Trading Places: Lake-Town and the Trade Routes of Wilderland
I find myself yet again with speculating on incredibly minor details from Middle-Earth - this time, I'm reaching back to my introduction to Tolkien's creation, The Hobbit . Once Bilbo leaves the Shire, arguably the only open town he encounters is near the end of the quest, Lake-Town. Lake-Town is the town built on piers sunk into the western part of the Long Lake, and is the closest human settlement to the Lonely Mountain. The town, in fact, seems to be doing fairly well for its location; despite Smaug's attack shortly before his death, the town rebuilds and even with Dale also returning remains prosperous. It also gets another, older name - Esgaroth. Tolkien never explains with the term means in The Hobbit or LOTR for that matter. A number of names only had speculative translations for years, of course, before later published writings revealed their meaning Eriador likely meaning 'lonely land' certainly springs to mind; speculation usually ran to cal...
