What do these words mean here?
the word 'hard' in this text:
'"We can cut straighter than the road anyway," answered Frodo. "The Ferry is east from Woodhall; but the HARD road curves away to the left -you can see a bend of it away north over there.'
I suppose that in this text it doesn't mean 'difficult', is it?
And the words 'to strike the causeway' in this text:
'It goes round the north end of the Marish so as to strike the causeway from the Bridge above Stock.'
Thank you in advance!
Source of texts: J. R. R. Tolkien, 'Fellowship of the Ring', Chapter 4. A Short Cut to Mushrooms

Question

Answer

First of all, great book choice!

- The word hard in the context above means difficult, as in "it is a difficult road to travel on", meaning that it takes a lot of effort to travel on this road.

- Strike the causeway means intersect with the causeway, or meet with the causeway (a causeway is a road elevated about a body of water on an embankment, according to wikipedia). So you can re write the sentence as: 'It goes round the north end of the Marish so as to meet causeway from the Bridge above Stock.'