The long valley of the River Anduin, running north-to-south
through Middle-earth from the cold north to the wide Bay of
Belfalas in the south. From the beginning of Anduin at the
confluence of the Langwell and Greylin rivers, to its wide
Mouths at Ethir Anduin, the Vale of the Great River ran for some
thousand miles. This great length is divided into upper and
lower stretches. The upper Vales ran between the Misty Mountains
and the vast forest known as Greenwood the Great. This was a
populous region in earlier times, and many of the Men who lived
here were descended from the Edain of the First Age, or their
relatives who had never crossed the Blue Mountains to the west.
The earliest records of the Hobbits also place their ancestors
in this part of Anduin's Vales. As time passed, these upper
Vales became more and more crowded, and a shadow settled on the
Forest, turning it from Greenwood the Great to Mirkwood. At this
time, some of the peoples of the Vales were forced to move: the
Hobbits travelled westward fo