Fell Winter of the Third Age

One of the worst winters in the records of Middle-earth, which descended in late III 2911 and lasted until the spring of the following year (that is, from 1311 to 1312 by the Shire-reckoning). Falling only a little more than a century before the end of the Third Age, the Fell Winter was still in the living memory for the older inhabitants of the Shire, particularly Bilbo Baggins, who had been a youngster in his tweens (that is, his twenties) at the time.

The Fell Winter is primarily described from the point of view of the Shire-hobbits, who had rarely had to contend with a winter so terrible. The Fell Winter was so cold that even the wide river Baranduin froze over, and white wolves came out of the icy north to trouble the Shire. This was indeed the worst winter since the Long Winter of III 2758 (S.R. 1158), more than a hundred and fifty years beforehand. During that Long Winter, Gandalf lent his aid to the Shire-folk, and so perhaps he did the same during the Fell Winter (although, if he did so, that fact is not recorded).

As the Fell Winter came to an end and the snows began to thaw in the following spring, great floods spread across Eriador. The river Mitheithel or Hoarwell became so swollen that it shattered the ancient Bridge at Tharbad, making the long journey between the North and the South a difficult one for years afterward. Boromir reported that he had lost his horse making the crossing at Tharbad, more than a century after the Bridge had been washed away.