Which military battle inspired the Dead Marshes in Tolkien’s writing?

The Battle of the Somme inspired aspects of the Dead Marshes in Tolkien’s writing. Tolkien served as a second lieutenant with the Lancashire Fusiliers during the First World War and experienced the Somme campaign in 1916.

The Dead Marshes are encountered by Frodo, Sam, and Gollum while they travel toward Mordor in The Two Towers. Pools of dark water contain disturbing faces beneath the surface, and the landscape conveys exhaustion, danger, and the persistence of the dead.

Tolkien did not present the Dead Marshes as a one-to-one historical allegory for the Somme. He generally resisted readings that reduced Middle-earth to direct substitutions for real people or events. The connection is better understood as an influence from his wartime experience and memories of devastated landscapes.

His service also shaped the experiences of several characters and the novel’s treatment of friendship, loss, and industrialized destruction. Tolkien’s close friends from school were killed in the war, adding personal weight to these themes.