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Quick question. Are the dead marshes the place where the battle where Sauron was defeated (by Isildur) took place?

All right i g2g go now, see you all a lil later

Partly yes, partly no.

The Battle of Dagorlad (it is a battle part of the War of the Last Alliance) was supposed to be held in the Slopes of Mordor but some of the soldiers (Elves, Men, and Orcs) were strayed and were lost in the Marshes. Thousands died but Sauron was defeated and fled back to Barad-dur.

After several years, there was another battle that took place and this finally brought Sauron down when Isildur cut his Ring from his finger. This is the event that we saw in the FOTR prologue.

The movie just made it like a big, huge event that happened all at the same time, but in the book, it took some years before an event happened after another.

Exa might give you a more detailed answer in this.

i'm not needed here...

i'll go impress some stranger on the street.

Me not too
I think you said everything that is to be said


The last alliance isnt really battle, it's a war that took several years - the united armies of men and elves was founded in SA 3430 and in 3434 won the battle of Dagorlad, near the later Dead Marshes. The corpses of the dead are still there, mumified in the waters of the marshes ("great battle, long ago...". The Last Alliance came through the Black Gates of Morannon and what followed was the siege of Barad-dūr that lasted for seven years, until in 3441 Sauron himself came forth and a last battle was fought at the slopes of Orodruin where Gilgalad, Elendil and Anįrion were killed and Sauron lost his ring.

I got the impression that the corpses were illusions. Gollum tried to snack on them but discovered that they could not be reached or touched, he tells Frodo and Sam, "only (?shapes) to see perhaps, not touch."

The narrator (Tolkein) actually said that Sauron created the illusions in the Third age as a defense around Mordor. Faramir said that they were illusions of Sauron's craft too. The phantasm of Boromir which Faramir saw was not an illusion of Sauron. Faramir makes the contrast, that "(Sauron's) works always fill the heart with loathing," whereas on seeing the illusion of Boromir he was just distressed, though in a healthy way.