Gargoyles?! In middle earth?! This may be later Hobbit enbelishment, but would it not make sense that the cellars of old Merchant houaes were decorated? Especially if there are Dwarves around?"...To knock upon their door,
While down the grinning gargoyles stare
And noisome waters pour..."
Bells, just like in Dale..."...The shadows where the Mewlips dwell
Are dark and wet as ink,
And slow and softly rings their bell,
As in the slime you sink..."
Cellars... Bells and gold? Does this not sound more and more like the tombs of rich lords, or perhaps the celalrs of rich merchants, trading up and downstreams with Dale and Esgaroth? There is mention of there being an older town before Lake-Town that was greater, perhaps these ruins are from that time too?"...The cellars where the Mewlips sit
Are deep and dank and cold
With single sickly candle lit;
And there they count their gold.
Their walls are wet, their ceilings drip;
Their feet upon the floor
Go softly with a squish-flap-flip,
As they sidle to the door..."
I think it does, maybe this is a long lost trading post and port at the end of the Old Forest Road? What do you think? Perhaps its an old town of Vidugavias Rhovanion? Or one of the ones that survived the invasion of the wainriders?
The Marsh of Tode might be the name of the marshes south of Laketown and along the River Running. Anyone have any etomological ideas around it?"Through the spider-shadows and the marsh of Tode,..."
Maybe it is from the same language that spawned Esgaroth and Girion.
Maybe the name was Todeoth, from Esgaroth (which likely means strand-burg, or reedlake, or even reedlake-burg.) the burg at the marshes of Tude.
Other article exploring the idea of a town at the end of the old forest road: https://middle-earth.xenite.org/where-d ... d-lead-to/
Article; https://web.archive.org/web/20140204170 ... wlips.html