Shire (Middle-earth)
Encyclopedia
The Shire is a region of J. R. R. Tolkien
's fictional Middle-earth
, described in The Lord of the Rings
and other works. The Shire refers to an area settled exclusively by Hobbit
s and largely removed from the goings-on in the rest of Middle-earth. It is located in the northwest of the continent, in the large region of Eriador
and the Kingdom of Arnor
. Its name in Westron
was Sûza "Shire" or Sûzat "The Shire". Its name in Sindarin
was i Drann.
(193 km, 120 miles) from the Far Downs in the west to the Brandywine Bridge in the east, and 50 leagues (241 km, 150 miles) from the northern moors to the marshes in the south. This is confirmed in an essay by Tolkien on translating The Lord of the Rings, where he describes the Shire as having an area of 18000 square miles (46,619.8 km²).
The original territory of the Shire was bounded on the east by the Baranduin River, on the north by uplands rising to the old centre of Arnor
, on the west by the White Downs, and on the south by marshland south of the River Shirebourne. After the original settlement, hobbits also expanded to the east into Buckland between the Baranduin and the Old Forest, and (much later) to the west into the Westmarch between the White Downs and the Tower Hills.
The Shire was originally divided into four Farthings. The outlying lands of Buckland and the Westmarch were formally added after the War of the Ring. Within the Farthings there are some smaller unofficial clan homelands: the Took
s nearly all live in or near Tuckborough in Tookland, for instance. A Hobbit surname often indicates where the family came from: Samwise Gamgee
's last name derives from Gamwich, where the family originated. Buckland was named for the Oldbucks (later called the Brandybucks).
The Shire is described as a small but beautiful and fruitful land, beloved by its inhabitants. The Hobbits had an extensive agricultural
system in the Shire but were not industrialised. The landscape included small pockets of forest (again similar to the English
countryside). Various supplies were produced in the Shire, including cereals, fruit, wood and pipe-weed.
is on modern European maps and has been cited as an example of Merry England
ideology. Throughout the narrative, Tolkien also implies numerous points of similarity between the two, such as weather, agriculture and dialect.
In particular, the central part of the Shire corresponds to the West Midlands region
of England, extending to Worcestershire
(where Tolkien located his "home" in particular, his mother's family being from Evesham
), Shropshire
, Warwickshire
, Herefordshire
and Staffordshire
, as argued by Tom Shippey
forming a "cultural unit with deep roots in history" The Northfarthing, with its heavy snowfalls, may correspond to Yorkshire
or the Lake District, while the Southfarthing lay far enough south to support the cultivation of wine and tobacco ("pipe-weed").
The name "Shire" harks back to T.H. White's book England Have My Bones, where White says that he lives in "the Shire" (with a capital "s").
The industrialisation of the Shire was based on Tolkien's childhood experience of the blighting of the Worcestershire
countryside by the spread of heavy industry
. The rebellion
of the Hobbits and the restoration of the pre-industrial Shire may be interpreted as a prescription of voluntary simplicity as a remedy to the problems of modern society. Saruman
, the character responsible for the pollution of the Shire, derives his name partly from Sarehole Mill
, in the vicinity of which Tolkien spent "the most idyllic period" of his childhood. The Shire is, of course, not simply "identical" to the West Midlands
. The region in a more remote past, as Mercia
, serves at the same time as a model for the Mark of the Rohirrim.
where the borders of the Eastfarthing, Westfarthing and Southfarthing of the Shire came together, by the East Road. (Iceland
was traditionally also divided in Farthing
s, or "fourth parts", as the Shire is.)
Buckland, across the Baranduin River to the east, and the Westmarch, between the Far Downs and the Tower Hills to the west, were not part of the original grant to the hobbits by King Argeleb II of Arthedain. These were formally given to the hobbits as the East and West Marches of the Shire by King Elessar
after the War of Ring, in . Buckland had been long settled by then: Gorhendad Oldbuck led hobbits from the East Farthing across the river in , and Buckland became "sort of a colony of the Shire". There is no mention of settlement in the Westmarch until Elessar's gift; Sam Gamgee's daughter Elanor and her husband Fastred later settled there, and Fastred was created Warden of Westmarch.
crop is grown, and the only farthing where heavy snow is common. The historic Battle of Greenfields was fought here.
On the north bank of the Water in Hobbiton was "The Mill", with a large water-wheel and a yard behind it. Sandyman the Miller owned the Mill and operated it with the help of his son Ted Sandyman. Lotho Sackville-Baggins had the Old Mill knocked down and the New Mill built in its place. The New Mill was an ugly red-brick building with a tall chimney. It was bigger than the Old Mill and full of wheels and strange contraptions to increase production. The New Mill straddled the Water and poured pollutants into the stream. It was operated by Men, and Ted Sandyman stayed on to help them. When Saruman came to the Shire in September of 3019, the Mill was no longer used for grinding grain but for some industrial purpose; and loud noises, smoke, and filth issued from it. After Saruman was killed and the Chief's Men defeated at the Battle of Bywater, the New Mill was removed.
by the "High Hay", a tall hedge which forms the eastern border of Buckland, running from the Brandywine Bridge in the north to the confluence of the Withywindle with the Baranduin near the village of Haysend in the south. The main entrance to Buckland from the north is a gate in the Hay, called variously the Buckland Gate, the North Gate, or the Hay Gate, located "where the Hedge runs down to the river-bank, just this side of the Bridge," opening onto the East Road from the Shire to Bree
.
Unlike other hobbits the Bucklanders are prepared for danger and less naive than the Shire-hobbits. They close the Hay Gate and lock their own front doors at night, and are prepared to rush to arms at the sound of the Horn of Buckland. Most Bucklanders were originally of Stoor stock, and they were the only hobbits known to use boats.
at the start of the Fourth Age, King Elessar granted the hobbits of the Shire effective self-rule inside his reunited kingdom, banning any Men
from entering the land.
