Lauterbrunnen

Lauterbrunnen is a village and deep glacial valley in the Bernese Oberland, Switzerland, which Tolkien hiked through in 1911. It is pinned for The Hobbit as the model for the valley of Rivendell and the start of the journey over the Misty Mountains.

At a glance

Source	Author	Role	In one line
The Hobbit (Middle-Earth Universe)	J. R. R. Tolkien	journey waypoint	Swiss valley Tolkien hiked in 1911, the model for Rivendell and Bilbo’s crossing of the Misty Mountains.

The Hobbit (Middle-Earth Universe) — J. R. R. Tolkien (1937)

Source: The Hobbit · Original · Readwise highlight

Bilbo never forgot the way they slithered and slipped in the dusk down the steep zig-zag path into the secret valley of Rivendell.

• Role: journey waypoint
• In the book: After the trolls, Gandalf leads the company across a bare upland to the hidden valley of Rivendell, where Elrond lives in the Last Homely House. They stay fourteen days at least, Elrond reads the moon-letters on Thror’s map, and they leave with knowledge of the road over the Misty Mountains.
• Why it matters: Rivendell is the last safe stop before the Wild; Tolkien said the whole stretch from here over the mountains came from his own Swiss walking holiday.
• Real vs. fictional: A real Swiss valley; Tolkien’s sketches of Rivendell drew on it.
• Where is it?: Wikipedia (Rivendell; Lauterbrunnen) states that the Rivendell valley is based on the Lauterbrunnen valley, where Tolkien hiked from Interlaken in 1911, and quotes his letter #306 to Michael Tolkien: “From Rivendell to the other side of the Misty Mountains, the journey … including the glissade down the slithering stones into the pine woods … is based on my adventures in Switzerland in 1911” (also BBC Travel, 2014).