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Anduin is the Sindarin name for the Great River of Wilderland, the longest river in the Third Age (the original Sindarin name means Long River). It flowed from its source in the Grey and Misty Mountains to the Mouths of Anduin (Ethir Anduin) in the Great Sea (Belegaer). In her Atlas of Middle-earth, Karen Wynn Fonstad estimates a total length of 1,388 miles.





The Anduin flowed parallel to the Misty Mountains in a broad vale which formed the western part of Rhovanion, lying between the mountains and Mirkwood. After passing Lorien, the river and mountains parted company, and the river flowed through the Brown Lands (which may have been home to the Entwives) via the North and South Undeeps until it flowed past the Emyn Muil and Argonath and entered a lake (Nen Hithoel) through Sarn Gebir (a series of ferocious rapids). Thence it flowed over the Falls of Rauros, and past the Mouths of Entwash and the marshes known as the Wetwang (Nindalf). It then passed between the White Mountains and the Mountains of Shadow by the capital of Gondor, Osgiliath, before swinging past the harbour of Harlond close to the Rammas Echor south of Minas Tirith (Barbara Strachey, in Journeys of Frodo, places the harbour just outside the wall), and the Emyn Arnen and down past the port of Pelagir, entering the Great Sea in the Bay of Belfalas in a broad delta known as the Mouths of Anduin.



Crossing Points


There was a bridge in the city of Osgiliath, broken by the forces of Mordor.



Settlements in the Vale of Anduin during the Third Age included the northman city of Framsburg, Beorn's Halls and the Stoor settlements near the Gladden Fields (where Sméagol/Gollum) was born. It was in the Gladden Fields in the northern reaches of Anduin that Isildur was slain and the One Ring lost; and it was there, more than two millennia later, that Déagol found the Ring and Sméagol took it from him. Rhosgobel, home of Radagast the Brown, and the Elven Realm of Lothlorien also lay in the Vale of Anduin.

Once it had entered Gondor the river flowed past Osgiliath and Minas Tirith and then Pelagir, close to the sea. After the fall of Osgiliath the river effectively marks the eastern limit of Gondor's influence.