He also granted the Shire a stretch of new land: this reached from the ancient western borders of the Shire, the Far Downs, to the Tower Hills. The area between the downs and the hills became known as the Westmarch. Like Buckland, it was not part of any of the four Farthings.
The eldest daughter of mayor Samwise Gamgee, Elanor the Fair, married Fastred of Greenholm, and they moved to the Westmarch, settling in Undertowers. After the passing of master Samwise into the Grey Havens, they and their children became known as the Fairbairns of the Towers or Wardens of Westmarch. The Red Book of Frodo and Bilbo Baggins passed into their keeping, becoming known as the Red Book of Westmarch
.
(Year 1 in Shire Reckoning). The Hobbits (who originally lived in the vale of Anduin
) had migrated west over the perilous Misty Mountains
in the decades before that, and before entering the Shire they had lived in Dunland and parts of the depopulated Arnor
ian splinter-realms Cardolan and Rhudaur. It has been speculated that the Hobbits had originally moved west to escape the troubles of Mirkwood
, and the evil caused by the Easterlings
.
The Shire was a part of Arthedain, and as such a part of Arnor. The Hobbits obtained official permission from King Argeleb II at Norbury (Fornost) to settle the lands, which were not populated and were seen as the king's hunting grounds. The King stipulated three conditions to this grant; that the hobbits should acknowledge his Lordship, that they should maintain the roads within the Shire and finally that they should aid his messengers. The Hobbits therefore considered themselves subjects of the king and sent some archers to the great battles Arnor fought against Angmar
. After the fall of Arnor, the Shire remained a minor but independent, self-governing realm. The chiefs of the Clans elected an official named the Thain
to hold the king's powers after the North-kingdom fell. The first Thains were the heads of the Oldbuck clan
. The position later came to be held by the Tooks.
Its small size, relative lack of importance, and brave and resilient Hobbit population made it too modest an objective for conquest. More importantly, the Shire was guarded and protected by the Dúnedain
Rangers, who watched the borders and kept out intruders. The only strangers to enter the Shire were the Dwarves
travelling on the Great Road that ran through the Shire to and from their mines in the Blue Mountains, and the occasional Elves
on their way to the Grey Havens.
This peaceful situation changed after Bilbo Baggins
's acquisition of the One Ring
in the year 1341 of the Shire Reckoning (Third Age 2941). Shortly after the beginning of the events described in The Lord of the Rings
(autumn of SR 1418), the Shire was first visited by the Nine Ringwraiths and then captured by Saruman
through his underling Lotho Sackville-Baggins, who turned the Shire into a police state and began a massive campaign to industrialize it, bringing widespread misery and severely damaging its ecology. It was liberated with the help of Frodo
, Sam, Merry
, and Pippin
after the end of the Quest of the Ring through their victory at the Battle of Bywater. After Aragorn's return as the King of Arnor
and Gondor
, the Shire became a protected enclave inside the Reunited Kingdom
. Aragorn is known to have issued an edict that forbade the entrance of full-sized Men
into the Shire. The Shire was soon restored with magic soil from Galadriel
's Lórien garden (presented as a gift to Sam). The year SR 1420 was considered by the inhabitants of the Shire to be the most productive and prosperous year in their history.
To a large extent, individual families and clans handled their own internal affairs. Where a prominent family was associated with a certain district, the head of that family would also exercise a kind of authority over his area. Thus, the Master of the Hall or Master of Buckland (the two titles are used interchangeably), hereditary head of the Brandybuck family, was the effective ruler of Buckland. The title Master of the Hall comes from his more immediate authority over Brandy Hall, the greatest of the dwelling places of the Brandybuck family, filling Buck Hill in Bucklebury. The Master also exercises a good deal of authority in the Marish, a region of the Eastfarthing just across the Brandywine from Buckland. Similarly, the head of the Took family, often just called the Took, ruled the ancestral Took dwelling of Great Smials, the village of Tuckborough, and the wider area known as the Tookland.
There were only two Shire-wide officials, the Thain
and the Mayor
. The Thainship was a hereditary office, set up after the collapse of the Kingdom of Arthedain, to hold the King's authority over the Shire. In practice, the Thain's duties were limited, mostly related to defence: "The Thain was the master of the Shire-moot, and captain of the Shire-muster and the Hobbitry-in-arms
; but as muster and moot were only held in times of emergency, which no longer occurred, the Thainship had ceased to be more than a nominal dignity." Nevertheless, the feeling remained widespread that, in the absence of a King, the Thain was the source for all proper authority in the Shire, and during Saruman
's intervention in the Shire in , Thain Paladin II, aided by many Hobbits and particularly his Took clan, led armed opposition to Saruman's forces from his capital at Tuckborough.
When Frodo left the Shire at the outset of The Lord of the Rings , the office of Thain had existed for 1,039 years. The first Thain, Bucca of the Marish, took office in ; he and his 11 successors of the Oldbuck family held the Thainship for 361 years. When Gorhendad Oldbuck led his family to settle Buckland (S.R. 740), the office of Thain passed to Isumbras I, head of the Took family, which held the Thainship ever since. In , the Thain was Paladin II, the 31st Thain and the 19th of the Took line.
Thains of the Shire include:
The chief official of the Shire was the Mayor of Michel Delving. Elected every seven years at the "Free Fair" held on the White Downs in the Westfarthing, the Mayor was the Postmaster and First Shirriff of the Shire.
The Hobbits of the Shire generally obeyed the Rules, that is, the ancient laws of the North Kingdom, and there was no real need to enforce them; all Hobbits voluntarily obeyed them as they were both ancient and just. Hobbits had lawyers, but these dealt mostly with wills and such matters; there is no record of a formal court system, still less of criminal prosecutions or punishments. Frodo stated that in the Shire no Hobbit had ever been known intentionally to kill another Hobbit. Sméagol's wicked behaviour, including his murder of Déagol
(which occurred outside the Shire), led Frodo to doubt that Sméagol was a hobbit at all.
At the resumption of the throne by King Elessar
, the Shire again became part of the restored Kingdom of Arnor. Elessar permitted the Hobbits to keep their own laws and customs. (The office of Thain was also left undisturbed.) In 1427, Elessar issued an edict prohibiting Men from entering the Shire and declaring it a Free Land under the protection of Arnor.
