Any ME geography experts?

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Ok, I've heard from some sources that Rhosgobel is in the West of Mirkwood. However, I've heard from others that it's in the East of Mirkwood. Where is it really?

[Sister Golden Hair]

Originally posted by Gwaimir Windgem
Ok, I've heard from some sources that Rhosgobel is in the West of Mirkwood. However, I've heard from others that it's in the East of Mirkwood. Where is it really?

According to Robert Foster, it is located near the southern border of Mirkwood, possibly located in the Vales of Anduin.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Ah, now it's three places. I'm even more confused.

You mean his Complete Guide to Middle-Earth? I used to have that, but the first time I opened my copy, pages started coming out, and it just went downhill from there...

[The Warden of the Keys]

In the essay on the Istari in Unfinished Tales Christopher Tolkien referances a "very late note" of his fathers that says:
Rhosgobel, called "the old home of Radagast" in The Fellowship of the Ring II 3, is said to have been "in the forest between the Carrock and the Old Forest Road."

[The Warden of the Keys]

Originally posted by Sister Golden Hair
According to Robert Foster, it is located near the southern border of Mirkwood, possibly located in the Vales of Anduin.

The problem with Foster in this case is that Unfinished Tales was published after his book was published

His assumed location is not without merit however. After the Council of Elrond...others had climbed the pass at the source of the Gladden River, and had come down into Wilderland and over the Gladden Fields and so at length had reached the old home of Radagast at Rhosgobel. Radagast was not there; and they had returned over the high pass that was called the Dimrill Stair.

Foster probably assumed then that the location for Rhosgobel was most likely somewhere along the boarders of Mirkwood between the Gladden River and Dimrill Stair (ie. Southern Mirkwood).

[Varda Oiolosseo]

I've read quite a few times that it's in Southern Mirkwood.

[The Warden of the Keys]

Originally posted by Varda Oiolosseo
I've read quite a few times that it's in Southern Mirkwood.

Regardless of what you may have read, J.R.R. Tolkein told us exactly where it is...in the forest between the Carrock and the Old Forest Road.

The First Map of the western regions of Middle earth (published in The Treason of Isengard) placed Rhosgobel in Southern Mirkwood but this map was abandoned in 1943.

[Narsil's Master]

I THINK IT IS IN THE SOUTH OF MIRKWOOD NOT EAST OR WEST

[Wayfarer]

It was on the western edge of mirkwood, to the south of beorns hall, I believe.

Now, while we're in mirkwood, who wants to feed this smelly orc Narsil's Master to the dread spiders?

[FrodoFriend]

Isn't Dol Guldur already in the South? Seems to me like they wouldn't be right next to each other or anything . . .

What sort of place was Rhosgobel? Besides its location, what did it look like? Who went there besides Radagast?

[Wayfarer]

You're being a bit simplistic. Rhosgobel would have been south of beorns hall, and north of dol guldur.

[The Warden of the Keys]

Originally posted by FrodoFriend
What sort of place was Rhosgobel? Besides its location, what did it look like?

Rhosgobel means "Brown Hay".....Brown like Radagast 'the Brown' and Hay is an old word meaning 'Hedge'. The etymology of the name is Noldorin rhosc 'brown' and Noldorin gobel 'fenced homestead' (see The Treason of Isengard Chapter 8: The Ring Goes South)

[Aranwe]

"The Atlas of Tolkiens Middle-Earth" has Rhosgobel in 2 different locations... both on the western edge of Mirkwood.

In a double-page map showing M-E in the 3rd Age it shows Rhosgobel on the western edge, north of Dol Guldur and a fair way south of the old forest road. Its on the west edge of the narrowest part of mirkwood

Then, on a full page map of mirkwood, it shows Rhosgobel on the western edge just north of old forest road.

Very confusing

[The Warden of the Keys]

Originally posted by Aranwe
"The Atlas of Tolkiens Middle-Earth" has Rhosgobel in 2 different locations... both on the western edge of Mirkwood.

In a double-page map showing M-E in the 3rd Age it shows Rhosgobel on the western edge, north of Dol Guldur and a fair way south of the old forest road. Its on the west edge of the narrowest part of mirkwood

Then, on a full page map of mirkwood, it shows Rhosgobel on the western edge just north of old forest road.

Very confusing

Well, Tolkien gave 2 locations for Rhosgobel. The more southen location was given on an early 'working' map (that was later abandoned) while the second location (between the Old Forest Road and the Carrock) is given in Unfinished Tales. I accept the UT location since it was the latest thoughts J.R.R. Tolkien had on the subject. I'm not sure why Ms. Fonstand would have put Rhosgobel in two locations (besides to confuse us all of course )

[Haradrim]

while looking at Fonstads book i too am confuddled because there are clearly two different locations given for Rhosgobel. The only reason i could think of is that maybe Rhadagast moved when Dol Golddur sprung up again ro something. Im just confused....

[Michael Martinez]

When Tolkien wrote The Hobbit, he did not have as much of the geography and history of the world worked out as he would eventually produce for The Lord of the Rings. So, Gandalf's statement to Beorn about the location of Radagast's home was suitably ambiguous.

In The Lord of the Rings, Elrond's messengers visited Rhosgobel, which the text placed near the Gladden Fields. That would put it in southern Mirkwood but also south of the Old Forest Road (I think -- I don't have a map to check).

[Michael Martinez]

Originally Posted by The Warden of the Keys

Rhosgobel means "Brown Hay".....Brown like Radagast 'the Brown' and Hay is an old word meaning 'Hedge'. The etymology of the name is Noldorin rhosc 'brown' and Noldorin gobel 'fenced homestead' (see The Treason of Isengard Chapter 8: The Ring Goes South)

A gobel could also surround a village or town. Amon Obel, the town of the Folk of Haleth in Brethil, is an example of a village or town defended by such a hedge.

"Narn i Chin Hurin", published in Unfinished Tales as "Narn i Hin Hurin", indicates the Folk of Haleth (or at least some of them) who lived outside Amon Obel dwelt in homesteads surrounded by hedges, much like Beorn's estate in The Hobbit.