The Shire

{{Short description|Fictional region of hobbits}} {{Other uses|Shire (disambiguation)}} {{good article}} {{Use British English|date=May 2021}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}} {{Infobox fictional location | name = The Shire | series = [[Middle-earth]] | image = File:Hobbit holes reflected in water.jpg <!--NO FAN ART HERE, PLEASE, WikiProject Middle-earth does not use it in infoboxes, thank you--> | caption = Part of the Shire created for [[Peter Jackson]]'s films of [[Middle-earth]], on a farm near Matamata, New Zealand | first = ''[[The Hobbit]]'' | creator = [[J. R. R. Tolkien]] | genre = [[High fantasy]] | type = Region | located_in = Northwest of [[Middle-earth]] | characters = *[[Bilbo Baggins]] *[[Frodo Baggins]] *[[Samwise Gamgee]] *[[Merry Brandybuck]] *[[Pippin Took]] | ruler = Thain, Mayor | ethnic_group = [[Harfoots]], [[Stoors]], [[Fallohides]] | races = [[Hobbits]] | blank_label3 = Chief township | blank_data3 = Michel Delving on the White Downs }} '''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 is an inland area settled exclusively by [[hobbit]]s, the '''Shire-folk''', largely sheltered from the goings-on in the rest of Middle-earth. It is in the northwest of the continent, in the region of [[Eriador]] and the Kingdom of Arnor. <!--Please do not add refs or "new" claims up here, this is only a summary of the article text, which is already cited. Thanks-->

The Shire is the scene of action at the beginning and end of Tolkien's ''[[The Hobbit]]'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. Five of the protagonists in these stories have their homeland in the Shire: [[Bilbo Baggins]] (the [[title character]] of ''The Hobbit''), and four members of the [[Fellowship of the Ring (characters)|Fellowship of the Ring]]: [[Frodo Baggins]], [[Samwise Gamgee]], [[Merry Brandybuck]], and [[Pippin Took]]. At the end of ''The Hobbit'', Bilbo returns to the Shire, only to find out that he has been declared "missing and presumed dead" and that [[Bag End|his hobbit-hole]] and all its contents are up for auction. (He reclaims them, much to the spite of his cousins Otho and [[Lobelia Sackville-Baggins]].) The main action in ''The Lord of the Rings'' returns to the Shire near the end of the book, in "[[The Scouring of the Shire]]", when the homebound hobbits find the area under the control of [[Saruman]]'s ruffians, and set things to rights. <!--Please do not add refs or "new" claims up here, this is only a summary of the article text, which is already cited. Thanks-->

Tolkien based the Shire's landscapes, climate, flora, fauna, and place-names on [[Worcestershire]] and [[Warwickshire]], the rural counties in [[England]] where he lived.<!--Please do not add refs or "new" claims up here, this is only a summary of the article text, which is already cited. Thanks--> In [[Peter Jackson]]'s [[Middle-earth in motion pictures|film adaptations]] of both ''[[The Hobbit (film series)|The Hobbit]]'' and ''[[The Lord of the Rings (film series)|The Lord of the Rings]]'', the Shire was represented by countryside and constructed hobbit-holes on a farm near [[Matamata]] in New Zealand, which became [[Hobbiton Movie Set|a tourist destination]]. <!--Please do not add refs or "new" claims up here, this is only a summary of the article text, which is already cited. Thanks-->

== Fictional description ==

[[File:Sketch Map of The Shire.svg|thumb|upright=2.25|Sketch map of the Shire]]

Tolkien took considerable trouble over the exact details of the Shire. Little of his carefully crafted{{sfn|Stanton|2013|pp=607–608}} fictional geography, history, calendar, and constitution appeared in ''[[The Hobbit]]'' or ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', though additional details were given in the Appendices of later editions. The Tolkien scholar [[Tom Shippey]] comments that all the same, they provided the "[[Impression of depth in The Lord of the Rings|depth]]", the feeling in the reader's mind that this was a real and complex place, a quality that Tolkien believed essential to a successful fantasy.{{sfn|Shippey|2005|pp=115–118}}

{{anchor|Buckland|Westmarch}}

=== Geography ===

{{further|Tolkien's maps|Geography of Middle-earth}}

==== Four farthings ====

In Tolkien's fiction, the Shire is described as a small but beautiful, idyllic and fruitful land, beloved by its [[hobbit]] inhabitants. They had [[agriculture]] but were not industrialized. The landscape included [[downland]] and woods like the English [[countryside]]. The Shire was fully inland; most hobbits feared [[Belegaer|the Sea]].<ref name="Prologue" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}}, Prologue</ref> The Shire measured 40 [[League (unit)|leagues]] (193&nbsp;km, 120 miles)<ref group=T>Tolkien takes a league to be 3 miles, see ''[[Unfinished Tales]]'', The Disaster of the Gladden Fields, Appendix on Númenórean Measure.</ref> east to west and 50 leagues (241&nbsp;km, 150 miles) from north to south, with an area of some {{convert|18,000|sqmi|km2}}:<ref name="Prologue" group=T/><ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1975|loc="Farthing", "Shire"}}</ref> roughly that of the English [[Midlands]]. The main and oldest part of the Shire was bordered to the east by the Brandywine River, on the north by uplands rising to the [[Lake Evendim|Hills of Evendim]], on the west by the Far Downs, and on the south by marshland. It expanded to the east into Buckland between the Brandywine and the [[Old Forest]], and (much later) to the west into the Westmarch between the Far Downs and the Tower Hills.<ref name="Prologue" group=T/><ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955}}, Appendix B and Appendix C.</ref>{{sfn|Stanton|2013|pp=607–608}}

