Board Thread:General Mod Discussion/@comment-32863419-20171028120114/@comment-33185350-20171028140821

I am looking through the book now to find info on whether or not there is a path. Here are some quotes:

1. “They did not know, and could not guess in that misty light, that they were in fact only just within the northern borders of the marshes, the main expanse of which lay south of them.”  So the path would be close to the northern edge.

2. “I know other ways. More difficult, not so quick; but better, if we don’t want Him to see. Follow Sméagol! He can take you through the marshes, through the mists, nice thick mists.” So Gollum found a way through and remembered it.

3. “The hobbits soon found that what had looked like one vast fen was really an endless network of pools, and soft mires, and winding half-strangled water-courses. Among these a cunning eye and foot could thread a wandering path. Gollum certainly had that cunning, and needed all of it.” So the path should be very hard to follow.

4. “It was late in the night when at length they reached firmer ground again. Gollum hissed and whispered to himself, but it appeared that he was pleased: in some mysterious way, by some blended sense of feel, and smell, and uncanny memory for shapes in the dark, he seemed to know just where he was again, and to be sure of his road ahead.” So Gollum is definitely following a path he found previously.

In conclusion: I think there should be a path close to the northern border of the marshes. It would only be a continuous portion of winding grass which could be followed, if one was careful, around all the pools and quagmires. It would be difficult to pick out and easy to lose. It definitely seems like Gollum found some sort of path, and remembered it, though he doesn’t explicitly say so in the book like he does in the movie.