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
's fictional Middle-earth
Middle-earth
Middle-earth is the fictional setting of the majority of author J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place entirely in Middle-earth, as does much of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales....
, described in The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
and other works. The Shire refers to an area settled exclusively by Hobbit
Hobbit
Hobbits are a fictional diminutive race who inhabit the lands of Middle-earth in J. R. R. Tolkien's fiction.Hobbits first appeared in the novel The Hobbit, in which the main protagonist, Bilbo Baggins, is the titular hobbit...
s and largely removed from the goings-on in the rest of Middle-earth. It is located in the northwest of the continent, in the large region of Eriador
Eriador
Eriador is a large region in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth. In the Second Age, and possibly much earlier, it was largely forested, but the Dúnedain felled most of the forests to build ships. Much of it was encompassed in the early Third Age by the kingdom of Arnor, which...
and the Kingdom of Arnor
Arnor
Arnor is a fictional kingdom in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings. Arnor, or the Northern Kingdom, was a kingdom of the Dúnedain in the land of Eriador in Middle-earth. The name probably means "Land of the King", from Sindarin Ara- + dor...
. Its name in Westron
Westron
Westron, or the Common Speech, is a fictional language in the fantasy works of J. R. R. Tolkien.Westron is the closest thing to a lingua franca in Middle-earth, at least at the time during which The Lord of the Rings is set. "Westron" is an invented English word, derived from West...
was Sûza "Shire" or Sûzat "The Shire". Its name in Sindarin
Sindarin
Sindarin is a fictional language devised by J. R. R. Tolkien, and used in his secondary world, often called Middle-earth.Sindarin is one of the many languages spoken by the immortal Elves, called the Eledhrim or Edhellim in Sindarin....
was i Drann.
Geography
According to Tolkien, the Shire measured 40 leaguesLeague (unit)
A league is a unit of length . It was long common in Europe and Latin America, but it is no longer an official unit in any nation. The league originally referred to the distance a person or a horse could walk in an hour...
(193 km, 120 miles) from the Far Downs in the west to the Brandywine Bridge in the east, and 50 leagues (241 km, 150 miles) from the northern moors to the marshes in the south. This is confirmed in an essay by Tolkien on translating The Lord of the Rings, where he describes the Shire as having an area of 18000 square miles (46,619.8 km²).
The original territory of the Shire was bounded on the east by the Baranduin River, on the north by uplands rising to the old centre of Arnor
Arnor
Arnor is a fictional kingdom in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings. Arnor, or the Northern Kingdom, was a kingdom of the Dúnedain in the land of Eriador in Middle-earth. The name probably means "Land of the King", from Sindarin Ara- + dor...
, on the west by the White Downs, and on the south by marshland south of the River Shirebourne. After the original settlement, hobbits also expanded to the east into Buckland between the Baranduin and the Old Forest, and (much later) to the west into the Westmarch between the White Downs and the Tower Hills.
The Shire was originally divided into four Farthings. The outlying lands of Buckland and the Westmarch were formally added after the War of the Ring. Within the Farthings there are some smaller unofficial clan homelands: the Took
Took clan
In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, the Took clan was one of the most famous Hobbit families.The first recorded Took was an Isumbras Took, who became the 13th Thain of the Shire after Gorhendad Oldbuck crossed into Buckland, becoming Master there.After Isumbras, the Thain position...
s nearly all live in or near Tuckborough in Tookland, for instance. A Hobbit surname often indicates where the family came from: Samwise Gamgee
Samwise Gamgee
Samwise Gamgee, later known as Samwise Gardner and commonly as Sam, is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. Samwise is one of the chief characters in Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings, in which he fills an archetypical role as the sidekick of the protagonist, Frodo...
's last name derives from Gamwich, where the family originated. Buckland was named for the Oldbucks (later called the Brandybucks).
The Shire is described as a small but beautiful and fruitful land, beloved by its inhabitants. The Hobbits had an extensive agricultural
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
system in the Shire but were not industrialised. The landscape included small pockets of forest (again similar to the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
countryside). Various supplies were produced in the Shire, including cereals, fruit, wood and pipe-weed.
Inspiration
On Tolkien's maps, the Shire is located at about the same position as EnglandEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
is on modern European maps and has been cited as an example of Merry England
Merry England
"Merry England", or in more jocular, archaic spelling "Merrie England", refers to an English autostereotype, a utopian conception of English society and culture based on an idyllic pastoral way of life that was allegedly prevalent at some time between the Middle Ages and the onset of the Industrial...
ideology. Throughout the narrative, Tolkien also implies numerous points of similarity between the two, such as weather, agriculture and dialect.
In particular, the central part of the Shire corresponds to the West Midlands region
West Midlands (region)
The West Midlands is an official region of England, covering the western half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It contains the second most populous British city, Birmingham, and the larger West Midlands conurbation, which includes the city of Wolverhampton and large towns of Dudley,...
of England, extending to Worcestershire
Worcestershire
Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...
(where Tolkien located his "home" in particular, his mother's family being from Evesham
Evesham
Evesham is a market town and a civil parish in the Local Authority District of Wychavon in the county of Worcestershire, England with a population of 22,000. It is located roughly equidistant between Worcester, Cheltenham and Stratford-upon-Avon...
), Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
, Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
, Herefordshire
Herefordshire
Herefordshire is a historic and ceremonial county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire" NUTS 2 region. It also forms a unitary district known as the...
and Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
, as argued by Tom Shippey
Tom Shippey
Thomas Alan Shippey is a scholar of medieval literature, including that of Anglo-Saxon England, and of modern fantasy and science fiction, in particular the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, about whom he has written several scholarly studies. He is widely considered one of the leading academic scholars...
forming a "cultural unit with deep roots in history" The Northfarthing, with its heavy snowfalls, may correspond to Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
or the Lake District, while the Southfarthing lay far enough south to support the cultivation of wine and tobacco ("pipe-weed").