{{multiple image| |total_width=375px |image1=Four-Shire Stone 2013-09-18.jpg |caption1=The [[Four Shire Stone]], where four counties{{efn|[[Warwickshire]], [[Oxfordshire]], [[Gloucestershire]], and [[Worcestershire]]}} of the West of England once met |image2=1761 Homann Heirs Map of Iceland "Insulae Islandiae" - Geographicus - Islandiae-hmhr-1761.jpg |caption2=[[Farthings of Iceland|Iceland was once divided into four Farthings]]—North, South, East, and West.<ref name="Islandskort">{{cite web |title=Insvlae Islandiae delineatio |url=https://islandskort.is/en/map/show/4 |website=Islandskort |access-date=24 February 2020}}</ref> }}

{{anchor|Tookland}} The Shire was subdivided into four Farthings ("fourth-ings", "quarterings"),<ref name="prolog-ordering" group="T">{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}}, "Prologue" : "Of the Ordering of the Shire"</ref> [[Farthings of Iceland|as Iceland once was]];<ref name="Islandskort"/> similarly, [[Yorkshire]] was historically divided into three "[[Ridings of Yorkshire|ridings]]".<ref name="Mills 1993">{{cite dictionary |last=Mills |first=A. D. |entry=Riding, East, North, & West |title=A Dictionary of English Place-Names |date=1993 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=0192831313 |page=272}}</ref> The Three-Farthing Stone marked the approximate centre of the Shire.<ref name="ShireMap" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}}, Map of a part of the Shire.</ref> It was inspired by the [[Four Shire Stone]] near [[Moreton-in-Marsh]], where once four counties met, but since 1931 only three do.<ref>{{cite web |title=Moreton-in-Marsh Tourist Information and Travel Guide |url=http://www.cotswolds.info/places/moreton-in-marsh.shtml |publisher=cotswolds.info |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240112073828/http://www.cotswolds.info/places/moreton-in-marsh.shtml |archive-date=12 January 2024 |access-date=20 May 2024 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{efn|Tom Shippey states that the placename [[Farthinghoe]] (in [[Northamptonshire]]) triggered Tolkien's thoughts on the matter.{{sfn|Shippey|2005|p=114}}}} There are several Three Shire Stones in England, such as [[Three Shire Stone (Lake District)|in the Lake District]],<ref name=2017wmgaz>{{cite news |url=http://www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/news/15460781.Iconic_Lake_District_marker_stone_is_toppled/ |title=Iconic Lake District Three Shires Stone is toppled |publisher=The Westmorland Gazette |date=12 August 2017}}</ref> and formerly some Three Shires Oaks, such as [[Three Shires Oak|at Whitwell in Derbyshire]], each marking the place where three counties once met.<ref>{{cite web |title=Whitwell Wood |url=http://www.cheshirenow.co.uk/whitwell_wood.html |publisher=Cheshire Now |access-date=4 August 2020}}</ref> Pippin was born in Whitwell in the Tookland.<ref name="Minas Tirith" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955|loc=book 5, ch. 1 "Minas Tirith"}}</ref> Within the Farthings there are unofficial clan homelands: the Tooks nearly all live in or near Tuckborough in Tookland's Green Hill Country.{{sfn|Stanton|2013|pp=607–608}}{{efn|The Green Hill Country around the Tuckborough road may have been named for Green Hill Road near Mosely where Tolkien's grandparents<!-- the Suffields --> lived.<ref name="Blackham2012">{{cite book |last=Blackham |first=Robert S. |title=J.R.R. Tolkien: Inspiring Lives |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=naU7AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT88 |year=2012 |publisher=History Press |isbn=978-0-7524-9097-7 |page=88}}</ref>}}

{{anchor|Buckland}}

==== Buckland ====

Buckland, also known as the "East Marches", was just to the east of the Shire across the Brandywine River. Named for the Brandybuck family, it was settled "long ago" as "a sort of colony of the Shire." It was bounded to the east by the [[Old Forest]], separated by a tall thick hedge called the High Hay.<ref>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a|loc=book 1, ch. 5 "A Conspiracy Unmasked"}}</ref> It included Crickhollow, which serves as one of [[Frodo's five Homely Houses]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Shippey |first=Tom |author-link=Tom Shippey |title=[[J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century]] |date=2001 |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |isbn=978-0261-10401-3 |page=65}}</ref>

