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In LOTR "The Fellowship of the Ring", Aragorn tries to take Frodo and his companions through a forest to Rivendell to tend to Frodo's wound from the Morgul blade.

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This was exactly the same place where 60 years ago, Gandalf saved Bilbo and Thorin's company from the mountain Trolls? in The Hobbit : An Unexpected Journey

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My question here is: Was there any reason why Aragorn took this route? Or if this was just an intended link or reference between the two movies/novel sequels?

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    That is an amazingly good catch that I never realized! Given that Bilbo was also telling the story at his birthday party, I'm surprised that Frodo didn't recognize the statues.
    – Flater
    Commented Feb 21, 2018 at 9:42
  • @Flater IIRC Sam did say something like "Look, Mr Frodo. It's Bilbo's trolls". Might be only in the extended edition though
    – Teebs
    Commented Apr 19, 2019 at 7:33

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I'm not being facetious but I think it is simply down to the fact that it is the way to go. The similarity between the route taken by the dwarfs in 'The Hobbit' and Aragorn and the hobbits in 'The Lord Of the Rings' is long established in the books. It is the same departure point and the same destination - due to the individual events in each story there is still a certain amount of variety in between the routes.

The location cited is exactly the same. This is confirmed by Sam when he points this out to a mortally injured Frodo in an attempt to comfort him or keep him conscious.

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  • Could you please cite the reference from the novel where JRR Tolkien mentions the same path and the Trolls turned to stone by Gandalf? "same departure point and the same destination" is but obvious here, isn't it? But thanks for the answer.
    – Sudip Biswas
    Commented Mar 12, 2017 at 11:13
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Actually they don't go by the same route in the books. Gandalf, Bilbo, and the Dwarves go by the Great East Road in the Hobbit.

In LOTR Aragorn avoids the road for fear of the Black Riders. He leads the Hobbits north of the road from Bree to Weathertop, south of the road from Weathertop to the Last Bridge over the River Hoarwell, and north of the road beyond the Last Bridge until they turn south to rejoin the road where it crosses the Loudwater at the Ford of Bruinein. They find the petrified trolls on the last turn south toward the road and talk about Biblo's adventure with the Trolls.

In the Hobbit the dwarves are camped by the road and the river and see the campfire of the Trolls to the north. In LOTR Aragorn & the Hobbits are travelling south after their detour to the north when they find the petrified Troll site.

There is a problem that the petrified Trolls and their cave seem to be much farther north of the road and the river in LOTR than in the Hobbit. This leads me to suppose that the course of the river moved to the south and the road was also moved to the south between the two stories.

But they definitely do pass though the area with the petrified Trolls in LOTR.

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