Dead Marshes

The Dead Marshes, also known as the Mere of Dead Faces, was a wideUnfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, "The Hunt for the Ring", pg. 342 area of dark stagnant marshes east of the Emyn Muil and bordered on the east by the Dagorlad plain, site of the ancient Battle of Dagorlad during the War of the Last Alliance.The Lord of the Rings, Vol. II: The Two Towers, Book Four, Ch. II: "The Passage of the Marshes", pgs. 232-7
==History==
thumb|235x235px|The Dead Marshes marked in red
The marshes predated the Battle of Dagorlad, but were not named until after the Battle of Dagorlad in the year 3434 of the late Second Age when the the Last Alliance of Elves and Men fought the forces of Mordor.The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, "The Second Age" In the battle, many of the Galadhrim under Malgalad fled into the marshes where they were slain.Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, "The History of Galadriel and Celeborn", Appendix B: "The Sindarin Princes of the Silvan Elves" These Elves were later buried near the marshes, but over a long period of time, the graves were swallowed up as the marshes grew bigger. The water preserved the bodies and they remained visibly floating as Dead Faces which became LoicolícumaThe Essays of J.R.R. Tolkien: The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, "A Secret Vice", Notes, pgs 214, 222-3 sometime after.
In the year 1944 of the Third Age when Gondor was at war with the Wainriders from Rhûn, King Ondoher's army was caught by surprise in Dagorlad, resulting in his death. As a consequence, many confused soldiers of his defeated army attempted to escape the Wainriders into the marshes where they presumably drowned.Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, Part Three: The Third Age, II: "Cirion and Eorl and the Friendship of Gondor and Rohan", (i) The Northmen and the Wainriders When the general Eärnil II came north and defeated the Wainriders in the Battle of the Camp, he drove their remnant into the Dead Marshes where most of them perished.The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, "Gondor and the Heirs of Anarion," pg. 329The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, "The Third Age"
On February 1 of the year 3017, Aragorn II entered the outskirts of the marshes, discovering and capturing Gollum there before taking him to Mirkwood where he handed him over to Thranduil in the Woodland Realm.The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I: The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, Ch. II: "The Council of Elrond", pg. 266
===The War of the Ring===
During the quest to destroy the One Ring in Mount Doom, Gollum led Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee through the marshes. They entered the Dead Marshes at dawn on March 1 of the year 3019.The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B: The Tale of Years (Chronology of the Westlands), "The Great Years" The passage was marked by lights and candles that danced about which Gollum called "candles of corpses"; it is likely that those who became entranced by the lights and attempted to touch the bodies drowned in the water and went down to join the dead. Frodo soon became entranced by these lights and attempted to reach out to feel the Dead Faces. Though Sam broke him out of his trance, Frodo was able to catch a small glimpse of the history of the more fair Dead Faces.The Lord of the Rings, Vol. II: The Two Towers, Book Four, Ch. V: "The Window on the West", pg. 275 Gollum then told them that the dead could not be touched, suggesting that he once attempted to do so in the past. While passing through the marshes, a Nazgûl on a Black Wing passed overhead, terrifying Gollum enough that he started to slip into old speech-habits, which he had almost given up after swearing to serve the one who hold the ring. They exited the Marshes on the morning of March 2, 3019.
==Inspiration==
On December 31 of the year 1960, J.R.R. Tolkien wrote a letter to L.W. Forster speculating that while he did not believe that either world war "had any influence upon" The Lord of the Rings, the landscape of the "Dead Marshes and the approaches to the Morannon" may have been subconsciously based upon his time in Northern France fighting in the Battle of the Somme during World War I. Despite this, however, Tolkien stated that they were more influenced by "William Morris and his Huns and Romans, as in The House of the Wolfings or The Roots of the Mountains" than any personal experience of his own.The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien: Revised and Expanded Edition, Letter 226, pg. 432
Tom Shippey elucidates on the resemblance of the Dead Marshes to a World War I battlefield in the 1996 documentary, A Film Portrait of J.R.R. Tolkien.
==In adaptations==
===The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers===
In the second installment of Peter Jackson's film trilogy in 2002, the Dead Marshes are shown as foggy ponds with jets of fire rather than the misty candle-flames described in the book. Frodo actually falls into one of the ponds, in which ghostly figures appear, and surround and reach for him, before Gollum pulls him out.