The Westmarch or West Marches was given to the Shire by King [[Aragorn|Elessar]] after the War of the Ring.<ref name="prolog-ordering" group=T/><ref name="AppB" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955|loc=Appendix B}}</ref>

{{anchor|Bree|The Prancing Pony}}

==== Bree ====

{{main|Bree, Middle-earth}}

To the east of the Shire was the isolated village of [[Bree, Middle-earth|Bree]], unique in having hobbits and men living side-by-side. It was served by an [[inn]] named ''The Prancing Pony'',<ref name="PP" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a|loc=book 1, ch. 9 "At the Sign of the Prancing Pony"}}</ref> noted for its fine [[beer]] which was sampled by hobbits, men, and the wizard [[Gandalf]].<ref name="The Council of Elrond" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a|loc=book 2, ch. 2 "[[The Council of Elrond]]"}}</ref> Many inhabitants of Bree, including the inn's landlord Barliman Butterbur, had surnames taken from plants. Tolkien described the [[butterbur]] as "a fat thick plant", evidently chosen as appropriate for a fat man.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1975|loc="Butterbur"}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Judd |first1=Walter S. |author1-link=Walter Stephen Judd |last2=Judd |first2=Graham A. |title=Flora of Middle-Earth: Plants of J. R. R. Tolkien's Legendarium |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3CwpDwAAQBAJ |year=2017 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-027631-7 |pages=342–344}}</ref> Tolkien suggested two different origins for the people of Bree: either it had been founded and populated by men of the [[Edain]] who did not reach [[Beleriand]] in the First Age, remaining east of the mountains in [[Eriador]]; or they came from the same stock as the [[Dunlendings]].<ref name="PP" group=T/><ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955|loc=Appendix F}}</ref> The name ''Bree'' means "hill"; Tolkien justified the name by arranging the village and the surrounding Bree-land around a large hill, named Bree-hill. The name of the village [[Brill, Buckinghamshire|Brill]], in [[Buckinghamshire]], a place that Tolkien often visited,<ref name="ChrisTolkien 1988" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1988|loc=ch. 7, p. 131, note 6. "Bree ... [was] based on Brill ... a place which he knew well".}}</ref><ref name="Shippey 2007">[[Tom Shippey]], [http://www.nordals.hi.is/Apps/WebObjects/HI.woa/wa/dp?detail=1004508&name=nordals_en_greinar_og_erindi Tolkien and Iceland: The Philology of Envy] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071014000303/http://nordals.hi.is/Apps/WebObjects/HI.woa/wa/dp?detail=1004508&name=nordals_en_greinar_og_erindi |date=2007-10-14 }}</ref> and which inspired him to create Bree,<ref name="ChrisTolkien 1988" group=T/> has the same meaning: ''Brill'' is a modern contraction of ''Breʒ-hyll''. Both syllables are words for "hill" – the first is [[Celtic languages|Celtic]] and the second [[Old English language|Old English]].<ref name="Mills 1993 Bree">{{cite book |last=Mills |first=A. D. |chapter=Brill |title=A Dictionary of English Place-Names |year=1993 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=0192831313 |page=52}}</ref>

<gallery mode=packed heights=185px> File:Brill village from Brill Common - geograph.org.uk - 538330.jpg|The name "Bree" was inspired by the name of the village of [[Brill, Buckinghamshire]]; it contains the [[Celtic languages|Celtic]] ''Breʒ'' and the [[Old English]] ''hyll'', both meaning "hill".<ref name="Mills 1993 Bree"/> File:Bell Inn Moreton in Marsh back in time.jpg|''The Bell Inn'' in [[Moreton-in-Marsh]] may have inspired Tolkien to create ''The Prancing Pony'' inn at Bree.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.adcbooks.co.uk/downloads/prancing%20ponyv9_press.pdf |title="The Prancing Pony by Barliman Butterbur" |access-date=26 September 2014 |publisher=ADCBooks |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130413083835/http://www.adcbooks.co.uk/downloads/prancing%20ponyv9_press.pdf |archive-date=13 April 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref> </gallery>

=== History ===

{{further|The Scouring of the Shire}}

The Shire was first settled by hobbits in the year 1601 of the [[Third Age]] (Year 1 in Shire Reckoning); they were led by the brothers Marcho and Blanco. The hobbits from the vale of [[Anduin]] had migrated west over the perilous [[Misty Mountains]], living in the wilds of [[Eriador]] before moving to the Shire.{{sfn|Stanton|2013|pp=607–608}}

