The Dead Marshes

The Dead Marshes lie between the Emyn Muil and the Desolation before the Morannon. The fens turn wetter as one goes on, until broad still pools spread out and firm ground becomes hard to pick out between them. Sam, reaching into the bog, saw the water below him like a window glazed with grimy glass and sprang back crying that there were dead things, dead faces in the water; Gollum laughed and told him not to look in when the candles are lit. Frodo had seen them too — pale faces, deep down in all the pools. Aragorn had earlier followed Gollum's trail along the skirts of the Marshes and taken him by a stagnant mere, covered with green slime, and called the road back the worst part of all his journey.