Frodo Walks More Than 1,350 Miles in 'Lord of the Rings'

Frodo and Sam have quite a long way to walk, via

Anyone who's ever read Lord of the Rings has, at some point or another, wondered why J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy is so long. It's not the fault of the story, either; it's more that Middle Earth seems small when it's in your head.

According to a calculation by redditor mattsawizzard, however, Middle Earth is even bigger than it appears in the movies. To answer a question that has troubled Lord of the Rings fans for years, he picked up the books and, with the help of Google Maps, calculated how long the journey of Frodo and Sam actually was.

The answer? Approximately 1,350 miles.

At first glance, the number might sound meaningless. It's only when you translate that distance to the real world that the sheer scale becomes apparent; in our world, Frodo could have walked all the way from London to the Serbian city of Niš, or from Amsterdam to the Sofia, Bulgaria—in 411 hours, mind you.

Then again, that number doesn't factor in mountain orcs, huge spiders, ethereal elves, or the lengthy meetings the two roguish half-men have to suffer through. Come to think of it, they may have made great time.

Check out a few more of mattsawizzard's Middle Earth-to-regular Earth maps below:

The Shire to Bree is about 120 miles, the same distance between London and Nottingham.

Walking from Bree to Rivendell would take a bit more than 90 hours (300 miles), the same distance from London to Land's End.

Rivendell and Moria are approximately 157 miles apart, the equivalent distance from London to Manchester.

A version of this article originally appeared on The Creators Project Netherlands. 

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