Survival in the Wild

There are no safe paths in this part of the world. Remember you are over the Edge of the Wild now,
and in for all sorts of fun wherever you go.”

—Gandalf in JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit



If, like Bilbo, you’re a sheltered, refined, easygoing hobbit (or, at any rate, are someone who’s never ventured much farther than your front gate), you’ll be completely unprepared when fate thrusts you into an Unexpected Journey. After years of sleeping comfortably in a bed, having four or five square meals a day—plus tea, “afters,” and late-night snacks—and strolling down to the Green Dragon to knock back a few pints and smoke a pipe of Longbottom Leaf, suddenly you’re sleeping on the hard ground, dining on fruits, nuts, and possibly chunks of venison that have been roasted over an open fire, and you can’t remember the last time you had a drink, a smoke, or an uninterrupted night’s sleep. In your old comfortable, contented life, the most exciting thing that ever happened was the miller getting caught mixing whole bran in the white bread. In your new, adventurous life, you’re coming face-to-face with wolves, orcs, goblins, dragons, spiders, and often much worse. You didn’t know that there was anything worse.

Just in case you find yourself in such a situation, here are some tips, drawn from Bilbo and Frodo’s experiences. If your adventures take you farther afield and into stranger places than they ventured, well, you’re on your own.

Food

Let’s start with the basics. If you find yourself adrift in the Wild—and for most of us, that means someplace we can’t plug in a hair drier—you need to consider the essentials: food and shelter. Food’s the most immediate. You can’t go more than forty-eight hours without nutritional relief. But don’t imagine for a minute you’re going to be able to sit down in a tavern and order a steak-and-kidney pie (or whatever dish you like). This is the Wild. There are no steak-and-kidney pies to be had. For that matter, there aren’t very many inns—at least not ones you’d care to enter without a drawn sword.

Packing Food

Packing food for a long journey is difficult, of course, because there’s no refrigeration where you’re going. At best, if you camp next to a stream, you can put some of the food in it to keep it cold (but then you risk it getting waterlogged). For this reason, the experienced adventurer prefers meat in the form of jerky, which can be prepared over the kitchen fire on those long, cold winter evenings. In addition, bring along plenty of nuts (a valuable source of protein), cheese (if it’s preserved in its rind), bread (good only until it molds), and fruit.

Scavenging for Sustenance in the Wilderness

It certainly helps to be able to recognize basic foodstuffs. These include (but aren’t limited to) the following:

Foods to be Avoided

Not everything you find in the Wild is good to eat. The particularly hungry adventurer may find himself tempted to try just about anything to sate a raging hunger. Resist this impulse. Among the things to avoid:

What to Do With Food, Once You’ve Got It

Some foods can be eaten raw (e.g., fruit, mushrooms). Other foods are best either eaten with something else (e.g., herbs, mushrooms) or must be cooked (e.g., venison, rabbit, fish). To cook foods with best results:

  1. Use dry wood rather than green. Green wood will smoke, giving away your position to any unfriendly eyes that may be looking for you.
  2. Have some water handy to put out the fire quickly if need be. You never know what danger may come upon you suddenly.
  3. Surround the fire with stones, if possible, to prevent it from spreading. Another alternative is to dig a shallow pit and build the fire in that.
  4. Keep the fire small. No reason to create a massive blaze just to cook a couple of rabbits.
  5. Use two forked sticks, one on either side of the fire, and a long, pointed stick laid across them to create a basic spit. With this mechanism, you can roast rabbit, goose, or just about any other small game, turning the stick to keep the meat from burning.
  6. Alternatively, if by some chance you have a pan, cut up the meat, add water (or, if possible, a little grease), and sauté the meat until partially cooked through. Add water, salt (if you have it), and herbs to make a savory stew.
  7. If neither of these alternatives appeals and members of your adventuring party want to have a more do-it-yourself approach to cooking, sharpen some long sticks and invite them to barbecue their own piece of meat to taste. For extra flavor, they can stick a mushroom on either side of the meat, or possibly (if the meat is sweet, such as pork from a wild boar), a piece of fruit such as an apple.

Hunting Food in the Wild

Plenty of food is on the hoof in the lands beyond which ordinary people stray. If any in your party have reasonable skill with a bow, they can probably bring down a pheasant, goose, or even a deer, rabbit, or wild boar. (See page 97.) However, there are certain instances where game should be left alone. For instance, if you’re going into a dark wood on a winding, difficult path, and your host, who lives near the edge of the wood and probably knows as much about it as anyone alive, tells you not to shoot anything in the wood because it won’t taste good and you’ll waste your arrows—don’t shoot at game in the wood. Just stick to the food you brought with you.

