Timeline Event
Gandalf leaves Bree for Weathertop
Event Type: General
Age: 3rd Age - Ring War
Dates: October 1, 3018 ~ October 3, 3018
Description:
An event in the prelude to the Attack on the Camp at Weathertop; see that entry for an overview.
'So I stayed [at the Prancing Pony] that night, wondering much what had become of the Riders; for only of two had there yet been any news in Bree, it seemed. But in the night we heard more. Five at least came from the west, and they threw down the gates and passed through Bree like a howling wind; and the Bree-folk are still shivering and expecting the end of the world. I got up before dawn and went after them.
'I do not know, but it seems clear to me that this is what happened. Their Captain remained in secret away south of Bree1, while two rode ahead through the village, and four more invaded the Shire. But when these were foiled in Bree and at Crickhollow, they returned to their Captain with tidings, and so left the Road unguarded for a while, except by their spies. The Captain then sent some eastward straight across country, and he himself with the rest rode along the Road in great wrath.
'I galloped to Weathertop like a gale, and I reached it before sundown on my second day from Bree — and they were there before me.'
The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 2, Ch 2, The Council of Elrond
Notes
1 [The] Black Captain established a camp at Andrath, where the Greenway passed in a defile between the Barrow-downs and the South Downs....
Unfinished Tales, Part 3, Ch 4, The Hunt for the Ring: Other Versions of the Story
Contributors:
Elena Tiriel 15Jul06