief.

Bridge Inn

An inn located on the west side the Brandywine Bridge in the Shire. It was likely used by travellers on the East Road. Its location would have put it near the point where the road north from Stock met the main East Road. When the Shire was occupied by Saruman's men during the War of the Ring, the Bridge Inn was demolished and replaced with a guard house, with gates erected on the Bridge.

Brown Lands

A region across the Anduin from Fangorn forest. In the First Age the Entwives settled there and began to make gardens, and they also taught the Men that already lived there to engage in agriculture. The Entwives' gardens, as the region was called at that time, lasted for a long time into the Second Age, until Sauron later blasted the entire area at some time before the Battle of Dagorlad, which was when it became known as the Brown Lands. Treebeard appeared convinced that the Entwives were not all destroyed but were "lost"; their ultimate fate remains a mystery.

It is described as withered, as if by fire, without any living green thing. In The Fellowship of the Ring, the fellowship pass by the region in elven boats as they sail down the River Anduin. Interestingly, Aragorn's notable knowledge of geography and family history lets him down as he "could not tell" what had "so blasted" the region.

Bundushathûr

See Fanuidhol