Hunting Magical Creatures

Hunting magical creatures for food (or pretty much any other reason) is strongly discouraged. For one thing, they probably won’t taste good, and for another, killing them usually brings bad luck. Dragons are, of course, the exception to this rule. Following is a recipe for dragon.

Savory Garlic Dragon

Ingredients:

1 medium-size dragon

2 tons table salt

1⁄2 ton black pepper

2 wagonloads garlic

4 hogsheads white wine

4 bay leaves

Dig a fire pit approximately 100 feet by 50 feet. Fill with branches, fire, and let burn until reduced to glowing coals. Cut dragon into small, bite-size pieces, reserving bones for stock and the skull for display. In large (15-foot) skillets (as many as necessary), sauté garlic. Add dragon, seasoning frequently with salt and pepper. When cooked to pinkness, remove from flame and set aside. Deglaze pans with wine. Add bay leaves. Reduce sauce until it coats the back of a wooden spoon. Serve dragon on platters, with sauce poured over. For an extra flourish, garnish with parsley.

Hunting Deer

While it’s fine to hunt deer, and venison is a good source of nutrition for adventurers, you are strongly advised to avoid hunting any of the following:

Stealing Food

Many adventurers consider normal rules of morality suspended in their case. After all, when you’re fighting bad guys (or creatures), you can’t be too picky about your methods. So it’s a time-honored tradition among adventurers to steal food when it’s handy. For example, suppose you come across a group of trolls. The trolls are sitting quietly by the fire, not bothering anyone, bantering among themselves, perfectly content to wait until it’s time for them to go back to their troll hole. Meanwhile they’re dining on delicious roast mutton and mugs of beer. What do you do?

An experienced adventurer might drug the beer, wait for the trolls to pass out, steal the mutton, and for good measure, steal any gold or silver that the tolls had acquired and stored in their hole. The adventurer might also slip a dagger into each of the trolls, thereby elevating vulgar assassination to the level of epic story.

Stealing food doesn’t, of course, have to mean slaughtering those who have prepared it. But in the course of your travels you come across a savory apple pie sitting unattended on a windowsill of a passing farmhouse, remember: The ends justify the means.

Drink

Along with whatever food you’ve scrounged, hunted, or stolen you’ll naturally want something to drink. Broadly speaking, drinks come in three varieties: ale, wine, and water. In general, elves prefer wine, dwarves prefer ale, men like wine and ale, and hobbits like anything, as long as there are generous quantities of it. Pretty much no one prefers water, but they’ll drink it at a pinch. (Orcs and goblins generally drink foul-smelling, disgusting stuff but they also drink water; dragons drink entire lakes dry; and giant spiders, of course, drink blood.)

Ale, Ale, the Gang’s All Here!

Some races are better at brewing ale than others. That’s all there is to it. You may hear stories of the hobbit 1420 (one of the best brews in the history of the Shire) or of Old Moria Stout and Iron Hills Pale Ale. But you never hear about Rivendell Rogue Ale or Lothlórien Lager. There’s a good reason for that; elves think beer is vulgar. They don’t drink it, they don’t make it, and they hold dwarves in some contempt for introducing malt beverages to the world. Hobbits, too, have gotten very good at brewing beer, and every tavern in the Shire and the surrounding area functions as a kind of mini-brewpub.

Find the Best Beers

Finding good beer is like finding anything else: You have to be willing to spend a while looking. And, fortunately, that means a lot of tasting. In fact, it’s entirely possible that the whole purpose of your adventure is to expand your palate and discover new and better beers. For the uninitiated:

Wine

The best wines in Middle-earth are those of Dorwinion, but there are plenty of others to go around. Although only elves have access to the rambling cellars of the Last Homely House, we can suppose that Elrond keeps an extensive wine cellar on which he draws for banquets and special occasions, as well as for his own personal taste. There is plenty of wine to go around the banqueting halls of Gondor as well, where the king sits on his golden throne, drinking from a jeweled cup. You might not ascend to those heights, but there’s no reason even in the Wild not to enjoy a decent draught of good wine.

