Narrows of the Forest

A region near the south of Mirkwood where the forest dwindled in width for many miles. At the Narrows, it was less than a hundred miles from west to east, whereas immediately north and south of this 'neck' the trees thickened rapidly: at the latitude of Amon Lanc to the south, for example, the Forest was more than two hundred miles across.

The Narrows were formed by the logging activities of the Northmen of Rhovanion, who at that time lived to the east of Mirkwood. Their forestry carved out a great treeless 'bay' in the wood - the so-called East Bight - and thus narrowed the Forest beyond it. In later years the Northmen moved their camps west into the Vales of Anduin, and they must have come to regret their thinning of Mirkwood's trees. The Narrows they had created had made the Forest passable to the Wainriders of the east, who were able to drive through the trees to raid the Northmen's lands.