Woodland Trail

The Len Arontur or Woodland Tour described not a particular road, but a network of trails, inns, and places of rest crossing Siragale between the Twilight Hills and Iach Sarn. During the centuries of peace in old Arnor, a small but regular traffic of merchants and nobles passed through the kingdom's Elvish province. Since the Sirannar did not allow any great amount of settlement in their homeland during this time, the Silvan passage required careful preparation and well-timed stops at Siragale's islands of civilized habitation. However, due to the lack of mannish intrusion, the Arnorians came to value this journey for its spectacle of woodland beauty. Thus the concept of "the Tour" came about. It was a journey of a few days, passing from the Twilight Hills to Cardolan or the reverse, or sometimes a few weeks spent at an inn or villa hidden in the woods. Siragale, which possessed little in the way of population or resources, nevertheless soon boasted a selection of fine lodges and quality hostels scattered among its forests. Indeed, most of the farms, cornlands, and vineyards allowed in the province were designed to support this traffic. Even such folk as could not persuade an Elf to speak with them might sample the Silvan life and pass the Dunadan holy days in carefully groomed woodland glades reminiscent of ancient Beleriand and Numenor. While the Elves did not permit extensive road-building in Siragale, the trails were groomed, wells dug, and flowering shrubs planted all along the route. With the decline of Cardolan, the Tour fell out of fashion. Traffic along the Woodland Trail dwindled; many of the fancy lodges faded back into the forest. What remained at the time of the Hobbit settlement was a limited but useful infrastructure of roads, bridges, wells, and fords. Along with such procticalities came a number of small but interesting treasures: herbs and gardens gone wild, fine buildings and foundations left unused, and, occasionally,artifacts and mysteries to be scavenged.