Shire (Middle-earth)

The fields of the Shire in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy

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 Hobbits 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"[1] or Sûzat "The Shire".[2] Its name in Sindarin was i Drann.[3]

Contents

Geography

According to Tolkien, the Shire measured 40 leagues (193 km, 120 miles[4]) 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.[5] This is confirmed in an essay by Tolkien on translating the Lord of the Rings,[6] where he describes the Shire as having an area of 18,000 square miles (47,000 km²).[7]

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.[5] Within the Farthings there are some smaller unofficial clan homelands: the Tooks 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.

Inspiration

On Tolkien's maps, the Shire is located at about the same position as England 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 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"[8]

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.[9] 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.

Iceland divided in farthings, in Hans Henrik Knoff's map, 1761

Regions of the Shire

The original parts of the Shire were subdivided into four Farthings ("fourth-ings" or "quarterings"): the Three-Farthing Stone marked the point where the borders of the Eastfarthing, Westfarthing and Southfarthing of the Shire came together, by the East Road[10] (Iceland was traditionally also divided in Farthings, or "fourth parts", as the Shire is).

Northfarthing

The Northfarthing is the least populous part of the Shire. It is where most of the Shire's barley crop is grown,[11] and the only farthing where heavy snow is common.[12] The historic Battle of Greenfields was fought here.[13]

Westfarthing

The western and most populous part of the Shire.

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.

Eastfarthing

Eastfarthing borders Buckland and contains 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.

Other parts of the Shire

Buckland and the Westmarch are sometimes reckoned part of the Shire, though they are not part of any Farthing. Buckland was described in Chapter V A Conspiracy Unmasked in The Fellowship of the Ring as being "virtually a small independent country... a sort of colony of the Shire." Westmarch was settled by hobbits (including descendants of Sam Gamgee) after the War of the Ring, and Buckland and Westmarch became parts of the Shire only in the Fourth Age, after the events portrayed in Lord of the Rings.

Buckland

Location, villages and borders

Buckland is located east of the Baranduin (Brandywine) river. The hobbits living in Buckland grew the "High Hay", a tall hedge to protect Buckland from the nearby Old Forest to the east. The Hay runs from the Brandywine Bridge in the north to the confluence of the Withywindle with the Baranduin near the village of Haysend in the south. It forms the eastern border of Buckland. The Hay is broken by a gate, 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."[19] The gate opens onto the East Road from the Shire to Bree, and is the only entrance to Buckland from the north.

The most important town of Buckland is Bucklebury where the Brandy Hall is located, home of the Master of Buckland, the hereditary chieftain of the Brandybuck family.

The Bucklebury Ferry, a raft-ferry some ten miles south of the Bridge, provides another crossing of the Brandywine River from the Shire to Buckland. (Tolkien originally put the distance at twenty miles, but this was corrected in later editions.) It is left unmanned to be used by hobbits as needed. En route to the new house at Crickhollow, Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin crossed using the Ferry just before the arrival of a Black Rider, 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 Bolger prepared the house ostensibly for Frodo to occupy in retirement, but the purchase of the house was intended as 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.

History and culture

Buckland was settled around T.A. 2340 by Gorhenhad Oldbuck, who became the first Master of Buckland and changed his family name to Brandybuck. He was the direct ancestor of Meriadoc Brandybuck, who became Master after the War of the Ring.

Because Buckland is east of the Baranduin, it is not part of the land given to the hobbits by King Argeleb II of Arthedain. It was thus not part of the Shire proper until the beginning of the Fourth Age when King Elessar made Buckland and the Westmarch officially a part of the Shire.

The Bucklanders are unlike other hobbits: they are prepared for danger and are thus less naive than the Shire-hobbits. They close the Hay Gate and their own front doors at night and are prepared to rush to arms when the Horn of Buckland is blown. Most Bucklanders were originally of Stoor stock, and they were the only hobbits known to use boats.

Westmarch

After the events of the War of the Ring 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. 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.

Towns

The principal towns of the Shire were:

History

The Shire was settled by Hobbits in the year 1601 of the Third Age (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 Arnorian 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. Shortly after the beginning of the events described in The Lord of the Rings (autumn of the year 1418 in Shire Reckoning), 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 the Shire which brought widespread misery and severely damaged 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 1420 (SR) 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 Shiriffs, 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 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 S.R. 1419, 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 S.R. 1418, the office of Thain had existed for 1,039 years. The first Thain, Bucca of the Marish, took office in S.R. 379; 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 S.R. 1418, 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 forbidding Men from entering the Shire, and declaring it a Free Land under the protection of Arnor.

References

  1. ↑ The Return of the King, Appendix F
  2. ↑ Tolkien, The Peoples of Middle-earth, Vol. XII of The History of Middle-earth, p. 45.
  3. ↑ Vinyar Tengwar #31, pp. 21-2
  4. ↑ Tolkien takes a league to be 3 miles, see Unfinished Tales, The Disaster of the Gladden Fields, Appendix on Númenórean Measure.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 The Fellowship of the Ring, Prologue
  6. ↑ Tolkien, Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings, in Jared Lobdell (ed.), A Tolkien Compass, Open Court, 1975.
  7. ↑ Guide to the Names, entry on "Farthing".
  8. ↑ Tom Shippey, Tolkien and the West Midlands: The Roots of Romance, Lembas Extra (1995), reprinted in Roots and Branches, Walking Tree Publishers (2007); map
  9. ↑ Shippey (2007), p. 56
  10. ↑ The Fellowship of the Ring, Map of Part of the Shire.
  11. ↑ The Return of the King, "The Grey Havens".
  12. ↑ The Fellowship of the Ring, "The Ring Goes South": "Except on the high moors of the Northfarthing a heavy fall was rare in the Shire".
  13. ↑ The Return of the King, "The Scouring of the Shire": "the only battle since Greenfields, 1147, away up in the Northfarthing".
  14. ↑ The Return of the King, Appendix C.
  15. ↑ Guide to the Names: the entry for "Hardbottle" places it explicitly in "the North Farthing" [sic].
  16. ↑ Carpenter, Humphrey (1977), Tolkien: A Biography, New York: Ballantine Books, ISBN 0-04-928037-6 
  17. ↑ Christopher Tolkien, The History of Middle-earth, Volume XII, The Peoples of Middle-earth, "The Appendix on Languages", p. 48.
  18. ↑ The Peoples of Middle-earth, "The Family Trees", pp. 88, 97–101.
  19. ↑ The Fellowship of the Ring, "A Conspiracy Unmasked", p. 152.

Works cited

See also

Realms from J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium during the Third Age
Realms of Men
Arnor · Arthedain · Bree-land · Cardolan · Dale · Dol Amroth · Dunland · Éothéod · Esgaroth · Gondor · Harad · Khand · Rhovanion · Rhudaur · Rhûn · Rohan · Umbar
Realms of the Elves
Lindon · Lothlórien · Northern Mirkwood · Rivendell
Realms of the Dwarves
Belegost · Erebor · Grey Mountains · Iron Hills · Khazad-dûm
Realms of the Hobbits
Bree-land · Gladden Fields · The Shire
Realms of the Ents
Fangorn
Uncertain population
Dorwinion
Realms of the Enemy
Angmar · Dol Guldur · Isengard · Mordor · Minas Morgul