The Mead-halls of Rohan

The Riders of Rohan may sample wine when they ally with their cousins to the south in Minas Tirith. But at home in Edoras, they prefer mead, a drink made from fermented honey. The main advantages of mead are that it’s easy to brew, it stores well, and it gets you good and drunk, and in the mood for a wild cavalry charge in the face of hopeless odds.

Carrying Drink With You

The accepted way to bring drink along on any adventure is in a wineskin. The wise adventurer not only takes several of these in his or her pack but replenishes them at every opportunity. Even if this means sneaking down to the cellars of the Elven-king in his palace in Mirkwood, it’s well worth it—and easier to accomplish if you happen to be invisible.

It’s not a good idea to take drink in bottles or jugs, and barrels are unwieldy, although once you’ve drunk all the beer or wine you can ride the barrels along a river. That is, if you don’t mind bobbing around and getting soaking wet.

Double-check your skins for leaks; you don’t want to run out of alcohol at a crucial moment—say, right before beginning a battle with a giant or a confrontation with a hoard of hobgoblins.

Water

As mentioned previously, water is the preferred drink of almost no one. That said, it’s the easiest one to find in the Wild. A couple of significant points about finding water:

Shelter

Contrary to what you may have heard, four walls don’t make a house. Especially not if this house has no roof or the roof leaks in a rainstorm. After you’ve satisfied the cravings of your stomach, you’ll need a place to stay that’s:

  1. Dry
  2. Warm (or at least not freezing cold)
  3. Safe (relatively)

You may assume that when in the Wild, it’s a case of any port in a storm, but in fact you should be careful when choosing your shelter. Here are some things to look out for.

Caves

Caves are great to shelter in because they’re (a) dry; (b) warm, if you build a fire near the entrance; and (c) pretty easy to defend against a frontal assault. However, they have significant disadvantages. The biggest one is, as Gandalf well understands, you never know how far back they go. Bilbo and his dwarf companions got a rather nasty shock when the cave they were sleeping in, high up in the Misty Mountains, turned out to be the front porch of a highly irritable band of goblins. So, even if you find a nice dry cave and it doesn’t seem big enough to hide anything unpleasant and unexpected, remember that there are always hidden doors, cracks, and pits from which creepy things can crawl out of the darkness.

Bigger Caves

The bigger the cave, the greater the possibility that there’s something in it that doesn’t want you there. Alternatively, there’s something in it that’s very happy to have you there, because it’s feeling peckish and you look like a particularly appetizing hors d’oeuvre. The first order of business when choosing a cave for the evening is to thoroughly explore it. That means eyeing all the little cracks and crevices, inspecting the walls for possible secret entrances, and keeping in mind that just because you can’t climb down and explore a hole in the floor doesn’t mean someone or something can’t climb up.

Really, Really Big Caves—We’re Talking the Kind You Could Fit a City Into

Really big caves can be great; they have incredibly beautiful stalagmites and stalactites, huge caverns with glittering walls and translucent ceilings, and miles and miles of twisting corridors that plunge on and on through the bowels of the earth. And that’s really the problem. A big cave offers plenty of shelter—you could probably hide a whole army and a half in the Mines of Moria—but its sheer size means it’s impossible to explore thoroughly. Just as Gandalf, Frodo, Aragorn, and company found a balrog living in Moria, so you may encounter quite a bit more than you’ve bargained for, if you go into one of these places. The best thing to do if you venture into one is to bring along plenty of friends, torches, weapons, and at all times a clear idea in your mind of the shortest route to the nearest exit.

And if you start hearing drums in the deep, run like hell.

Haunted Caves

Caves are apt to be haunted by spirits of the dead, or undead, or not-quite-dead-but-getting-there. After all, caves are dark and creepy, and lots of horrible things have happened in them, so there are lots of good reasons for the dead to hang around in caves. If, by chance, you find yourself in a cave haunted by the spirits of the dead, keep a cool head about you. Panicking isn’t going to help. It’s a natural reaction, to be sure, but running in a random direction screaming at the top of your lungs is just going to piss off the spirits and whatever friends they have. The best thing is to be confident, assertive, polite, and to have a good explanation for your presence. Something along the following lines should suffice: “Oh, is this your cave? I’m so sorry. We’re just passing through, and we were under the impression that it was uninhabited. We certainly didn’t mean to trespass, and we’ll be moving along now. Oh, by the way, you look really great. Death suits you.”