The name "Shire" harks back to T.H. White's book England Have My Bones, where White says that he lives in "the Shire" (with a capital "s").
The industrialisation of the Shire was based on Tolkien's childhood experience of the blighting of the Worcestershire
Worcestershire
Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...
countryside by the spread of heavy industry
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
. The rebellion
The Scouring of the Shire
"The Scouring of the Shire" is a chapter from the epic fantasy novel The Return of the King, part of The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien...
of the Hobbits and the restoration of the pre-industrial Shire may be interpreted as a prescription of voluntary simplicity as a remedy to the problems of modern society. Saruman
Saruman
Saruman the White is a fictional character and a major antagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. He is leader of the Istari, wizards sent to Middle-earth in human form by the godlike Valar to challenge Sauron, the main antagonist of the tale, but later on aims at gaining...
, the character responsible for the pollution of the Shire, derives his name partly from Sarehole Mill
Sarehole Mill
Sarehole Mill is a Grade II listed water mill on the River Cole in Hall Green, Birmingham, England. It is now run as a museum by the Birmingham City Council. It is one of only two working water mills in Birmingham, with the other being New Hall Mill in Walmley, Sutton Coldfield.Built in 1542 on...
, in the vicinity of which Tolkien spent "the most idyllic period" of his childhood. The Shire is, of course, not simply "identical" to the West Midlands
West Midlands (region)
The West Midlands is an official region of England, covering the western half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It contains the second most populous British city, Birmingham, and the larger West Midlands conurbation, which includes the city of Wolverhampton and large towns of Dudley,...
. The region in a more remote past, as Mercia
Mercia
Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...
, serves at the same time as a model for the Mark of the Rohirrim.
Regions of the Shire
The original part of the Shire were subdivided into four Farthings ("fourth-ings" or "quarterings"). The Three-Farthing Stone marked the tripointTripoint
A tripoint, or trijunction , is a geographical point at which the borders of three countries or subnational entities meet....
where the borders of the Eastfarthing, Westfarthing and Southfarthing of the Shire came together, by the East Road. (Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
was traditionally also divided in Farthing
Farthings of Iceland
Historically, Iceland was divided into four landsfjórðungar or farthings, that were named after the Cardinal directions. These were administrative divisions established in 965 for the purpose of organising regional assemblies and for regional courts...
s, or "fourth parts", as the Shire is.)
Buckland, across the Baranduin River to the east, and the Westmarch, between the Far Downs and the Tower Hills to the west, were not part of the original grant to the hobbits by King Argeleb II of Arthedain. These were formally given to the hobbits as the East and West Marches of the Shire by King Elessar
Aragorn
Aragorn II is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, one of the main protagonists of The Lord of the Rings. He is first introduced by the name Strider, which the hobbits continue to call him...
after the War of Ring, in . Buckland had been long settled by then: Gorhendad Oldbuck led hobbits from the East Farthing across the river in , and Buckland became "sort of a colony of the Shire". There is no mention of settlement in the Westmarch until Elessar's gift; Sam Gamgee's daughter Elanor and her husband Fastred later settled there, and Fastred was created Warden of Westmarch.
Northfarthing
The Northfarthing is the least populous part of the Shire. It is where most of the Shire's barleyBarley
Barley is a major cereal grain, a member of the grass family. It serves as a major animal fodder, as a base malt for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods...
crop is grown, and the only farthing where heavy snow is common. The historic Battle of Greenfields was fought here.
- Long Cleeve was the home of a splinter of the Took clanTook clanIn J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, the Took clan was one of the most famous Hobbit families.The first recorded Took was an Isumbras Took, who became the 13th Thain of the Shire after Gorhendad Oldbuck crossed into Buckland, becoming Master there.After Isumbras, the Thain position...
, descendants of Bandobras "Bullroarer" Took known as the North-Tooks, who settled here after the Battle of Greenfields.
- The village of Hardbottle was the home of the Bracegirdle family, to whom Lobelia Sackville-Baggins belonged. Tolkien's unfinished index to The Lord of the Ring places Hardbottle in the Southfarthing (and some maps, notably Karen Wynn FonstadKaren Wynn FonstadKaren Wynn Fonstad, née Wynn was the author of several atlases of fictional worlds.Born Karen Lea Wynn in Oklahoma City to parents James and Estis Wynn, she graduated from Norman High School in Norman, Oklahoma, and then earned a B.S. degree in Physical Therapy and an M.A...
's Atlas of Middle-earth, have used this location). But in Tolkien's more extensive entry in his guide for translators, it is located explicitly in "the North Farthing" [sic].
- Binbdbole Wood is one of the larger forests of the Shire. Misspelled "Bindbale Wood" in the first Ballantine paperback edition, the misspelling has been carried forward in many commentaries, including Foster's Guide and Fonstad's Atlas.
Westfarthing
The western part of the Shire. It ran from the Three-Farthing Stone west as far as the Far Downs, and included the White Downs.- Michel Delving on the White Downs is the chief town of the Shire. Its name means simply "large excavation". The Mayor of Michel Delving, with a seven-year term, is the only elected official of the Shire. At the time of the War of the Ring, the Mayor was Will Whitfoot,, the fattest hobbit in the Westfarthing. Michel Delving housed the mathom-house, a museum for old items, including for a time Bilbo Baggins's mithrilMithrilMithril is a fictional metal, originally used in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy writings. It is described as silvery and stronger than steel but much lighter in weight. The malleability, lack of tarnishing and use of the metal in jewellery suggest some similarity to the non-fictional metal...
chain mail coat.
- Little Delving is a village to the north of Michel Delving.
- Waymeet (spelled "Waymoot" on the Shire map in the Prologue of The Lord of the Rings) grew up at the junction of the Great East Road with the older South Road that crossed the Baranduin at Sarn Ford before the Brandywine Bridge was built.
- Tuckborough is the centre of the Took homeland where most Tooks dwell. The Thain's extended family lives here in the Great Smials.