===The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power===
In the fifth episode of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season One, Elanor Brandyfoot's family is shown to pass through the marshes as part of their migration east. The location is here known as the Grey Marshes since the events of Season One take place before the Battle of Dagorlad.
==Translations==
Foreign Language 	Translated name
Afrikaans 	Dooie Vleie
Albanian 	Keneta Vdekur
Armenian 	Մահվան Ճահիճներ
Arabic 	المستنقعات الميتة
Azerbaijani 	Ölü Bataqlıqlar
Basque 	Hildako Padura
Belarusian Cyrillic 	мёртвыя Балоты
Bengali 	মৃত জলাভূমি
Bulgarian Cyrillic 	Мъртвите блата
Catalan 	Pantans Morts
Chinese (Hong Kong) 	死亡沼澤
Corsican 	Paludes Morti
Czech 	Mrtvé močály
Danish 	Dødemarsken / Dødemandsmarsken
Dutch 	Dode Moerassen
Esperanto 	Mortintoj Marĉoj
Estonian 	Surnud Sood
Finnish 	Kalmansuot
French 	Marais des Morts
Galician 	Marismas Mortas
Georgian 	მკვდართა ჭაობი
German 	Totensümpfe
Greek 	Βάλτοι των Νεκρών
Gujarati 	ડેડ ભેજવાળી જમીન
Hebrew 	ביצות המתות
Hindi 	मृत दलदल
Hungarian 	Holt-láp
Icelandic 	Dauðarmýrar
Irish Gaelic 	Riasca Marbh
Italian 	Paludi Morte
Indonesian 	Rawa-rawa Mati
Japanese 	死者の沼
Latin 	Paludes Mortuae
Latvian 	Miroņu Purvi
Lithuanian 	Negyvosios Pelkės
Japanese 	デッド沼地
Korean 	죽은 늪
Kurdish 	(Sorani) مردوو تاڵاوەکانی Mirî Avzêl (Kurmanji)
Macedonian Cyrillic 	мртвите блата
Malaysian 	Paya-paya Mati
Malayalam 	ചത്ത ചതുപ്പുകളുടേയും
Maltese 	Bassasiet Mejta
Manx 	Claddeeyn Marroo ?
Mongolian Cyrillic 	үхсэн элбэгтэй
Nepalese 	मृत मार्शेस
Norwegian 	Daumyrene (Werenskiold tr.)Daudemyrene (Bugge Høverstad tr.)
Occitan 	Mòrt Paluns
Pashto 	مړه جبه
Persian 	باتلاق مرده
Polish 	Martwe Bagna
Portuguese 	Pântanos Mortos (Brazil) Pântanos dos Mortos (Portugal)
Romanian 	Smârcurile Morții
Russian 	Мёртвые Топи
Sanskrit 	डेअद् मर्शेस्
Serbian 	Мртве баруштине (Cyrillic) Mrtve Baruštine (Latin)
Sindhi 	مئل دلدل
Sinhalese 	මළ වගුරු
Slovak 	Mŕtve močiare
Slovenian 	Mrtva močvirja
Spanish (Spain and Latin America)	Ciénaga de los Muertos
Swahili 	Mabwawa Wafu
Swedish 	Dödaträskmarker
Tagalog 	Poso ng mga patay
Tajik Cyrillic 	Деад Марсҳес
Tamil 	இறந்த சதுப்பு
Telugu 	డెడ్ చిత్తడినేలలు
Turkish 	Ölü Bataklıklar
Turkmen 	Öli Batgalyklar
Ukrainian Cyrillic 	Мертві болота
Urdu 	مردہ دلدل
Uzbek 	Деад Марсҳес (Cyrillic) O'lik Botqoqliklar (Latin)
Venetian 	Palude de Morte
Vietnamese 	đầm lầy chết
Welsh 	Corsydd Marw
Yiddish 	טויט מאַרשיז
==References==
Category:Marshes
Category:Rhovanion
Category:Regions
de:Totensümpfe
es:Ciénaga de los Muertos
it:Paludi Morte
pl:Martwe Bagna
ru:Мёртвые Топи