[Kuruharan]

For some reason I've really gotten "into" the question of possible timing of a meeting between Faramir and Aragorn.

Going back and doing a more thorough check of the Atlas of Middle Earth I have come to the conclusion that I may have been a bit hasty in saying that Faramir could not have been to Henneth Annun before the Fellowship.

It took Frodo, Sam, and Gollum two days to get to the area of Henneth Annun from the Morannon. They went about 24 miles both days. I think that even had Aragorn been leading them this would be fairly good speed. Assuming an arrival date at the Morannon of March 1 (which I still think is a reasonable assessment), this would bring the Fellowship to the area of Henneth Annun on March 3.

Now, back to Faramir for a minute. He left Minas Tirith with his company on March 1.

A great deal of this whole thing depends on where one supposes that the Gondorians crossed the river. There are a few possibilities here.

1) Osgiliath. I personally find this crossing very unlikely for a few reasons. The orcs were positioned directly on the opposite bank (not good). There would then have to be a cross country hike of well over 50 miles through "hostile country." (This is the way that I originally thought that they came. [img]smilies/redface.gif[/img])

2) Some place in between Osgiliath and Cair Andros. The enemy might not be positioned directly across the river bank, but this way does not recommend itself because of the length of the march through Ithilien.

3) Crossing at Cair Andros or environs. This place would undoubtedly be watched carefully by the enemy, but I think that it is perhaps the most likely. The company would have had the benefit of the Great West Road for part of the way, which would have sped travel. Then once in Ithilien, the march to Henneth Annun would have been relatively brief. Perhaps a crossing to the north of Cair Andros would be safer, but still have the advantages of a brief march through Ithilien.

The march from Minas Tirith to the area of Cair Andros on the main road would be something about (very loose estimate) 30 miles. The other 25 miles probably had a path from the main road to Cair Andros (it was an important military post) so it probably would not be too difficult to travel. I think that a day and a half (assuming rest) would be reasonable.

Faramir would undoubtedly wish to make the crossing as soon as he arrived at the river, and I don't think that this crossing would have taken very long if they had preparations ready made at the site. Then the rest of the march would be around 15 miles, which would not take a hardy troop of soldiers too long.

They could have been there in a little over two days time (March 3). In other words, right when an Aragorn led Fellowship would have been passing through the area.

So, even though this contributes nothing to the general topic of the thread, I wanted to give lmp kudos for his belief that Faramir and Aragorn would have been in the same area at the right time.
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[ February 16, 2003: Message edited by: Kuruharan ]

[ February 16, 2003: Message edited by: Kuruharan ]