The Great West Road dated back to the earliest days of Gondor, and ran along the feet of the White Mountains until it reached the Fords of Isen in the west, before carrying on across Enedwaith as the North-South Road. Some fifty miles before it reached the Fords, a smaller road split off and led southwards into the Mountains. This was the Deeping-road, that led into the wide valley of the Deeping-coomb and on to the Hornburg and Helm's Deep. Those defences had been built by the first Gondorians, and so it seems likely that the course of the Deeping-road dated back some three thousand years at the time of the War of the Ring.
Notes
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The castle that guarded the valley in the White Mountains was originally raised by the early Gondorians in the late Second Age, who would necessarily have also created a road leading to that fortress. At that time the place later known as Helm's Deep was known by the Elvish name of Aglarond, and the vale would not become known as the Deeping-coomb until the coming of the Rohirrim much later in history. So, while the road would have existed for some three thousand years at the time of the War of the Ring, it would not have become known as the 'Deeping-road' until after the foundation of Rohan in III 2510.
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- Updated 17 March 2025
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