Days of Dearth

The Days of Dearth was a period of famine and widespread hardship that followed the Long Winter of T.A. 2758–2759. Although the snows eventually melted and travel resumed, the devastation caused by the winter left many lands without sufficient food supplies, and the resulting scarcity led to hunger and suffering across much of Eriador, particularly in the Shire.

The preceding winter had brought extraordinary cold and deep snowfall, blocking roads, isolating settlements, and destroying stores of food and fodder. Livestock died in large numbers, and crops were lost beneath the snow or ruined by the prolonged frost. When spring finally arrived in T.A. 2759, the land was slow to recover, and many communities found themselves without reserves to sustain them until the next harvest.

In the Shire the effects were especially severe. The deep snow had already taken many lives during the winter itself, and with supplies exhausted the hobbits faced a worsening famine in the months that followed. The Rangers of the North, under the chieftain Arassuil, travelled through the region bringing what aid they could, and Gandalf is also said to have assisted the hobbits during this difficult time. Their efforts helped alleviate some of the suffering, but the shortages continued for many months before conditions gradually improved.

Hobbit traditions preserve several accounts of the famine. One of the best known is the correspondence between Ivy Redsmith and the recluse Halson Cleary, which describes the worsening scarcity of food, the closing of roads under lingering drifts of snow, and the growing fear among families that they would not survive until new crops could be planted and harvested.

The Days of Dearth gradually came to an end as the year progressed and the next harvest restored supplies, but the famine left a deep impression in the memory of the peoples of the north. Together with the Long Winter that preceded it, the period was remembered as one of the greatest natural disasters of the late Third Age.