Which real-world battle inspired J.R.R. Tolkien’s account of the Dead Marshes?

The Battle of the Somme inspired J.R.R. Tolkien’s account of the Dead Marshes.

Tolkien served as a British Army officer during the First World War and took part in the Battle of the Somme in 1916. He later associated the experience of the devastated landscape and the memory of fallen soldiers with imagery used in The Lord of the Rings.

The Dead Marshes are a wetland crossed by Frodo and Sam while traveling toward Mordor with Gollum. Faces of dead warriors appear beneath the water, creating an image of war’s persistent presence. Tolkien did not present the marshes as a direct documentary description of the Somme, and the wider legendarium draws on many sources. The connection is best understood as a major personal and historical influence rather than a one-to-one fictional map.