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Places in Middle-earth

High Hay

Type: Other Constructions

Region: Bree/The Shire

Other Names
the Hedge

Location: A huge, semicircular hedgerow separating the eastern border of Buckland (and the Shire) from the Old Forest.

Description:

[Buckland] was originally unprotected from the East; but on that side they had built a hedge: the High Hay. It had been planted many generations ago, and was now thick and tall, for it was constantly tended. It ran all the way from Brandywine Bridge, in a big loop curving away from the river, to Haysend (where the Withywindle flowed out of the Forest into the Brandywine): well over twenty miles from end to end. But, of course, it was not a complete protection. The Forest drew close to the hedge in many places.

The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 5, A Conspiracy Unmasked

'They could have reached here by now..., if they were not stopped at the North-gate, where the Hedge runs down to the river-bank, just this side of the Bridge.'

The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 5, A Conspiracy Unmasked

'They do say the trees [in the Old Forest] do actually move.... In fact long ago they attacked the Hedge: they came and planted themselves right by it, and leaned over it. But the hobbits came and cut down hundreds of trees, and made a great bonfire in the Forest, and burned all the ground in a long strip east of the Hedge.'

The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 6, The Old Forest


Etymology
The word is derived from hay 'fence' (not 'grass').... Compare High Hay, Hay Gate, Haysend, place-names in Buckland.

"Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien
from A Tolkien Compass, compiled by Jared Lobdell
Chicago: Open Court Pub Co, June 1975

Contributors:
Lyllyn 20Jan04
Elena Tiriel 14Mar10

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