MIDDLE-EARTH TIMELINE
Frodo left Bag End in September 3018, Sam at his side, and reached Mount Doom six months later. Draw the road they took, then see how close you came.
Press on Bag End and draw your way to Mount Doom
Map: The West of Middle-earth at the End of the Third Age by Christopher Tolkien, © The Tolkien Estate, used here for commentary. The route follows the book and Karen Wynn Fonstad's The Atlas of Middle-earth, and the dates come from the Tale of Years (Appendix B). Frodo's 1,779 miles is the Eowyn Challenge's mile-by-mile reckoning of the journey, based on Fonstad's Atlas. This follows the books, not the films.
The figure most often quoted is 1,779 miles (about 2,863 km) from Bag End to Mount Doom. It comes from the Eowyn Challenge, a fitness challenge that reckoned the journey mile by mile from the maps in Karen Wynn Fonstad's The Atlas of Middle-earth. The Challenge counts 458 miles from Bag End to Rivendell alone.
No. The hobbits crossed the Brandywine by ferry and rode ponies from Crickhollow to Bree, Frodo rode Glorfindel's horse to the Ford of Bruinen, and the Fellowship travelled down the Anduin by boat. They also rested for about two months in Rivendell and a month in Lothlórien.
The dates follow the Tale of Years (Appendix B), and the route follows the books, not the films. Explore the rest of Middle-earth on the Lord of the Rings timeline.
About 1,779 miles (2,863 km) from Bag End to Mount Doom, according to the Eowyn Challenge, which measured the route on the maps of Karen Wynn Fonstad's The Atlas of Middle-earth. Not all of it was on foot.
About six months. According to the Tale of Years, Frodo left Bag End on 23 September 3018 and reached Mount Doom on 25 March 3019, including long rests in Rivendell and Lothlórien.
No. They rode ponies from Crickhollow to Bree, Frodo rode Glorfindel's horse to the Ford of Bruinen, and the Fellowship went down the Anduin by boat from Lothlórien to Parth Galen. On the last slope of Mount Doom, Sam carried Frodo.
Your line and the true route are both sampled every 5 miles and compared: 60% of the score measures how much of the true road you missed, 40% how far you strayed from it. Each leg allows some margin where reference maps of Middle-earth disagree.