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Lake-town, also referred to as Esgaroth, was a small independent settlement of Men in the northwestern part of the Long Lake in Rhovanion. The town was constructed entirely of wood and stands upon wooden pillars sunk into the bed of the Long Lake, south of the Lonely Mountain and east of Mirkwood. Its prosperity was seemingly built on trade between the Men, Elves, and Dwarves of northern Middle-earth.[1]

It was also known as the final resting place of the dragon Smaug, whose bones ended up at the bottom of the lake, and by whom it was destroyed, then subsequently rebuilt[1]

Description

Lake-town, Cavini

A glimpse of Lake-town by Ivan Cavini

Lake-town may have been separate settlements established on the same site, one predating Smaug's destruction of Dale and the Lonely Mountain in TA 2770[2] and the other built afterwards. Uniquely, of all of the towns, settlements, fortresses, and cities of Middle-earth, Lake-town utilized water as its defense. The Long Lake was also surrounded by towering cliffs and high mountains, all helpful natural barriers that had the potential to aid its defenders in a siege (such as the Easterling invasion of the North in TA 3019). While these defenses slowed and diverted Lake-town's human enemies, it did nothing to prepare its inhabitants against Smaug, who would harass the townsfolk on a regular basis.

History

Origins

Lake-town was founded sometime in the Third Age and its inhabitants traded extensively with the Elves of Thranduil's Woodland Realm, the Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain and Iron Hills, and their kin in Dale and Dorwinion to the south. In trading with Mirkwood, wine barrels were sent floating down from Thranduil's caverns along the Forest River to Lake-town.

Smaug approaching Matěj Čadil

The coming of Smaug to Lake-town, by Matěj Čadil

Third Age

In the year 2941 of the Third Age, the town was visited by Bilbo Baggins and Thorin and Company in their adventure to reclaim the Lonely Mountain. Disturbed by their invasion of his lair, Smaug flew from the mountain in the night and began destroying the town. Some inhabitants escaped by boat, though many perished in the maelstrom of fire. The town's archers bravely attempted to shoot down the dragon, but it was not until Bard the Bowman, who had indirectly learned of a weakness in Smaug's armor, first noticed by Bilbo, managed to kill Smaug that the destruction ended.

SmaugAtEsgarothByGelekas

Esgaroth in flames below Smaug, as imagined by Spiros Gelekas

Afterwards, Lake-town was rebuilt in greater splendor than before with some of the treasure that Smaug had stolen, though the town's Master ran off with some of the gold. Part of the town's population followed Bard to resettle Dale, helping to make it the capital city of a great realm, with Bard crowned as King. Esgaroth upon the Long-lake and other lands far to the south and east became incorporated into the Kingdom of Dale, with the Lake-men joining their surrounding kin to become the Bardings, the followers of Bard's royal lineage.[4]

Culture & language

As trading people, the Men of Lake-town knew Westron, the Common Speech. However, amongst themselves they used a speech akin to the language spoken by the Men of Dale. A suggested name for this language by linguists is Esgarothian. Being a form of a Northern tongue, it was loosely related to but still distinct from the ancient tongue of the Rohirrim. J.R.R. Tolkien "translated" Westron into English in his text, so to represent its ancient relative that the Rohirrim spoke, he substituted Old English. Thus, Tolkien substituted Old Norse for the language of the Men of Esgaroth (in person and place names, etc.).

ESGAROTH location map in middle earth

The location of Lake-town on a map of Middle-earth

The town was governed by an elected Master of Lake-town whose seat was in the Great House, which was possibly in the market-place. It is not known how regularly elections were held, but the unscrupulous individual who governed the town at the time of the Quest of Erebor had fled into the waste no later than TA 2949, and was replaced by a more honest Master who brought great prosperity.

In adaptations

The Hobbit film trilogy

In Peter Jackson's The Hobbit, the clear Eastern design and culture of Lake-town and its inhabitants (including, the military and political leaders) are primarily derived from medieval Russian influences - i.e., the early Rus' states of Kievan Rus' and its successors. Indeed, Lake-town is reminiscent of the old northern Rus' trading city of Novgorod - itself, like Lake-town, also situated on a lake.

Further, as presented in the movies, per the complex nature of Russian ethno-cultural history, Lake-town itself and its people are thereby infused with East Slavic, Finnic, Baltic, Scandinavian and Turkic influences. In the movies, Peter Jackson clearly defines the culture of Lake-town and Dale as a part of the East.