Who Lives in Caves

Naturally you may want an idea of who lives in caves and who you’re most likely to run into (in addition to spirits of the dead). Common inhabitants may include:

Trees

Just as caves are often associated with dwarves, so trees have an affinity with elves. Trees offer shelter to the weary traveler and serve as a canopy against storms, a place of safety that can be climbed and can be defended against enemies, and a source of firewood and, possibly, food. That said, there are ups and downs to choosing trees for shelter in the Wild.

Choosing the Right Tree

Trees are unpredictable. Some are happy to provide shelter, with their huge boles and tangled roots offering snug hiding places and nooks in which the adventurer can curl up and rest his weary head. Others are treacherous and evil, tempting travelers to lean against them for a nap before snaring them into cracks in their bark, slowly devouring them and drawing them in. Still others are simply wild, and they need a strong hand guiding them and preventing them from doing harm, accidental or intentional, to the passing traveler. When choosing a tree for shelter, stop and consider what sort of tree it is and whether it has reason to dislike you.

Trees, it must be said, have ample reason to be suspicious of humans, since we routinely chop them down, cut them up for fires or for furniture, or carve our initials into them. But it’s possible by laying aside things such as axes and flint and tinder to convince the trees that our goal isn’t to destroy them. Unlike caves, trees are living things that can even be conversed with, on occasion.

Climbing Trees

You must climb a tree to get to the best shelter it has to offer. Choose a broad branch, well away from the wind and rain, and settle down. In the event that orcs or goblins come ranging around the base of the tree, you’ll probably hear them. If wargs start howling, you’ll certainly hear them. And if goblins try to burn down the forest, you’ll smell the smoke.

Tops of trees are generally best, since you can easily be rescued by eagles if things get tense. It’s true that no one likes to be in the top of a fir tree in the midst of a raging forest fire, but the top is safer than the lower branches, where wild wolves can snap at you and the spears of goblins might reach your legs. Even in the middle of all this, remember that trees have feelings, and you’re probably going to make some friends by being careful about where you put your hands and feet.

Fire and Trees

If you find yourself in the middle of a large, strange forest, and you have the urge to start a campfire, keep in mind that the best wood is dead wood. Don’t start chopping down trees, whatever you do. Remember that a tree’s natural enemy is fire. On the other hand, in colder weather, trees sort of like fire. Just be cautious when you light one.

Tree Dwellings

The experts on tree houses are unquestionably elves. The elves of Lothlórien live exclusively in trees, on wide flets or platforms that are mounted by means of ladders or flights of stairs. These are the best sorts of refuges to be found in trees. If you can’t live in Lothlórien, try to build some small platforms on the trees you’re in. You’ll lessen the chances of rolling off a branch during the night.

Moving Trees

It’s possible that you may wind up in some of the trees that move (huorns). Don’t be alarmed; rather, try to offer them some reasonable advice: Turn left at Isengard and keep going until you reach Mordor. Oh, and destroy any orcs and random evil wizards you encounter on your way. And if you see any Ents, do what they tell you. Ents know what they’re talking about most of the time.

Talking to Trees

Trees don’t as a rule have much to say. If a tree does talk to you, be cautious. It may be trying to seduce you with the intention of absorbing you via its bark cracks. Also be sure to distinguish between trees and Ents. Trees are trees. Ents are simply treelike—tall, bushy, strong, slow moving, and slow talking. Given their size and strength, it’s important to be polite to them. Who knows? An Ent may invite you back to its hall for some refreshing Ent-draught. Better than beer, with twice the nutrients.

Other Shelters

In addition to caves and trees (and houses, if they’re available), the enterprising adventurer might seek out of the following.

Cliffs

A cliff with a slight overhang can make a shelter from a raging blizzard or rainstorm, although not much of one. The chief dangers in a blizzard are snowdrifts that make forward or backward progress difficult or impossible. Rainstorms, of course, will leave you drenched and freezing, and although a cliff wall may shield you from the worst of the wind and occasional falling boulders, you probably won’t be able to start a fire. Still, a cliff wall is better than nothing. If you happen to have ponies or horses, set them in front of you to block the wind and give you a little more warmth.

Eagle Eyries

Do not under any circumstances climb up to an eagle’s nest uninvited. Particularly if you’re small and the eagle or its chicks are hungry. If so, you will probably end up torn apart for a late breakfast. On the other hand, if the eagle itself brings you to the eyrie, you can be assured of reasonable safety (provided you don’t fall off) and a spectacular view.

