Middle-Earth Tours

Tour 2: The Places of Middle-Earth

Laketown
Not far from the mouth of the Forest River was the strange town he heard the elves speak of in the king's cellars. It was not built on the shore, though there were a few huts and buildings there, but right out on the surface of the lake, protected from the swirl of the entering river by a promontory of rock which formed a calm bay. A great bridge made of wood ran out to where on huge piles made of forest trees was built a busy wooden town, not a town of elves but of Men, who still dared to dwell here under the shadow of the distant dragon-mountain. --The Hobbit, "A Warm Welcome"
Laketown, by J.R.R. Tolkien
The dragon swooped once more lower than ever, and as he turned and dived down his belly glittered white with sparkling fires of gems in the moon -- but not in one place. The great bow twanged. The black arrows sped straight from the string, straight for the hollow in the left breast where the foreleg was flung wide. In it smote and vanished, barb, shaft, and feather, so fierce was its flight. With a shriek that deafened men, felled trees and split stone, Smaug shot spouting into the air, turned over and crashed down full from on high in ruin. --The Hobbit, "Fire and Water"

Laketown, by Alan Lee
The Black Arrow,
by Michael Hague
Smaug falls on Laketown,
by Alan Lee
Full-size versions of these pictures are on display at Rolozo Tolkien.