{{anchor|Thain}} After the fall of Arnor, the Shire remained a self-governing realm; the Shire-folk chose a Thain to hold the king's powers. The first Thains were the heads of the Oldbuck clan. When the Oldbucks settled Buckland, the position of Thain was peacefully transferred to the Took clan. The Shire was covertly protected by [[Rangers of the North]], who watched the borders and kept out intruders. Generally the only strangers entering the Shire were [[Dwarf (Middle-earth)|Dwarves]] travelling on the Great Road from their mines in the [[Blue Mountains (Middle-earth)|Blue Mountains]], and occasional [[Elf (Middle-earth)|Elves]] on their way to the Grey Havens. In {{ME-date|SR|1147}} the hobbits defeated an invasion of [[Orc (Middle-earth)|Orcs]] at the Battle of Greenfields. In {{ME-date|SR|1158}}–60, thousands of hobbits perished in the Long Winter and the famine that followed.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955|loc=Appendix B, "Third Age"}}</ref> In the Fell Winter of {{ME-date|SR|1311}}–12, [[Arctic wolf|white wolves]] from Forodwaith invaded the Shire across the frozen [[Baranduin|Brandywine]] River.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955|loc=Appendix B, "Third Age"}}</ref>

{{anchor|Hobbiton|Lotho Sackville-Baggins|Bag End}} [[File:Hobbiton, New Zealand.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|The house of [[Bilbo Baggins|Bilbo]] and later [[Frodo Baggins]] at Bag End, Hobbiton as filmed in New Zealand]]

The protagonists of ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings'', [[Bilbo Baggins|Bilbo]] and Frodo Baggins, lived at [[Bag End]],{{efn|"Bag End" was the real name of the [[Worcestershire]] home of Tolkien's aunt Jane Neave in [[Dormston]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Lord of the Rings inspiration in the archives |url=https://www.explorethepast.co.uk/2013/05/lord-of-the-rings-inspiration-in-the-archives/ |website=Explore the Past (Worcestershire Historic Environment Record) |date=29 May 2013}}</ref><ref name="Morton 2009">{{cite book |last=Morton |first=Andrew |author-link=Andrew Morton (writer) |title=Tolkien's Bag End |publisher=Brewin Books |location=Studley, Warwickshire |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-85858-455-3 |oclc=551485018}} Morton wrote [http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/1065-Bag-End-A-Very-English-Place.php an account of his findings] for the Tolkien Library.</ref>}} a luxurious ''smial'' or hobbit-burrow, dug into The Hill on the north side of the town of Hobbiton in the Westfarthing. It was the most comfortable hobbit-dwelling in the town; there were smaller burrows further down The Hill.{{efn|Tolkien's visualization of Bag End can be found in [[J. R. R. Tolkien's artwork#The Hobbit|his illustrations for ''The Hobbit'']]. His [[watercolour]] ''The Hill: Hobbiton-across-the Water'' shows the exterior and the surrounding countryside, whilst ''The Hall at Bag-End'' [sic] depicts the interior.}} In {{ME-date|SR|1341}} [[Bilbo Baggins]] left the Shire on the quest recounted in ''The Hobbit''. He returned the following year, secretly bearing a magic ring. This turned out to be the [[One Ring]]. The Shire was invaded by four [[Ringwraith]]s in search of the Ring.<ref name="The Council of Elrond" group=T/> While [[Frodo Baggins|Frodo]], [[Sam Gamgee|Sam]], [[Merry Brandybuck|Merry]], and [[Pippin Took|Pippin]] were away on the quest to destroy the Ring, the Shire was taken over by [[Saruman]] through his underling Lotho Sackville-Baggins. They ran the Shire in a parody of a modern state, complete with armed ruffians, destruction of trees and handsome old buildings, and ugly industrialisation.<ref name="The Scouring of the Shire" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955|loc=book 6, ch. 8 "[[The Scouring of the Shire]]"}}</ref>

The Shire was liberated with the help of Frodo and his companions on their return at the Battle of Bywater (the final battle of the [[War of the Ring]]).<ref name="The Scouring of the Shire" group=T/> The trees of the Shire were restored with soil from [[Galadriel]]'s garden in [[Lothlórien]] (a gift to Sam). The year {{ME-date|SR|1420}} was considered by the inhabitants of the Shire to be the most productive and prosperous year in their history.<ref name="The Grey Havens" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955|loc=book 6, ch. 9 "The Grey Havens"}}</ref>

=== Language ===

[[File:Linguistic Map of Middle-Earth.svg|thumb|upright=1.35|According to [[Tom Shippey]], Tolkien invented parts of [[Middle-earth]] to resolve the linguistic puzzle he had accidentally created by using different European languages for those of peoples in his legendarium.{{sfn|Shippey|2005|pp=131–133}}]]

The hobbits of the Shire spoke Middle-earth's [[Westron|Westron or Common Speech]]. Tolkien however rendered their language as [[English language|modern English]] in ''The Hobbit'' and in ''Lord of the Rings'', just as he had used [[Old Norse]] names for the Dwarves. To resolve this linguistic puzzle, he created the [[Pseudotranslation in The Lord of the Rings|fiction that the languages of parts of Middle-earth were "translated"]] into different European languages, inventing the language of the Riders of [[Rohan (Middle-earth)|Rohan]], [[Rohirric]], to be "translated" again as the [[Mercia]]n dialect of [[Old English language|Old English]] which he knew well.{{sfn|Shippey|2005|pp=131–133}}<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955|loc=Appendix F, On Translation}}</ref> This set up a relationship something like ancestry between Rohan and the Shire.{{sfn|Shippey|2005|pp=131–133}}

