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The Road goes ever on and on .....

I've already discussed how far Frodo walked in 'The Lord of the Rings' but what about his Uncle Bilbo, how far did he travel in 'The Hobbit'?




  • 397 miles on pony from Bag End to Rivendell
  • 570 miles from Rivendell to the Lonely Mountain which can be broken down as:
  1. 72 miles by pony when the goblins capture the group
  2. Bilbo travels 37 miles by foot in the goblin caves
  3. He group travels 29 miles on foot and then climb trees to escape the Wary attack
  4. Eagles carry the group 64 miles to the Car rock where they are left
  5. 6 miles are run to Beorn's house
  6. Beorn lends the group ponies to travel the 62 miles to Mirkwood
  7. 143 miles in Mirkwood to the enchanted river
  8. The 3 miles of the enchanted river are crossed by boat
  9. 40 miles are covered on foot before the drawves are captured by a lvesBilbo walks 2 miles before releasing the drawves
  10. The barrell ride is 46 miles long and gets the group to Laketown
  11. 15 miles are then travelled by boat (after a stay at Laketown) to the mouth of the River Running
  12. Ponies are collected here for the journey of 25 miles to the hidden door in the Lonely Mountain
  13. 26 miles are walked by Bilbo within the mountain and delivering the Arkenstone to Bard before the Battle of the Five Armies.
And that is it  - 967 miles in total travelled by pony, foot, bHarrell, boat, goblin and elf! Further than the 800 miles from St Jean to Santiago but most pilgrims don't get to use such a variety of transport! Also the group took 7 months to travel this distance (from April 25th to November 23rd) whereas St Jean to Santiago takes about 30-35 days (although Pilgrims never have to recover from being captured by goblins or drawves, Warg attacks and dealing with dragons so their speed can, I think, be forgiven!).





If you want a graph comparing the distances travelled by Frodo and Bilbo go to this site:
http://lotrproject.com/statistics/#timeanddistance

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