Ruins

Numerous ruins lay scattered around the world, and they can offer some shelter to the weary traveler. You may even find the remains of buildings, with something resembling a roof to give cover. However, take caution. Ruins are usually in ruins for good reason, and you may not be the first to take up shelter there. Among other things, watch out for:

What the Well-Dressed Adventurer Is Wearing These Days

There’s no Adventurer’s GQ, but there should be. Here are some helpful hints about what you should wear to your first adventure.

Hood and Cloak

This is basic survival gear. The cloak will keep you warm, disguised, and, if of elvish make, will protect you from unfriendly eyes. The hood will keep the rain out of your eyes, and the whole ensemble can fit into your pack. No one has invented any better garment for surviving in the Wild.

Armor

Several different kinds of armor, all of them providing various degrees of protection, can be had:

Who You’ll Encounter in the Wild

The Wild is filled with lots of strange creatures, most of whom haven’t met you and wouldn’t care to, even if you had a letter of introduction from the Wizard Radagast (who seems to have been at home with much of the Wild). In most circumstances, the creatures of the Wild will simply pass you by. In a few cases, they’ll want to confront you and talk to you. And in a few other cases, they’ll want to eat you. Most of the time, the best course is to go your way with as little muss and fuss as possible. Hobbits in particular are good at this sort of thing; passing through the countryside they’re liable to raise the attention of a nearby fox but not much more. But if you should happen to excite the general comment of the countryside, here’s how to handle it.

Men

Men tend to keep to themselves and to congregate in their own communities. Except for a few places, such as Bree on the outskirts of civilization, they don’t have much to do with the Wild, and they’d prefer to keep it that way, thank you very much. The memories of men stretch only to a few generations, so they don’t recall the long history that may be left in the Wild to fester over many centuries. If you run into men in the Wild, they’re likely to be Rangers, men of the vanished race of the Númenóreans. Give them the respect they deserve and pass along with little comment. It’s possible that they may take you prisoner for a while, but rest assured that their motives are honorable.

Rangers

Rangers are a special variety of men, the remnants of the Númenóreans (see above). They’re sworn to protect people from danger, so if you happen to encounter them, you’re in luck. However, don’t expect them to be a barrel of laughs. Guarding against unknown foes is tough work, and Rangers are apt to grouse about how little thanks they get and how hard they live. Despite this, don’t offer them any money; they’ll take it as an insult and will be even snottier to you than is their wont.

Elves

What few elves you bump into in the Wild are on their way to the Havens and would prefer to be left alone to continue their journey in peace. They are wrapped in a melancholy of their own making, and there’s very little you or anyone else can say that’s going to make them feel any better. You can take some comfort in the fact that they’re at least as disinterested in you as you may be in them. Just smile, hail them, and pass by. Nothing to see here. Nothing at all.

Dwarves

Most dwarves these days are busy in the various mines they’ve staked out: the Blue Hills, the Iron Hills, the Lonely Mountain. Even the Mines of Moria are showing some signs of regeneration. Be that as it may, dwarves are businesslike and brisk, ready enough to trade goods for gold and silver (dwarves are the original mercantilists) but not much interested in anything that doesn’t directly affect their interests. They have respect for men and hobbits, though little for elves, and they feel that the best approach to any orcs they meet on the road is a swift blow from an axe.

Orcs

Most of the orcs of Middle-earth were destroyed either in the Battle of Five Armies or later in the fall of the Dark Tower. A few are clinging to existence in the dark corners of the land, and you may encounter them on a lonely road or in the depths of the night. The downfall of the Tower of Saruman meant that Saruman’s followers were scattered over the land, and while some of them wound up in the Shire for a few months, they were driven out after the Battle of Bywater and are now merely robbers and footpads who are likely to be mopped up by the King’s men. That said, in the Wild it’s as well to keep a close watch after nightfall and to travel the roads in companies of fifteen or twenty, well armed with swords in case of trouble.

Wolves

The wargs, the worst of the wild wolves, largely ceased to be a nuisance after the collapse of Sauron’s realm. The traveler today who worries about attacks of wolves is probably a bit on the paranoid side. Still, there’s no reason to take chances. A few lone wolves still roam the forests, attacking individual adventurers, and striking fear into the hearts of foresters. Keep a guard out for them, and remember that there’s nothing so effective against wolves as setting treetops on fire.

