Mirkwood

Mirkwood, called Greenwood the Great in older days and Eryn Lasgalen (the Wood of Greenleaves) after the War of the Ring, is the great forest of northern Middle-earth, east of the Anduin and the Misty Mountains. The largest forest in Middle-earth, it was once a fair greenwood, but for much of the Third Age it lay under a shadow that gave it its grim name, infested with giant spiders, darkened by an evil power in its south, and perilous to all who passed beneath its eaves.

Mirkwood is the home of the Silvan Elves, the Wood-elves ruled by King Thranduil, father of Legolas, whose halls lie in the northern part of the forest. It also figures large in The Hobbit as the dangerous wood that Bilbo and the dwarves must cross on their road to the Lonely Mountain.

Geography

Mirkwood stretches for hundreds of miles from north to south, a dense and ancient forest. The Elvenking Thranduil's halls, caverns hewn in a hill, lie in the northeast near the Forest River and the Long Lake. The Old Forest Road and, in later times, the Elf-path crossed the wood, though both grew treacherous. In the south rose the hill of Dol Guldur, where a dark power dwelt, a sorcerer long called the Necromancer who was in truth Sauron returning to strength. The river Enchanted River ran through the wood, whose waters brought sleep and forgetfulness.

History

Greenwood the Great was a fair forest in earlier ages, home to the Silvan Elves. In the Third Age a shadow crept into it from the south, where Sauron, not yet revealed, took up his hidden seat in Dol Guldur. The forest grew dark, dangerous, and tangled, and men named it Mirkwood. The White Council, led by Gandalf, at last drove the Necromancer from Dol Guldur, but he removed only to Mordor, where he declared himself openly as Sauron.

In the story

In The Hobbit, Bilbo and the dwarves cross Mirkwood, are beset by giant spiders, captured by the Wood-elves, and escape in barrels down the Forest River. In The Lord of the Rings, Mirkwood is the homeland of Legolas of the Fellowship. During the War of the Ring, the Wood-elves of Thranduil battle the forces of Dol Guldur, and after Sauron's fall, Dol Guldur is thrown down and the forest is cleansed; it is renamed Eryn Lasgalen, the Wood of Greenleaves, and divided among the Elves and the Beornings and Woodmen.