- Bywater is a village situated on the East Road along The Water, a river running through the centre of the Shire. It was known for two inns, "the Green Dragon" and "the Ivy Bush". It was also the site of the Battle of Bywater on November 3, , the last battle in the War of the Ring.
- Rushock Bog is a swampy area along The Water, situated near the town of Needlehole.
- Hobbiton is a village along The Water a short walk to the west of Bywater. A large hill (The Hill) lay to the north, and under its southern slopes Bilbo's father Bungo built the luxurious smial Bag End above the lane of Bagshot Row. This is the home of Bilbo BagginsBilbo BagginsBilbo Baggins is the protagonist and titular character of The Hobbit and a supporting character in The Lord of the Rings, two of the most well-known of J. R. R...
, Frodo BagginsFrodo BagginsFrodo Baggins is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium.He is the main protagonist of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. He was a hobbit of the Shire who inherited Sauron's Ring from Bilbo Baggins and undertook the quest to destroy it in the fires of Mount Doom...
and Samwise GamgeeSamwise GamgeeSamwise Gamgee, later known as Samwise Gardner and commonly as Sam, is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. Samwise is one of the chief characters in Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings, in which he fills an archetypical role as the sidekick of the protagonist, Frodo...
, where both The HobbitThe HobbitThe Hobbit, or There and Back Again, better known by its abbreviated title The Hobbit, is a fantasy novel and children's book by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published on 21 September 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the New York Herald...
and The Lord of the RingsThe Lord of the RingsThe Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
begin and end. Tolkien borrowed "Bag End" from the name of his aunt's farmhouse in the tiny WorcestershireWorcestershireWorcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...
village of Dormston. In the books, it is supposedly a translation of the word Labin-nec in the fictional WestronWestronWestron, or the Common Speech, is a fictional language in the fantasy works of J. R. R. Tolkien.Westron is the closest thing to a lingua franca in Middle-earth, at least at the time during which The Lord of the Rings is set. "Westron" is an invented English word, derived from West...
language. This had much the same meaning, and a similar relationship to Labingi (the Westron form of Baggins) as Bag End to Baggins.
On the north bank of the Water in Hobbiton was "The Mill", with a large water-wheel and a yard behind it. Sandyman the Miller owned the Mill and operated it with the help of his son Ted Sandyman. Lotho Sackville-Baggins had the Old Mill knocked down and the New Mill built in its place. The New Mill was an ugly red-brick building with a tall chimney. It was bigger than the Old Mill and full of wheels and strange contraptions to increase production. The New Mill straddled the Water and poured pollutants into the stream. It was operated by Men, and Ted Sandyman stayed on to help them. When Saruman came to the Shire in September of 3019, the Mill was no longer used for grinding grain but for some industrial purpose; and loud noises, smoke, and filth issued from it. After Saruman was killed and the Chief's Men defeated at the Battle of Bywater, the New Mill was removed.
Southfarthing
The Southfarthing is the site of Longbottom, where the best pipe-weed was grown, owing to the area's warmer climate.- At Longbottom (meaning "long valley") Tobold Hornblower introduced the cultivation of pipe-weed to the Shire with plantations in his garden, ca. .
- The Green Hill Country, a region of rolling countryside in the central part of the Shire, extends into both the Southfarthing and the Eastfarthing.
- The Overbourne Marshes, a swampy area along the western bank of the Baranduin, across the river from the mouth of the Withywindle. The River Shirebourne flows through the marshes into the Baranduin just south of Haysend.
- Sarn Ford is the stony ford across the Baranduin on the southern borders of the Shire. A road leaving the Great East Road at Waymeet crosses the ford and meets the Greenway farther east. The RangersRanger (Middle-earth)In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the Rangers were two secretive, independent groups organized by the Dúnedain of the North and South in the Third Age. Like their Númenórean ancestors, they appeared to possess qualities closely attributed to the Eldar, with their keen senses and ability to...
guarded this entrance to the Shire, but in October, , the NazgûlNazgûlThe Nazgûl are fictional characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium...
hunting for the One RingOne RingThe One Ring is a fictional artifact that appears as the central plot element in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy novels. It is described in an earlier story, The Hobbit , as a magic ring of invisibility. The sequel The Lord of the Rings describes its powers as being more encompassing than...
drove them off; some of the Nazgûl crossed into the Shire, while others followed the Rangers toward the Greenway.
Eastfarthing
The Eastfarthing bordered Buckland and contained the towns Frogmorton and Whitfurrows and the farms of the Marish. The farmers near the Brandywine largely acknowledged the authority of the Oldbucks, even after the latter moved across the river and became the Brandybucks.- The Marish is the name of fertile but marshy farmlands along the Brandywine River. The Marish was settled about thirty years after the Shire had been created, by Stoors who arrived there from Dunland. The Marish was important in Shire history as the home of Bucca, the first of the Shire-thains. Gorhendad, one of his descendants, crossed the Brandywine and founded Buckland. Farmer MaggotFarmer MaggotFarmer Maggot is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth universe, introduced in The Fellowship of the Ring. He lived on a farm called Bamfurlong in the Marish region of the Eastfarthing of the Shire...
lived at Bamfurlong in the Marish.
- Stock is the major town of the Marish and the location of "the Golden Perch", an inn with a reputation for excellent beer. Stock Road was a road that ran eastwards from Tuckborough in the Westfarthing across the Green Hill Country and past the Yale to Stock.
- The Yale is a low-lying farming area shown on the Shire Map between the Stock Road and the East Road. This was the homeland of the Boffin familyBoffin family----In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, the Boffin family are a prominent hobbit family of the Shire, associated with the region of the Yale in the Eastfarthing...
, and several Boffins in a genealogical table (deleted from Appendix C before publication) came from the Yale.
- Scary is a village in the northern part of the Eastfarthing at the southern feet of the Hills of Scary. A road ran south from Scary to cross the Water at Budgeford and join the Great East Road at Whitfurrows. During the War of the Ring, provisions were stored in the quarry east of Scary by the Chief's Men, and after the Scouring of the Shire the Hobbits took advantage of these stores for the Yule holiday.