=== Government === {{anchor|Mayor}}

The Shire had little in the way of government. The Mayor of the Shire's chief township, Michel Delving, was the chief official and was treated in practice as the Mayor of the Shire.<ref name="Prologue">''[[The Fellowship of the Ring]]'', "Prologue", "Of the Ordering of the Shire"</ref> There was a ''Message Service'' for post, and the 12 "[[Sheriff|Shirriffs]]" (three for each Farthing) of the ''Watch'' for police; their chief duties were rounding up stray livestock. These were supplemented by a varying number of "Bounders",{{efn|"Bounder" here means a person who guards a boundary. The term is a pun; in Tolkien's time it also meant a dishonourable fellow.<ref>{{cite web |title=bounder |url=https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/bounder |publisher=Cambridge Dictionary |access-date=13 September 2021}}</ref>}} an unofficial border force. At the time of ''The Lord of the Rings'', there were many more Bounders than usual, one of the few signs for the hobbits of that troubled time. The heads of major families exerted authority over their own areas.{{sfn|Stanton|2013|pp=607–608}}

{{anchor|Master of Buckland}} The Master of Buckland, hereditary head of the Brandybuck clan, ruled Buckland and had some authority over the Marish, just across the Brandywine River.{{sfn|Stanton|2013|pp=607–608}}

Similarly, the head of the Took clan, often called "The Took", ruled the ancestral Took dwelling of Great Smials, the village of Tuckborough, and the area of ''The Tookland''.{{sfn|Stanton|2013|pp=607–608}} He held the largely ceremonial office of Thain of the Shire.<ref name="Prologue"/>

=== Calendar ===

{{see also|Númenor#Calendar}}

Tolkien devised the "Shire calendar" or "Shire Reckoning" supposedly used by the Shire's hobbits on [[Bede]]'s medieval calendar. In his fiction, it was created in [[Rhovanion]] hundreds of years before the Shire was founded. When hobbits migrated into Eriador, they took up the Kings' Reckoning, but maintained their old names of the months. In the "King's Reckoning", the year began on the [[winter solstice]]. After migrating further to the Shire, the hobbits created the "Shire Reckoning", in which Year 1 corresponded to the foundation of the Shire in the year 1601 of the Third Age by Marcho and Blanco.{{sfn|Stanton|2013|pp=607–608}}<ref name="Appendix D" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955|loc="Appendix D: Calendars"}}</ref> The Shire's calendar year has 12 months, each of 30 days. Five non-month days are added to create a 365-day year. The two ''Yuledays'' signify the turn of the year, so each year begins on 2 Yule. The ''Lithedays'' are the three non-month days at midsummer, 1 Lithe, Mid-year's Day, and 2 Lithe. In [[leap year]]s (every fourth year except centennial years) an ''Overlithe'' day is added after Mid-year's Day. There are seven days in the Shire week. The first day of the week is ''Sterday'' and the last is ''Highday''. The Mid-year's Day and, when present, ''Overlithe'' have no weekday assignments. This causes every day to have the same weekday designation from year to year, instead of changing as in the [[Gregorian calendar]].<ref name="Appendix D" group=T/>

For the names of the months, Tolkien reconstructed [[Early Germanic calendars#Month names|Anglo-Saxon names]], his take on what the English would be if it had not adopted [[Latin]] names for the months such as January and March. In ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings'', the names of months and week-days are given in modern equivalents, so ''Afteryule'' is called "January" and ''Sterday'' is called "Saturday".<ref name="Appendix D" group=T/>

