Articles

Hello!

Sometimes some uses of articles disturb me a little. Because I am not able to understand them or to find any particular rule describing this. I'm reading Clifford Simak's "Way station" now, and here is what I've just stepped into:

He followed the path out of the woods and along the edge of field until he came to the spring that bubbled from the hillside.

Why does "field" go without an article? I can come up with only one explanation, and that is, "the" relates to the entire collocation, so one may leave out the second "the" (which is not necessary). For that reason both "the edge of field" and "the edge of the field" are correct.
Please tell me if I'm wrong.