How far did Sam and Frodo walk (in miles) from Hobbiton to Mordor?
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$3 Answers
Hobbiton - Rivendell, 458 miles in 28 days
Rivendell - Lothlorien, 462 miles in 26 days
Lothlorien - Rauros, 389 miles in 11 days, mostly by boat
Rauros - Mount Doom, 470 miles in 30 days
So the total amount Frodo and Sam walked from Bag End to Mount Doom is 458 + 462 + 470 = 1,390 miles in 84 days of walking. They also travelled 389 miles by boat in another 11 days, so the total journey was 1,779 miles in 95 days. (Not including time spent in Rivendell and Lorien, which seems to be about three months in itself.)
For the walking part, they averaged about 16.5 miles per day, which would be 5-6 hours a day of walking on level ground at normal human speed. But as the terrain was often difficult, and they were carrying packs, they were probably walking for more hours a day at a slower pace.
http://home.insightbb.com/~eowynchallenge/Walk/walk.html
http://home.insightbb.com/~eowynchallenge/Tools/Bag_end/bag_end.html
http://home.insightbb.com/~eowynchallenge/Tools/Rivendell_Lorien/rivendell_lorien.html
http://home.insightbb.com/~eowynchallenge/Tools/Lorien_Rauros/lorien_rauros.html
http://home.insightbb.com/~eowynchallenge/Tools/Frodo_and_Sam/frodo_and_sam.html
And a summary of the timeline is here, but it is maped to a Jan-Dec calendar so we start midway in the story, then come to the beginning later!
http://home.insightbb.com/~eowynchallenge/Tools/Dates/dates.html
Amazing, I've read the book many times, but I never understood the timeline as clearly as this! :)
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Karen Fonstad has written a book about the geography of Middle Earth, and she estimates their journey at 470 miles based on quotes from the book and maps provided by Christopher Tolkien.
http://home.insightbb.com/~eowynchallenge/Tools/Frodo_and_Sam/frodo_and_sam.html
"The action of the story takes place in the North-west of 'Middle-earth', equivalent in latitude to the coastlands of Europe and the north shores of the Mediterranean. ... If Hobbiton and Rivendell are taken (as intended) to be at about the latitude of Oxford, then Minas Tirith, 600 miles south, is at about the latitude of Florence. The Mouths of Anduin and the ancient city of Pelargir are at about the latitude of ancient Troy." ~ J.R.R. Tolkien
wikipedia.org
http://home.insightbb.com/~eowynchallenge/Tools/Frodo_and_Sam/frodo_and_sam...
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Interesting, but the source appears to be describing the journey and the distance from Rauros to Mordor, not the whole from Hobbiton.
Rauros is, you'll probably remember, where the fellowship broke up at the end of the Fellowship of the Ring..
Apart from the title of the page, the details of the journey beging with this:
-- Quote
Breaking of the Fellowship. Noon. Frodo decides to go to Mordor alone, but Sam guesses. Reaches lake as Frodo is leaving. They go together.
-- /Quote
While this answer provides numbers and sources, even a casual check shows that it is flat out wrong! The calculation seems to be based on a small portion of the journey, while the walking distance from Oxford to Florence was not even googled.
By the way, if you use Google maps you have to interpret. Otherwise you get the 92 miles between Hobbiton Rd, Hemet Ca., and Mordor Retail Clothing in Los Angeles. Oxford Great Britain to Florence Italy comes out a lot better.
Nice work!
AOTD Nominee for sure!
http://home.insightbb.com/~eowynchallenge/Tools/Frodo_and_Sam/frodo_and_sam.html
This is @ddavis 's own source. But apparently he didn't read it, or maybe hasn't read the book. As @philipy pointed out, the page calculating 470 miles refers to the last leg of the journey, which was undertaken by Frodo and Sam alone. It is a small portion of the journey from Hobbiton to Mordor that the question asks about. This is what happens when someone looks up web pages without having the background knowledge to interpret them. Anyone who has read the books and done any hiking would immediately know that 470 miles is far too low an estimate. Looking at the source, you can see what happened. The source has several pages devoted to the journey, estimating each part of the journey separately. @ddavis found one page ( a good find as far as it went) but did not realize that it was only a portion. I am dissappointed in the Mahalo users who are apparently impressed with a wrong answer just because it looks good.
@albanian, yes it is kinda disheartening that some Mahaloians voted the answer helpful even *after* I showed why it was wrong!
5 people had already voted the answer helpful before I wrote my comment. That's pretty surprising in itself, as I would imagine anyone that is interested enough to read the question is a LOTR fan, and you'd think spot the anomaly pretty easily.
But then another 3 people voted it helpful even after I explained. I guess they don't actually read the comments before they vote.
Wow! Fabulous answer!
I will proudly nominate you for September 14's ANSWER OF THE DAY contest!
Superb and helpful answer, congratulations!
It took them three movies so imagine how long that was.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
The distance north south from Oxford to Cairo (latitude) is the same as the distance north south from Oxford to New Orleans. But the latter would be a lot longer walk, and swim. The Fellowship took a zigzag path with an overall direction south and east. The physics of Middle Earth are supposed to be mostly like ours with a few magical effects added. Time passes differently in the Elven areas though.
@albanian I think you missed the point.
If your end point is 600 miles further south than your start point, the minimum distance there could be to travel is 600 miles. The max possible would depend on the shape of the surface you inhabited, but the min would always be 600, i.e. >470.
I was once told by a psychologist that the human body was designed to walk 60 miles a day. I remember watching a show on the Discovery channel, i believe, created from accounts of the medieval battles in the days of yore, where in this particular battle, combatants carried heavy armor for 16 miles all night long, to position themselves for a surprise attack in the morning, where the sun would be positioned most advantageously, ie, behind the backs of the attackers, so the enemy could not quite see what was happening because of the glare. Imagine carrying a full load of arrows, slingshots, swords and armor for 16 miles at night, and then going into battle! Now war is conducted remotely, played on video game consoles located in remote trailers far from the battlefield. You don't even have to get up from the seated position!
duenhsiyen
Thanks @lesliec!
This looks quite reasonable. For a sense of scale, the walking trip from Oxford to Florence (which is not direct and neither was the hobbits' journey) is 1673 miles on google which is quite close to your calculation.
Congratulations! Your answer won second place and a $2.00 tip!
In @ddavis' answer they walked a total of 470 miles, and yet arrived at a destination that was 600 miles further south. :)
The physics of Middle Earth may be different than ours, but I don't think ther were supposed to be that different!
Hey @philipy, I think this should be nominated for AotD.