Southward of the Falls of Rauros, the rushing waters of the Great River Anduin were swollen even further by the inflow of the river Onodló (or Entwash) from the west. Onodló divided into many streams that flowed into Anduin over a stretch of nearly a hundred miles, so that the flat lands opposite the Mouths of Onodló to the east formed a vast fen or marsh more than fifty miles across, known as the Nindalf (or the Wetwang in the Common Speech).
The Nindalf was an uninhabited and pathless region, stretching southward along Anduin's eastern banks until it was contained by the higher land that separated it from Mordor. To the northeast, a further but distinct fen extended.3 This was the swampland known as the Dead Marshes, which continued northward for many more miles, and was haunted by apparitions of those that fell there during the War of the Last Alliance.
Notes
1 |
Nindalf is one of only two canonically recorded Elvish names ending in 'f' (the other being Fladrif) and in such cases the f sound is pronounced 'voiced' as v. There are in fact many other names for places and characters ending in 'f' (with Gandalf being a very prominent example), but these come from languages other than Elvish, and so the rule about the final 'f' does not apply. |
2 |
The name Nindalf derives from nin, 'wet', and dalf, an old Elvish word for a wide flat area or field. The Common Tongue equivalent 'Wetwang' is a direct translation of the Elvish name into Old English elements.
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3 |
It is uncertain how closely related the Nindalf was to the Dead Marshes beyond. Given that both were wide regions of marshland, separated by just a few miles, it seems reasonable to assume that the flooding waters of Anduin and Onodló played at least some part in the formation of both marshes.
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- Updated 29 June 2026
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