- Woody End is a forested upland near the village of Woodhall. Frodo and his friends, on their journey to Buckland, encountered Gildor's party there..
Buckland
Not originally part of the Shire, Buckland lay east of the Baranduin (Brandywine) river. The area was protected from the nearby Old ForestOld Forest
In J. R. R. Tolkien’s fictional universe of Middle-earth, the Old Forest is a small forested area which lies east of the Shire in Buckland....
by the "High Hay", a tall hedge which forms the eastern border of Buckland, running from the Brandywine Bridge in the north to the confluence of the Withywindle with the Baranduin near the village of Haysend in the south. The main entrance to Buckland from the north is a gate in the Hay, called variously the Buckland Gate, the North Gate, or the Hay Gate, located "where the Hedge runs down to the river-bank, just this side of the Bridge," opening onto the East Road from the Shire to Bree
Bree (Middle-earth)
Bree is a fictional village in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, east of the Shire and south of Fornost Erain. It is thought to have been inspired by the Buckinghamshire village of Brill, which Tolkien visited regularly in his early years at Oxford...
.
Unlike other hobbits the Bucklanders are prepared for danger and less naive than the Shire-hobbits. They close the Hay Gate and lock their own front doors at night, and are prepared to rush to arms at the sound of the Horn of Buckland. Most Bucklanders were originally of Stoor stock, and they were the only hobbits known to use boats.
- Bucklebury is the main town of Buckland. The Master of Buckland, hereditary chieftain of the Brandybuck family, maintained his home here at Brandy Hall.
- The Bucklebury Ferry, a raft-ferry some ten miles south of the Bridge, provides another crossing of the Brandywine from the Shire to Buckland. (Tolkien originally put the distance at twenty miles, but this was corrected in later editions.) It is unmanned, to be used by hobbits as needed. En route to the new house at Crickhollow, Frodo, Sam, MerryMeriadoc BrandybuckMeriadoc Brandybuck, usually referred to as Merry, is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, featured throughout his most famous work, The Lord of the Rings....
and PippinPeregrin TookPeregrin Took, more commonly known as Pippin, is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. Pippin is introduced as a Hobbit who plays a major role as one of the companions of Frodo Baggins, in his quest to destroy the One Ring.Peregrin was the only son of...
crossed the river using the Ferry just ahead of one of the Black Riders, who was forced to go around to the Brandywine Bridge since no boats were kept on the western bank of the river.
- Crickhollow was a village in Buckland. After selling Bag End, Frodo Baggins moved to a house in Crickhollow. Meriadoc Brandybuck and Fredegar BolgerFredegar BolgerFredegar "Fatty" Bolger is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings.-Profile:Fredegar was one of the small group of Hobbits who knew that Frodo had the Ring. 'Fatty' was a descendant of Hildibrand Took , one of the many sons of the Old Took...
prepared the house ostensibly for Frodo to occupy in retirement, but the purchase of the house was a ruse to allow Frodo and Samwise Gamgee to leave the Shire unobtrusively. Merry and Pippin lived for some time after their return to the Shire in the house at Crickhollow.
Westmarch
After the events of the War of the RingWar of the Ring
In the fictional high fantasy-world of J. R. R. Tolkien, the War of the Ring was fought between Sauron and the free peoples of Middle-earth for control of the One Ring and dominion over the continent. The War of the Ring took place at the end of the Third Age. Together with the Quest of Mount Doom,...
at the start of the Fourth Age, King Elessar granted the hobbits of the Shire effective self-rule inside his reunited kingdom, banning any Men
Man (Middle-earth)
The race of Men in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth books, such as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, refers to humanity and does not denote gender...
from entering the land.
He also granted the Shire a stretch of new land: this reached from the ancient western borders of the Shire, the Far Downs, to the Tower Hills. The area between the downs and the hills became known as the Westmarch. Like Buckland, it was not part of any of the four Farthings.
The eldest daughter of mayor Samwise Gamgee, Elanor the Fair, married Fastred of Greenholm, and they moved to the Westmarch, settling in Undertowers. After the passing of master Samwise into the Grey Havens, they and their children became known as the Fairbairns of the Towers or Wardens of Westmarch. The Red Book of Frodo and Bilbo Baggins passed into their keeping, becoming known as the Red Book of Westmarch
Red Book of Westmarch
The Red Book of Westmarch is a fictional manuscript written by hobbits, a conceit of author J. R. R...
.
History
The Shire was settled by Hobbits in the year 1601 of the Third AgeThird Age
The Third Age is a time period from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy writings. The history of Middle-earth is to be taken fictionally as a history of the real Earth....
(Year 1 in Shire Reckoning). The Hobbits (who originally lived in the vale of Anduin
Anduin
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth, Anduin is the Sindarin name for the Great River of Wilderland, the longest river in the Third Age . The ancestors of the Rohirrim called it Langflood. It flowed from its source in the Grey and Misty Mountains to the Mouths of Anduin in the Great Sea...
) had migrated west over the perilous Misty Mountains
Misty Mountains
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy world of Middle-earth, the Misty Mountains is a mountain range, running for 795 miles from north to south, between Eriador and the valley of the Great River, Anduin, and...
in the decades before that, and before entering the Shire they had lived in Dunland and parts of the depopulated Arnor
Arnor
Arnor is a fictional kingdom in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings. Arnor, or the Northern Kingdom, was a kingdom of the Dúnedain in the land of Eriador in Middle-earth. The name probably means "Land of the King", from Sindarin Ara- + dor...
ian splinter-realms Cardolan and Rhudaur. It has been speculated that the Hobbits had originally moved west to escape the troubles of Mirkwood
Mirkwood
Mirkwood is a name used for two distinct fictional forests in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. In the First Age, the highlands of Dorthonion north of Beleriand were known as Mirkwood after falling under Morgoth's control. During the Third Age, the large forest in Rhovanion, east of the Anduin in ...