{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" style="margin:1em auto;" ! Month<br/>number ! Shire<br/>Reckoning ! Bede's [[Early Germanic calendar#Medieval|Anglo-<br/>Saxon calendar]]<ref name="Stenton">Frank Merry Stenton, ''Anglo-Saxon England'', Oxford University Press, 1971, [https://books.google.com/books?id=IlTRMBAll7gC&pg=PA97 97f.]; M. P. Nilsson, ''Primitive Time-Reckoning. A Study in the Origins and Development of the Art of Counting Time among the Primitive and Early Culture Peoples'', Lund, 1920; c.f. Stephanie Hollis, Michael Wright, ''Old English Prose of Secular Learning'', Annotated Bibliographies of Old and Middle English literature vol. 4, Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 1992, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Jsat7SRTmxAC&pg=PA194 p. 194].</ref> ! Meaning<ref name="Beade Willis 1999">{{cite book |author=Bede, [the venerable] |author-link=The Venerable Bede |year=1999 |title=Bede: The Reckoning of Time |section=Chapter 15 – The English months |editor=Willis, Faith |publisher=Liverpool University Press |pages=53–54 |quote=translated with introduction, notes, and commentary by Faith Willis}}</ref> ! Approximate <br/>[[Gregorian calendar|Gregorian]] dates |- | |''2 [[Yule]]'' | |22 December |- |1 |''Afteryule'' |{{lang|ang|Æfterra Gēola}} | After Christmas |23 December to 21 January |- |2 |''Solmath'' |{{lang|ang|Sol-[[Month|mōnaþ]]}} | [Offering of] Cakes month |22 January to 20 February |- |3 |''Rethe'' |{{lang|ang|Hrēþ-mōnaþ}} | The goddess [[Hretha]]'s month |21 February to 22 March |- |4 |''Astron'' |{{lang|ang|[[Easter]]-mōnaþ}} | Easter month |23 March to 21 April |- |5 |''Thrimidge'' |{{lang|ang|Þrimilce-mōnaþ}} | Thrice-milking month |22 April to 21 May |- |6 |''Forelithe'' |{{lang|ang|[[Ǣrra-Līða]]}} | Before the Solstice |22 May to 20 June |- | |''1 Lithe'' | |21 June |- | |''Mid-year's Day'' | |22 June |- | |''Overlithe'' | |Leap day |- | |''2 Lithe'' | |23 June |- |7 |''Afterlithe'' |{{lang|ang|Æftera Līþa}} | After the Solstice |24 June to 23 July |- |8 |''Wedmath'' |{{lang|ang|Weod-mōnaþ}} | Weed Month |24 July to 22 August |- |9 |''Halimath'' |{{lang|ang|Hālig-mōnaþ}} | Holy [Rites] Month |23 August to 21 September |- |10 |''Winterfilth'' |{{lang|ang|[[Winterfylleth]]}} | Winter Fulfilment |22 September to 21 October |- |11 |''Blotmath'' | {{lang|ang|Blōt-mōnaþ}} | Blood Month{{efn|i.e. slaughtering of livestock, or Sacrificial Month (cf. Old Norse ''[[blót]]''}} |22 October to 20 November |- |12 |''Foreyule'' |{{lang|ang|Ærra Gēola}} | Before Christmas |21 November to 20 December |- | |''1 Yule'' | |21 December |- |}

== Inspiration ==

{{anchor|England}} {{further|England in Middle-earth}}

=== A calque upon England ===

Shippey writes that not only is the Shire [[England in Middle-earth|reminiscent of England]]: Tolkien carefully constructed the Shire as an element-by-element [[calque]] upon England.{{sfn|Shippey|2005|pp=115–118}}{{efn|For another of Tolkien's calques analysed by Shippey,{{sfn|Shippey|2005|pp=267–268}} see [[The Silmarillion#Themes|''The Silmarillion'' § Themes]].}}

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:1em auto;" |+ [[Tom Shippey]]'s analysis of Tolkien's [[calque]] of the Shire upon [[England]]{{sfn|Shippey|2005|pp=115–118}} |- ! scope="col" style="width: 150px" | Element ! scope="col" style="width: 300px" | The Shire ! scope="col" style="width: 300px" | England |- | '''Origin of people''' || The Angle between the Rivers Hoarwell (''Mitheithel'')<!--redirects here--> and the Loudwater (''Bruinen'')<!--redirects here--> from the East (across [[Eriador]]) [[File:Hobbit origins map.svg|frameless|upright=1.5|center]] || The Angle between [[Flensburg Fjord]] and the [[Schlei]], from the East (across the [[North Sea]]), hence the name "England" [[File:Anglo-Saxon Homelands and Settlements.svg|frameless|upright=1.2|center]] |- | '''Original three tribes''' || Stoors, Harfoots, Fallohides || [[Angles (tribe)|Angles]], [[Saxons]], [[Jutes]]{{efn|Shippey comments that both nations have forgotten their origins.{{sfn|Shippey|2005|pp=115–118}} }} |- | '''Legendary&nbsp;founders<br/>named "horse"'''{{efn|[[Old English]]: ''hengest'', [[stallion]]; ''hors'', horse; *''marh'', horse, cf "[[mare]]"; ''blanca'', white horse in ''[[Beowulf]]''{{sfn|Shippey|2005|pp=115–118}}}} || Marcho and Blanco || [[Hengest and Horsa]] |- | '''Length of civil peace''' || 272 years from Battle of Greenfields to Battle of Bywater || 270 years from [[Battle of Sedgemoor]] to ''Lord of the Rings'' |- | '''Organisation''' || Mayors, moots, Shirriffs || Like "an old-fashioned and idealised England" |- | '''Surnames''' || e.g. Banks, Boffin, Bolger, Bracegirdle, [[Merry Brandybuck|Brandybuck]], Brockhouse, Chubb, Cotton, Fairbairns, Grubb, Hayward, Hornblower, Noakes, Proudfoot, [[Pippin Took|Took]], Underhill, Whitfoot || All are real English surnames. Tolkien comments e.g. that 'Bracegirdle' is "used in the text, of course, with reference to the hobbit tendency to be fat and so to strain their belts".<ref group=T>[[J. R. R. Tolkien|Tolkien, J. R. R.]] (1967) "[[Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings]]". Available in ''[[A Tolkien Compass]]'' (1975) and in ''[[The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion]]'' (2005), and online at [https://www.academia.edu/24880950/Guide_to_the_Names_in_The_Lord_of_the_Rings_Nomenclature_of_The_Lord_of_the_Rings Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings] on Academia.edu.</ref> |- | '''Place-names''' || e.g. "Nobottle"<br/>e.g. "Buckland" || [[Nobottle|Nobottle, Northamptonshire]]<br/> [[Buckland, Oxfordshire]] |}

