Timeline Event
Nazgûl enter the Shire
Event Type: Military/Strategic
Age: 3rd Age - Ring War
Date: September 23, 3018
Description:
September [3018]
23
Four Riders enter the Shire before dawn. The others pursue the Rangers eastward, and then return to watch the Greenway. A Black Rider comes to Hobbiton at nightfall. Frodo leaves Bag End. Gandalf having tamed Shadowfax rides from Rohan.
The Return of the King, LoTR Appendix B, The Tale of Years: The Third Age
Some [Rangers] still dared to bar the ford..., but at night the Lord of Morgul swept them away, and the Black Riders passed into the Shire; and ere the cocks crowed in the small hours of the twenty-third day of September some were riding north through the land, even as Gandalf upon Shadowfax was riding over Rohan far behind.
Unfinished Tales, Part 3, Ch 4, The Hunt for the Ring: Of the Journey of the Black Riders
[The] Black Captain did not know whether the Ring was still in the Shire; ... he had to find out. The Shire was too large for a violent onslaught...; he must use as much stealth and as little terror as he could, and yet also guard the eastern borders. Therefore he sent some of the Riders into the Shire, with orders to disperse while traversing it; and of these Khamûl was to find Hobbiton..., where "Baggins" lived, according to Saruman's papers.
Unfinished Tales, Part 3, Ch 4, The Hunt for the Ring: Other Versions of the Story
Contributors:
Elena Tiriel 2Aug07