In the behind the scenes material for the second film, it is explained that Lake-town was broken up into twenty-five areas distinguished between poorer areas and more bourgeois areas. The important areas are bolded.[5]

Bourgeois areas:

  • North Gate
  • Merchant District
  • West Gate
  • Soldiers District
  • Bureaucrats District
  • Business District
  • Civic Centre

Poor areas:

  • Farewell District
  • Servants District
  • Labourers District
  • East Gate
  • Warehouse District
  • Fish Processing District
  • Market District
  • Boatbuilding District
  • Food District
  • South Gate
  • Elderly + Sick District
  • Bards District
  • Immigrant District
  • Arrival District
  • Tradesmans District
  • Craftsman District
  • Fishermans District

Gallery

Art hobbit-laketown-05
Art hobbit-laketown-07
Art hobbit-laketown-06
Lake-Town TORn
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug concept art of Lake-town
Lake town
A sketch of Lake-town
Smaug in Lake town
Smaug in Lake-town
Lake town after Smaug attack
Lake-town burning
The Lord of the Rings Online - Lake-town

Translations

Foreign Language Translated name
Afrikaans Meer-dorp
Albanian Liqeni-qytet
Amharic ሐይቅ-ከተማ
Arabic بحيرة بلدة (Lake-town)

إسغاروث (Esgaroth)

Armenian Լիճ-քաղաք
Assamese লেক টাউন
Azerbaijani Göl-şəhər
Basque Aintzira-herri
Belarusian Cyrillic Азёрны горад (Lake-town)

Эсгарот (Esgaroth)

Bengali লেক শহরে
Bhojpuri झील कस्बा
Bosnian Jezero-grad
Bulgarian Cyrillic Град на езерото
Burmese ရေကန် မြို့
Cambodian ទីក្រុងបឹង
Catalan Ciutat del Llac (Lake-town)

Èsgaroth

Cebuano Lungsod sa lanaw
Chinese (Hong Kong) 長湖鎮
Croatian Jezergrad
Czech Jezerní město
Danish Søenby
Dutch Meerstad
Esperanto Lago-urbo
Estonian Järve linn
Filipino Lawa bayan
Finnish Järvikaupunki
French Bourg-du-Lac / Lacville
Frisian Mar-stêd (Western)
Galician Cidade do lago
Georgian ტბა ქალაქი (Lake-town)

ესგაროთი (Esgaroth)

German Seestadt
Greek Λίμνη-πόλη
Gujarati તળાવ-નગર
Haitian Creole Lak-bouk
Hausa Tafki-garin
Hebrew עיר האגם (Lake-town)

אסגארות (Esgaroth)

Hindi झील शहर
Hungarian Tóváros
Icelandic Vatnabænum
Indonesian Danau kotamadya
Irish Gaelic Loch-baile
Italian Pontelagolungo / Città del Lago
Japanese レイクタウン
Kannada ಸರೋವರ ಪಟ್ಟಣ
Kazakh Көл-қала (Cyrillic) Köl-qala (Latin)
Korean 호수 마을
Kurdish Gol bajar (Kurmanji)
Kyrgyz Cyrillic Көл шаар
Laotian ເມືອງທະເລສາບ
Latin lacus oppidum
Latvian Ezers-pilsēta
Lithuanian Ežeras-miestas
Luxembourgish Séi-stad
Macedonian Cyrillic Езеро-град
Maithili झील शहर
Malagasy Farihy tanàna
Malayalam തടാക നഗരം
Malaysian Tasik bandar
Manx Logh Balley
Marathi लेक-टाउन
Mongolian Cyrillic Нуур-хот
Nepalese ताल-शहर
Norwegian Langsjøby
Occitan Estanh ciutat
Pashto د جهيل ښار
Persian شهر دریاچه
Polish Miasto Na Jeziorze
Portuguese Cidade do Lago (Brazil)
Punjabi ਝੀਲ ਦਾ ਸ਼ਹਿਰ
Romanian Lacului Orașul
Romansh Lai Citad
Russian Озёрный город (Lake-town)

Эсгарот (Esgaroth)

Serbian Град језера (Cyrillic) Grad jezera (Latin)
Scots Loch Toun
Scottish Gaelic Loch a 'bhaile
Shona Nyanza-taundi
Sindhi ڍنڍ شهر
Sinhalese ලේක් නගරය
Slovak Jazero-mesto
Slovenian Jezero-mesto
Somalian Harada magaalada
Spanish (Spain and Latin America) Ciudad del Lago
Sundanese Situ kota
Swahili Ziwa mji
Swedish Sjöstaden
Tajik Cyrillic шаҳраки кӯл
Tamil ஏரி-நகரம்
Tatar Күл шәһәр
Telugu లేక్ పట్టణం
Thai เมืองริมทะเลสาบ
Tigrinya ከተማ ቀላይ
Turkish Göl Kasabası
Turkmen Kol Şäher
Ukrainian Cyrillic Озеро-місто
Urdu جھیل قصبہ
Uyghur كۆل بازىرى
Uzbek Кўл шаҳар (Cyrillic) Ko'l shahar (Latin)
Vietnamese Thị trấn hồ
Waray Danaw Bungtó
Welsh Llyn-dref
Xhosa Echibi idolophu
Yiddish אָזערע שטאָט
Yoruba Adágún ilu
Zulu Ichibi idolobha

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 The Atlas of Middle-earth, The Hobbit, "Lake-town"
  2. 2.0 2.1 The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B: The Tale of Years (Chronology of the Westlands), "The Third Age"
  3. The Atlas of Middle-earth, Thematic Maps, "Languages"
  4. The Hobbit, Chapter XIX: "The Last Stage"
  5. 10x10 - Realms of the Third Age - Lake-town | hobbit Behind the Scenes on YouTube
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