[[File:Tardebigge Engine House.jpg|thumb|Industrial buildings by the [[Worcester and Birmingham Canal]] near [[Tardebigge]], Worcestershire]]

There are other connections; Tolkien equated the latitude of Hobbiton with that of [[Oxford]] (i.e., around 52° N).<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=''Letters'' #294 to C. & D. Plimmer, 8 February 1967 }}</ref> The Shire corresponds roughly to the [[West Midlands (region)|West Midlands region]] of England in the remote past, extending to [[Warwickshire]] and [[Worcestershire]] (where Tolkien grew up),<ref>{{Cite web |date=26 November 1964 |title=1964 BBC Interview. Interview with JRR Tolkien conducted by Denys Gueroult. |url=https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/1964_BBC_Interview |website=[[Tolkien Gateway]] |quote=To have just at the age when imagination is opening out, suddenly find yourself in a quiet Warwickshire village, I think it engenders a particular love of what you might call central Midlands English countryside.}}</ref><ref name="Lyons 2017" /> forming in Shippey's words a "cultural unit with deep roots in history".<ref>[[Tom Shippey|Shippey, Tom]]. ''Tolkien and the West Midlands: The Roots of Romance'', Lembas Extra (1995), reprinted in ''Roots and Branches'', Walking Tree (2007); [http://maps.google.de/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=de&om=1&msa=0&msid=108471754903242205397.00000112a38e113bc84bd&ll=52.48947,-2.164307&spn=1.488421,3.36731&t=k&z=8 map]</ref> The name of the [[Northamptonshire]] village of [[Farthinghoe]] triggered the idea of dividing the Shire into Farthings.{{sfn|Shippey|2005|p=114}} Tolkien said that pipe-weed "flourishes only in warm sheltered places like Longbottom;"<ref name="Prologue" group=T/> in the seventeenth century, the Evesham area of Worcestershire was well known for its tobacco.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hooker |first=Mark T. |date=2009 |title=The Hobbitonian Anthology |publisher=Llyfrawr |page=92 |isbn=978-1448617012}}</ref>

{{anchor|Homely names|Homeliness|Pubs}} {{anchor|Bagshot Row|Green Dragon|Ivy Bush|Golden Perch|Michel Delving}}

=== Homely names ===

Tolkien made the Shire feel home<!--British English-->ly and English in a variety of ways, from names such as Bagshot Row{{efn|[[Bagshot]] is a village in [[Surrey]], and sounds as if it is connected to Baggins and Bag End.}} and the Mill to country pubs with familiar names such as "The Green Dragon" in Bywater,{{efn|There was a ''Green Dragon'' pub in [[St Aldate's, Oxford|St Aldate's]] in Oxford in Tolkien's time.<ref>{{cite book |last=Garth |first=John |author-link=John Garth (author) |title=Tolkien's Worlds: The Places That Inspired the Writer's Imagination |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JMjgDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA20 |year=2020 |publisher=Quarto Publishing |isbn=978-0-7112-4127-5 |page=20}}</ref>}} "The Ivy Bush" near Hobbiton on the Bywater Road,{{efn|There is an Ivy Bush pub on the [[A456 road|Hagley Road]] near where Tolkien lived in Birmingham.<ref name="BCT">{{cite web |title=Tolkien-Themed Walk – 1st March 2015 |url=http://www.birminghamconservationtrust.org/2015/02/19/tolkien-themed-walk-1st-march-2015/ |publisher=Birmingham Conservation Trust |access-date=23 March 2020 |date=13 February 2015 |quote=We pass the Ivy Bush where old Ham Gamgee held court}}</ref>}} and "The Golden Perch" in {{Visible anchor|Stock}}, famous for its fine beer.<ref name="Duriez 1992 p121">{{cite book |last=Duriez |first=Colin |author-link=Colin Duriez |title=The J.R.R. Tolkien Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide to His Life, Writings, and World of Middle-earth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QsjyAAAAMAAJ |year=1992 |publisher=Baker Book House |isbn=978-0-8010-3014-7 |pages=121ff}}</ref><ref name="Tyler 1976 p201">{{cite book |last=Tyler |first=J. E. A. |author-link=Tony Tyler |title=The Tolkien Companion |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=04tbAAAAMAAJ |year=1976 |publisher=Macmillan |page=201|isbn=9780333196335 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Rateliff |first=John D. |author-link=John D. Rateliff |title=A Kind of Elvish Craft': Tolkien as Literary Craftsman |journal=Tolkien Studies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1DlAAQAAIAAJ |year=2009 |volume=6 |pages=11ff |publisher=West Virginia University Press|doi=10.1353/tks.0.0048 |s2cid=170947885 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Michael Stanton comments in the ''[[J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia]]'' that the Shire is based partly on Tolkien's childhood at [[Sarehole]], partly on English village life in general with, in Tolkien's words, "gardens, trees, and unmechanized farmland".{{sfn|Stanton|2013|pp=607–608}}<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=''Letters'' #213 to Deborah Webster, 25 October 1958 }}</ref> The Shire's largest town, Michel Delving, embodies a philological [[pun]]: the name sounds much like that of an [[Micheldever|English country town]], but means "Much Digging" of hobbit-holes, from [[Old English]] ''micel'', "great" and ''delfan'', "to dig".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hammond |first1=Wayne G. |author1-link=Wayne G. Hammond |last2=Scull |first2=Christina |author2-link=Christina Scull |title=The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion |title-link=The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion |publisher=HarperCollins | year=2005 |isbn=978-0-00-720907-1 |page=26}}</ref>

