Fenmarch

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The Fenmarch[1][2] was a marshy border-land along the Mering Stream[3] in the east of Rohan. It stretched from the Firien Wood to the confluence of the Mering Sream with the river Entwash, and was therefore located along a part of Rohan's eastern border with Gondor.[4]

Etymology[edit | edit source]

Fenmarch is a name in the language of Rohan.[3] The first element fen means "marsh",[3] probably a reference to the marshlands along the Mering Stream. The second element march is an old word for "borderland",[3] probably a reference to the border with Anórien. It has the same meaning as the element mark in Riddermark, a "borderland", especially one that serves as a defence of the inner lands of a realm[5].

Other versions of the legendarium[edit | edit source]

J.R.R. Tolkien wrote in his Nomenclature of The Lord of the Rings, which he had nearly completed by 2 January 1967 after the publication of the second edition of The Lord of the Rings in October 1965, that the Fenmarch should have been called the Fenmark, but that he had retained the name Fenmarch, because the name Fenmarch had been used in the text of The Lord of the Rings and in the Map of Rohan, Gondor, and Mordor. He wrote that the name Fenmark should not be translated in translations of The Lord of the Rings into other languages.[3]

J.R.R. Tolkien already used the name Fenmarch in his manuscripts of what would later become the chapter The Muster of Rohan[6] and on his draft map of Rohan, Gondor and Mordor[7].

References