Weird Nature Spirits

Wandering the fringes of the world, you’ll encounter from time to time unclassifiable creatures, some friendly, others unfriendly or, at best, neutral. Tom Bombadil and Goldberry can be numbered among these weird nature spirits; Beorn of the Carrock near Mirkwood is another. They can be exuberant and a bit overwhelming (Tom); mystic, mysterious, and stunningly beautiful (Goldberry); or suspicious and grouchy but with a good heart (Beorn). Survival in the Wild may depend on your ability to successfully interact with these spirits, so avoid offending them and take what assistance they proffer. Remember that they answer to no one, so you can’t appeal to their sense of responsibility. Ents belong, in some degree, to this category, and as Treebeard remarks, “I am not wholly on anyone’s side, because no one is on my side.” However, you can generally expect them, when push comes to shove, to come down on the side of good against evil, even if they make you pay a price for their assistance.

The rules for dealing with these creatures include:

Outposts of Civilization

In the far-flung corners of the land, it’s possible to find a few centers of society that still maintain some decency and the hope of featherbeds. In particular, a few inns exist on the very fringes of the Wild, as well as some small outposts of civilization such as the Last Homely House. The traveler may wish to stop at these to renew his or her stocks of food, wine, and water, and to hear the latest news about the road ahead.

The Prancing Pony

From time immemorial, the Butterbur family has owned the Prancing Pony at Bree. Since this community caters to both Big People and hobbits, the Pony has rooms for both. The hobbit rooms are generally on the first floor and have round windows. The inn itself is the social center of the town of Bree, one of the last towns on the Great Road before it passes into the Wild. The common room of the inn is a vortex of gossip and news from the Shire to the west to the towns of Archet and Combs to the east. If there’s any information you want to hear, your best bet is to buy a pint of beer in the Pony common room and sip it very slowly.

When Frodo and his companions arrive at the Prancing Pony, they find a motley crew of Bree townsfolk, dwarves, and yes, even hobbits.

The company was in the big common-room of the inn. The gathering was large and mixed, as Frodo discovered, when his eyes got used to the light. This came chiefly from a blazing log-fire, for the three lamps hanging from the beams were dim, and half veiled in smoke. Barliman Butterbur was standing near the fire, talking to a couple of dwarves and one or two strange-looking men. On the benches were various folk: men of Bree, a collection of local hobbits (sitting chattering together), a few more dwarves, and other vague figures difficult to make out away in the shadows and corners. (The Fellowship of the Ring, chapter 9)

The Last Inn

Far out on the Road that leads from the west across the Anduin and to the bleak lands of the northeast, the Last Inn is the final stop for many travelers. The beer here is no more than acceptable and the food matches it in mediocrity, but as the out-flung arm of civilization, it’s still a welcome sight—being the last place adventurers are likely to sleep in a bed.

Rivendell

The house of Elrond Half-Elven is, as Bilbo long ago remarked, “perfect, whether you liked food, or sleep, or work, or story-telling, or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all.” It’s filled with elves who are, on the whole, less annoying than they tend to be elsewhere. Elrond, being a loremaster, is always willing to help read a difficult map or translate a bit of obscure text. At the same time, Rivendell is hidden in a valley and fenced about with powerful magic so that it’s difficult to find if the elves don’t want you to be aware of it. The wise adventurer will send ahead for an invitation, specifying how long he or she will be staying, any special dietary requirements, and what sort of accommodations they would like to reserve. Check-out time is promptly at 11 a.m.

Survival Skills

Without some basic abilities, you won’t last long in the Wild. It’s not only a matter of staying on your feet and not being caught and cooked or getting drowned in a river somewhere. You must know how to live off the land. In addition to what we’ve discussed previously, practice the following skills at home before setting off on an adventure.

Fire Building

To make a fire you need the following:

Place the moss and/or leaves in a small pile, leaving plenty of room for air to circulate freely. Strike the flint against the steel next to them, until sparks land on the tinder. Blow gently—no matter how frustrated you become—on the tinder until flames appear. Feed the flames with small pieces of kindling, gradually increasing in size until the fire is established. Only then add the larger branches and logs. As mentioned above, keep the area around the fire clear of anything flammable to the distance of at least two feet, including leaves, sticks, moss, clothing, or adventurers. In the Wild there’s no need to make a big bonfire. Keep it small and keep it safe.

Note: Another way to make fire is to use magic. This is generally confined to wizards and will broadcast your position to anyone watching, but in extreme circumstances, such as the middle of a snowstorm or a flash flood, you may not have much choice. Choose a large chunk of wood, stick a magic staff into it, and recite the appropriate spell. This generally works.