, and the evil caused by the Easterlings
Easterlings
In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, "Easterling" and "Easterlings" were generic terms for Men who lived in the east of Middle-earth, who mostly fought under Morgoth and Sauron, not directly but rather on behalf of their own High Lord....
.
The Shire was a part of Arthedain, and as such a part of Arnor. The Hobbits obtained official permission from King Argeleb II at Norbury (Fornost) to settle the lands, which were not populated and were seen as the king's hunting grounds. The King stipulated three conditions to this grant; that the hobbits should acknowledge his Lordship, that they should maintain the roads within the Shire and finally that they should aid his messengers. The Hobbits therefore considered themselves subjects of the king and sent some archers to the great battles Arnor fought against Angmar
Angmar
Angmar is a fictional kingdom in J. R. R. Tolkien's continent of Middle-earth.-Synopsis:Angmar was founded in in the far north of the Misty Mountains by the evil Lord of the Ringwraiths, who became known as the "Witch-king of Angmar"...
. After the fall of Arnor, the Shire remained a minor but independent, self-governing realm. The chiefs of the Clans elected an official named the Thain
Thain
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth, the Thain was the traditional military leader of the Hobbits of the Shire. The Hobbits first chose a Thain to "hold the authority of the king" when Arvedui, last King of Arnor, was lost and the kingship in the North discontinued. The...
to hold the king's powers after the North-kingdom fell. The first Thains were the heads of the Oldbuck clan
Brandybuck clan
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth, the Brandybuck clan was a powerful Hobbit family. Like the other main aristocratic family, the Tooks, they had a Fallohide strain, though they and the Bucklanders among whom they lived were at least partly of Stoor origin, and "by all...
. The position later came to be held by the Tooks.
Its small size, relative lack of importance, and brave and resilient Hobbit population made it too modest an objective for conquest. More importantly, the Shire was guarded and protected by the Dúnedain
Dúnedain
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the Dúnedain were a race of Men descended from the Númenóreans who survived the sinking of their island kingdom and came to Eriador in Middle-earth, led by Elendil and his sons, Isildur and Anárion...
Rangers, who watched the borders and kept out intruders. The only strangers to enter the Shire were the Dwarves
Dwarf (Middle-earth)
In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, the Dwarves are a race inhabiting the world of Arda, a fictional prehistoric Earth which includes the continent Middle-earth....
travelling on the Great Road that ran through the Shire to and from their mines in the Blue Mountains, and the occasional Elves
Elf (Middle-earth)
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, Elves are one of the races that inhabit a fictional Earth, often called Middle-earth, and set in the remote past. They appear in The Hobbit and in The Lord of the Rings, but their complex history is described more fully in The Silmarillion...
on their way to the Grey Havens.
This peaceful situation changed after Bilbo Baggins
Bilbo Baggins
Bilbo Baggins is the protagonist and titular character of The Hobbit and a supporting character in The Lord of the Rings, two of the most well-known of J. R. R...
's acquisition of the One Ring
One Ring
The One Ring is a fictional artifact that appears as the central plot element in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy novels. It is described in an earlier story, The Hobbit , as a magic ring of invisibility. The sequel The Lord of the Rings describes its powers as being more encompassing than...
in the year 1341 of the Shire Reckoning (Third Age 2941). Shortly after the beginning of the events described in The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
(autumn of SR 1418), the Shire was first visited by the Nine Ringwraiths and then captured by Saruman
Saruman
Saruman the White is a fictional character and a major antagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. He is leader of the Istari, wizards sent to Middle-earth in human form by the godlike Valar to challenge Sauron, the main antagonist of the tale, but later on aims at gaining...
through his underling Lotho Sackville-Baggins, who turned the Shire into a police state and began a massive campaign to industrialize it, bringing widespread misery and severely damaging its ecology. It was liberated with the help of Frodo
Frodo Baggins
Frodo Baggins is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium.He is the main protagonist of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. He was a hobbit of the Shire who inherited Sauron's Ring from Bilbo Baggins and undertook the quest to destroy it in the fires of Mount Doom...
, Sam, Merry
Meriadoc Brandybuck
Meriadoc Brandybuck, usually referred to as Merry, is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, featured throughout his most famous work, The Lord of the Rings....
, and Pippin
Peregrin Took
Peregrin Took, more commonly known as Pippin, is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. Pippin is introduced as a Hobbit who plays a major role as one of the companions of Frodo Baggins, in his quest to destroy the One Ring.Peregrin was the only son of...
after the end of the Quest of the Ring through their victory at the Battle of Bywater. After Aragorn's return as the King of Arnor
Arnor
Arnor is a fictional kingdom in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings. Arnor, or the Northern Kingdom, was a kingdom of the Dúnedain in the land of Eriador in Middle-earth. The name probably means "Land of the King", from Sindarin Ara- + dor...
and Gondor
Gondor
Gondor is a fictional kingdom in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings, described as the greatest realm of Men in the west of Middle-earth by the end of the Third Age. The third volume of The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, is concerned with the events in Gondor during the War of the Ring and with...
, the Shire became a protected enclave inside the Reunited Kingdom
Reunited Kingdom
The Reunited Kingdom of Arnor and Gondor is a fictional realm from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth.When Aragorn became King of Gondor at the end of the War of the Ring, he was also the descendant of the Kings of Arnor, and by right he was crowned High King of both Arnor and Gondor and Reunited the...
. Aragorn is known to have issued an edict that forbade the entrance of full-sized Men
Man (Middle-earth)
The race of Men in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth books, such as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, refers to humanity and does not denote gender...
into the Shire. The Shire was soon restored with magic soil from Galadriel
Galadriel
Galadriel is a character created by J.R.R. Tolkien, appearing in his Middle-earth legendarium. She appears in The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, and Unfinished Tales....
's Lórien garden (presented as a gift to Sam). The year SR 1420 was considered by the inhabitants of the Shire to be the most productive and prosperous year in their history.
