May 30, 2002

Finding Shadowfax
Brett C.

Hey there, Elven King. I read your essay re:Shadowfax, then checked Appendix B in ROTK. Gandalf meets Shadowfax right after his escape from Orthanc, on September 21. This is well after his journey to Gondor to read the scroll of Isildur and his subsequent journey to visit Frodo in the Shire on April 12. In the movie this is the visit where Gandalf turns up in Bag End when Frodo gets home from the Green Dragon Inn. He meets Radagast after this.

The journey on Shadowfax from Rohan to the Shire direct lasts from early Sept 23 until Sept 29, when he reaches Bag End and speaks to the Gaffer, so we're looking at about a 7 day trip.

Later, Gandalf [the White] mounts up with Pergrin just before midnight on March 5 and rides from Isengard [or there abouts] to Edoras in about 6 hours. After a brief rest he sets out again on the 6th and gets to Minas Tirith on the 9th early in the morning, so we could say the trip took just over 4 days.

All up then, you could convincingly argue, since Shadowfax was pretty much going flat out on both journeys, that he could go Shire to Minas Tirith in a best time of 11 and a bit days. The Grey Pilgrim's other mount would prabably have taken at least twice as long, so say three weeks by normal steed to go from the scene where we see Gandalf reading the scroll to the one where Frodo is wondering why this wacky old coot is grabbing him from behind in his own dining room [sorry fellow Mithrandians, but he did look a little crazed.]