Woodcraft

To prevent being followed, and to know if anything else has recently passed in the direction you’re going, learn to avoid unnecessarily snapping off branches and flattening patches of grass with your feet, to say nothing of leaving footprints in the dust. Watch carefully for twigs that have been bent at unnatural angles or stones that have been kicked out of place in the earth. Practice listening for sounds of pursuing feet—or feet in front of you running away. Cultivate the observation of detail; it could mean the difference between life and death.

Horsemanship

Much of your time in the Wild will probably be spent on foot, since there are too many places that are not traversable by horse or pony. Still, it doesn’t hurt to be a skillful rider. Spend time practicing mounting and dismounting; if you can get your steed to trust you, this will become easier. Learn to control your horse not only with the reins but with your legs and with your whole body. Train him or her to respond instinctively to danger and not to throw you off his back while running from wolves or goblins. A skill at quickly turning and stopping will come in handy if you need to throw off pursuing riders. Spend some time learning to shoot a bow and arrow accurately and quickly while riding a horse and looking behind you. You may not be as good as the Riders of Rohan, but there’s no reason to make a fool of yourself on horseback either. And these skills are, to some extent, transferable to riding ponies, eagles, and traveling on the shoulders of Ents.

Hunting

We mentioned earlier that hunting in the Wild is an essential source of food. In addition to shooting animals on the fly with bow and arrow or hewing down a charging board with a battle-axe, learn to set snares for rabbits and smaller animals. Set a few traps in the early evening, and by the next morning, you may have a fine brace of quail for breakfast. As well, you’ll need to know how to pluck fowls and skin animals, as well as what parts are good eating and what should be thrown away. Remember, waste not, want not. Try to use every part of what you kill. Help keep Middle-earth clean: Avoid littering.

Fishing

If you find yourself near a pond or lake, remember that there’s nothing like fresh fish cooked over an open fire moments after you’ve caught it. You can easily fashion a rod from a sturdy branch (preferably green wood so that it bends instead of breaking). Bait it with a worm, a bit of meat, or a bright-colored flower. You can make a hook from a bent pin or a bit of steel wire.

Another alternative is to catch fish with your hands, but this is noisy, messy, requires a specialized upbringing, and generally is not advised.

Gut the fish and cook them either in a pan (if you have one) or threaded on a skewer. Season with herbs and potatoes, which you may find growing in the Wild or in someone’s garden.

Knot Tying

Ropes and their use are basic to survival in the Wild. You may find it necessary to climb up or down a mountainside, secure a boat, or simply use a bit of rope to tie items onto your pack. In any case, you’ll need a basic knowledge of knot craft. Practice tying the following kinds of knots:

The best kinds of ropes are made by the elves; those of Lothlórien are particularly skilled in this art. Further, elven ropes have a tendency to come when you call, a useful quality if you don’t want to leave a rope as a sure sign to pursuers that this is the way their prey came. Fifty ells of rope is a good length for the adventurer to carry; it should answer for most emergencies.

Swimming and Boating

Hobbits are sadly deficient in these skills (except for those who live near the banks of the Brandywine River). But swimming and boating are likely to come in handy if you’re exploring a world penetrated by rivers, lakes, and inland seas. Traveling by boat is faster, safer, and more comfortable than walking or even riding, but if your boat overturns in rapids (or because, in a moment of panic, you grab for the edge of the boat and tip it over), you must know how to at least keep your head above water until a more skillful swimmer can reach you and propel you to shore. Above all, when in water, don’t panic. Waving and shouting will only make you sink faster and perhaps attract unwelcome attention from the enemy.

Weapons and Their Uses

Any discussion of surviving in the Wild would be incomplete with out a short lesson on how to use various weapons available to the adventurer. The average traveler is probably carrying a sword and possibly a bow, but these are not the only options. Here are some of the weapons available to you, together with comments on their usage.

Swords

This is the weapon de rigueur of anyone setting out for the Lands Beyond. Swords come in different lengths and weights, and the trick is to find one that you’re comfortable wielding that also does some significant damage to anything it hits. A basic rule of thumb is that your sword should not be more than half your height. You should swing it easily with one hand, although two will put more force into the blow. Remember that sword fighting isn’t a matter of wild slashing. The clever fighter uses the first moments of a battle to gauge his enemy’s weaknesses and look for where blows will be successful. Parry, thrust, parry, thrust… that’s the rhythm to establish. Keep your sword sharp at all times, and remember to clean it thoroughly after you’ve killed someone. In the heat of battle, with multiple enemies, the cleaning will have to wait.