Government
The Shire was a voluntarily orderly society. The only government services were the Message Service (the post) and the Watch, the police, whose officers were called Shirriffs, and whose chief duties involved rounding up stray livestock. The total number of regular Shirriffs was 12, three for each Farthing. There was also a somewhat larger and fluctuating number of Bounders, a kind of unofficial border control. At the beginning of The Lord of the Rings, there were many more Bounders than had been required for centuries, and they were unusually busy: one of the few signs obvious to the Hobbits of the Shire of the troubled times.To a large extent, individual families and clans handled their own internal affairs. Where a prominent family was associated with a certain district, the head of that family would also exercise a kind of authority over his area. Thus, the Master of the Hall or Master of Buckland (the two titles are used interchangeably), hereditary head of the Brandybuck family, was the effective ruler of Buckland. The title Master of the Hall comes from his more immediate authority over Brandy Hall, the greatest of the dwelling places of the Brandybuck family, filling Buck Hill in Bucklebury. The Master also exercises a good deal of authority in the Marish, a region of the Eastfarthing just across the Brandywine from Buckland. Similarly, the head of the Took family, often just called the Took, ruled the ancestral Took dwelling of Great Smials, the village of Tuckborough, and the wider area known as the Tookland.
There were only two Shire-wide officials, the Thain
Thain
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth, the Thain was the traditional military leader of the Hobbits of the Shire. The Hobbits first chose a Thain to "hold the authority of the king" when Arvedui, last King of Arnor, was lost and the kingship in the North discontinued. The...
and the Mayor
Mayor of the Shire
In the literary works of J. R. R. Tolkien, the Mayor of the Shire, is the sole elected office of the Shire at the time of the War of the Ring. The mayor lives in Michel Delving, which is at this time The Shire's largest town and de facto capital....
. The Thainship was a hereditary office, set up after the collapse of the Kingdom of Arthedain, to hold the King's authority over the Shire. In practice, the Thain's duties were limited, mostly related to defence: "The Thain was the master of the Shire-moot, and captain of the Shire-muster and the Hobbitry-in-arms
Militia
The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...
; but as muster and moot were only held in times of emergency, which no longer occurred, the Thainship had ceased to be more than a nominal dignity." Nevertheless, the feeling remained widespread that, in the absence of a King, the Thain was the source for all proper authority in the Shire, and during Saruman
Saruman
Saruman the White is a fictional character and a major antagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. He is leader of the Istari, wizards sent to Middle-earth in human form by the godlike Valar to challenge Sauron, the main antagonist of the tale, but later on aims at gaining...
's intervention in the Shire in , Thain Paladin II, aided by many Hobbits and particularly his Took clan, led armed opposition to Saruman's forces from his capital at Tuckborough.
When Frodo left the Shire at the outset of The Lord of the Rings , the office of Thain had existed for 1,039 years. The first Thain, Bucca of the Marish, took office in ; he and his 11 successors of the Oldbuck family held the Thainship for 361 years. When Gorhendad Oldbuck led his family to settle Buckland (S.R. 740), the office of Thain passed to Isumbras I, head of the Took family, which held the Thainship ever since. In , the Thain was Paladin II, the 31st Thain and the 19th of the Took line.
Thains of the Shire include:
- Bucca of the Marish (379-?)
- 11 Thains of the Oldbuck line, possibly including Gorhendad Oldbuck, who removed to Buckland
- Isumbras I Took (740-?)
- [8 Thains of the Took line]
- Isengrim II (?-1122)
- Isumbras III (1122–1159)
- Ferumbras II (1159–1201)
- Fortinbras I (1201–1248)
- Gerontius, the Old Took (1248–1320)
- Isengrim III (1320–1330)
- Isumbras IV (1330–1339)
- Fortinbras II (1339–1380)
- Ferumbras III (1380–1415)
- Paladin II (1415–1434)
- PeregrinPeregrin TookPeregrin Took, more commonly known as Pippin, is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. Pippin is introduced as a Hobbit who plays a major role as one of the companions of Frodo Baggins, in his quest to destroy the One Ring.Peregrin was the only son of...
(1434–1484, abdicated) - Faramir (1484-?)
The chief official of the Shire was the Mayor of Michel Delving. Elected every seven years at the "Free Fair" held on the White Downs in the Westfarthing, the Mayor was the Postmaster and First Shirriff of the Shire.
The Hobbits of the Shire generally obeyed the Rules, that is, the ancient laws of the North Kingdom, and there was no real need to enforce them; all Hobbits voluntarily obeyed them as they were both ancient and just. Hobbits had lawyers, but these dealt mostly with wills and such matters; there is no record of a formal court system, still less of criminal prosecutions or punishments. Frodo stated that in the Shire no Hobbit had ever been known intentionally to kill another Hobbit. Sméagol's wicked behaviour, including his murder of Déagol
Déagol
Déagol is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. His story is related in The Fellowship of the Ring, the first of three volumes comprising Tolkien's most famous novel, The Lord of the Rings, in the chapter "The Shadow of the Past"....
(which occurred outside the Shire), led Frodo to doubt that Sméagol was a hobbit at all.
At the resumption of the throne by King Elessar
Aragorn
Aragorn II is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, one of the main protagonists of The Lord of the Rings. He is first introduced by the name Strider, which the hobbits continue to call him...
, the Shire again became part of the restored Kingdom of Arnor. Elessar permitted the Hobbits to keep their own laws and customs. (The office of Thain was also left undisturbed.) In 1427, Elessar issued an edict prohibiting Men from entering the Shire and declaring it a Free Land under the protection of Arnor.
Works cited
- J.R.R. Tolkien, Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings, in Jared Lobdell (ed.), A Tolkien Compass, Open Court, 1975.
- Hammond and Scull, The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, HarperCollins, 2005.
- Rober Foster, The Complete Guide to Middle-earth, Ballantine Books, 1978.
See also
- Thains of the Shire
- List of hobbit families
- GandalfGandalfGandalf is a character in J. R. R. Tolkien's novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. In these stories, Gandalf appears as a wizard, member and later the head of the order known as the Istari, as well as leader of the Fellowship of the Ring and the army of the West...