Hobbits often use daggers as swords, given their lack of height. That’s fine, keeping in mind of course that a dagger or short sword used by a hobbit will do proportionally less damage to an opponent than a sword wielded by a full-sized human.

Shield

In addition to blocking your enemies’ blows, you can use your shield itself as a weapon, thrusting it forward and knocking your opponent off balance. As with the sword, a shield should be comfortable to carry. Some come with a spike (or boss) in the middle, also useful as an offensive weapon. Shields are also helpful for sleighing down snowy slopes or skidding down a flight of stairs while firing arrows at the enemy.

Bow and Arrow

This is an excellent weapon for those venturing into the unknown. Its light, portable arrows are retrievable (at least in most circumstances; if they hit an oliphaunt, it’s probably a good idea to let them go), and it kills almost silently. It requires a good deal of practice, but once mastered, it’s essential to the equipment of any adventurer. Practice firing rapidly and smoothly, and try to retrieve as many arrows as you can; they’re expensive and time-consuming to make, and in all probability, you won’t replenish your store until you touch base with civilization again.

Axe

These are the preferred weapons of dwarves, although dwarves are also known to carry swords (Thorin Oakenshield, for instance, wielded the sword Orcrist, and upon his death in the Battle of Five Armies, it was placed on his tomb under the Lonely Mountain). The skilled dwarf can slice a goblin’s head off with a stroke of an axe and decapitate another with the backswing. Since dwarves are short, their strokes are likely to disembowel a taller opponent (a troll, for instance) or take out a pair of kneecaps.

Crossbow

These are handy during sieges but less useful as portable weapons. For one thing, they’re laborious to load and crank to firing position. Although a crossbow bolt is potentially more dangerous than an arrow (it can, for instance, penetrate most armor, except mithril), its effectiveness is mainly in massed fire from ramparts against the serried ranks of the enemy. Still, some adventurers take them on long journeys.

Stones

These are plentiful, handy, and deadly against spiders, though not much else. Still, a well-thrown stone can knock down even an armored knight, although he’ll probably be back on his feet in a few minutes with a headache and a permanent grudge against whoever was unsporting enough to pitch a rock at him. On the whole, stones are best confined to opponents who are the size of giant spiders or smaller. Hobbits are adept at this sort of weapon, having practiced at the dartboard of their local pub.

Guides to the Lands of the Wild

It’s called the Wild for a reason: You won’t find many guides to it, and those that exist are often out of date and unreliable. Still, if you’re bound and determined to be better prepared before setting out, there are a couple of possible aids that will minimize the chance of you becoming completely lost and spending weeks traveling in circles.

Maps

The elves are big on maps, and many of the best maps of Middle-earth are made by elves. Being elves, they delight in offering cryptic, hard-to-understand instructions along the lines of “Here be ye great dangers! Mortals beware!” They also like to use such things as moon letters, which is secret writing that only appears on the map when the full moon is shining behind it (at which point it’s probably far too late to do the owner of the map any good at all).

Dwarves also make maps, which are a good deal more practical than those made by elves. Dwarvish maps tend to show mines, secret doors to mines, important chambers in mines, and the location of taverns, based on the excellence of the ale served.

Hobbit maps are a bit like hobbits themselves: They wander around a lot and often don’t go anywhere in particular, but they enjoy themselves while they’re getting there.

Rangers

Rangers are useful guides for explaining the perils and possibilities of the road ahead. That’s because, being Rangers, they, well, range. That is, they spend most of their time on the road, exploring, so they’re more likely to have an accurate idea of what’s out there than most maps. The downside is that Rangers are:

Old Men Who Sit By the Tavern Fire, Muttering to Themselves

Such men can be persuaded to speak after you’ve bought them three or four pints of their favorite ale. Keeping in mind what it takes to gain information from them, you should have an idea of how reliable that information is likely to be.

Innkeepers

Practically useless as sources of information, innkeepers hear a lot of gossip from travelers, but since they’re constantly rushing about carrying mugs of ale and wine, they only hear half of what’s being said and remember only a quarter of that. Thus they constantly get things mixed up and spew out the results as a kind of stew of misinformation. As a general rule, if a landlord tells you to do something while on the road, play it safe and do the opposite.