=== Childhood experience ===

The industrialization of the Shire was based on Tolkien's childhood experience of the blighting of the Worcestershire and Warwickshire countryside by the spread of [[Industrial Revolution|heavy industry]] as the city of [[Birmingham]] grew.<ref name="Lyons 2017">{{cite web |last=Lyons |first=Matthew |title=Find the inspiration for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit in the British countryside |date=22 September 2017 |url=https://www.countryfile.com/go-outdoors/find-the-inspiration-for-the-lord-of-the-rings-and-the-the-hobbit-in-the-british-countryside |access-date=22 October 2023 |website=[[BBC]] Countryfile |quote=If the Hobbit holes are in Gloucestershire, the spiritual home of the Shire is to the north-east, in the Warwickshire countryside of Tolkien's childhood as the 19th century folded into the 20th. Tolkien located it specifically in 1897, the year of Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, when he was just five.}}</ref><ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}}, "Foreword to the Second Edition"</ref> The Tolkien family's relocation from [[Sarehole]] to [[Moseley and Kings Heath (ward)|Moseley and Kings Heath]] in 1901, and then again to [[Edgbaston]] in 1902, moved them steadily closer to the industry of central Birmingham.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Timeline - Early Life |url=https://www.tolkiensociety.org/discover/timeline/ |website=The Tolkien Society}}</ref> [[Humphrey Carpenter]] comments in ''[[J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography]]'' that the views of Moseley were a sad contrast to the Warwickshire countryside of his youth.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tolkien Bibliography: 1977 - Humphrey Carpenter - J.R.R. Tolkien: a biography |url=http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/booksabouttolkien/biography/description.htm |access-date=1 November 2016 |publisher=The Tolkien Library |page=25 |quote=Meanwhile, home life was very different from what he had known at Sarehole. His mother had rented a small house on the main road in the suburb of Moseley, and the view from the windows was a sad contrast to the Warwickshire countryside.}}</ref><blockquote>"To have just at the age when imagination is opening out, suddenly find yourself in a quiet Warwickshire village, I think it engenders a particular love of what you might call central Midlands English countryside."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Drew |first=Bernard A |url=https://archive.org/details/100mostpopularge0000drew |title=100 Most Popular Genre Fiction Authors - Biographical Sketches and Bibliographies |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |year=2005 |pages=558}}</ref> – J. R. R. Tolkien, BBC interview with Denys Gueroult, 1964</blockquote>"[[The Scouring of the Shire]]", involving a rebellion of the hobbits and the restoration of the pre-industrial Shire, can be read as containing an element of wish-fulfilment on his part, complete with Merry's magic horn to rouse the inhabitants to action.{{sfn|Shippey|2005|pp=198–199}}

== Adaptations ==

=== Film ===

The Shire makes an appearance in both the [[The Hobbit (1977 film)|1977 ''The Hobbit'']]<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gilkeson |first1=Austin |title=1977's The Hobbit Showed Us the Future of Pop Culture |url=https://www.tor.com/2018/09/17/1977s-the-hobbit-showed-us-the-future-of-pop-culture/ |publisher=TOR |date=17 September 2018 |access-date=12 April 2020}}</ref> and the [[The Lord of the Rings (1978 film)|1978 ''The Lord of the Rings'']] animated films.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Langford |first=Barry |editor-last=Drout |editor-first=Michael D. C. |editor-link=Michael D. C. Drout |title=Bakshi, Ralph (1938-) |encyclopedia=[[J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia|J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment]] |year=2013 |orig-year=2007 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0-415-86511-1 |pages=47–49}}</ref>

In [[Peter Jackson]]'s [[The Lord of the Rings (film series)|''The Lord of the Rings'' motion picture trilogy]], the Shire appeared in both ''[[The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring|The Fellowship of the Ring]]'' and ''[[The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King|The Return of the King]]''. The Shire scenes were shot at a location near [[Matamata, New Zealand]]. Following the shooting, the area was returned to its natural state, but even without the set from the movie the area became [[Hobbiton Movie Set|a prime tourist location]]. Because of bad weather, 18 of 37 hobbit-holes could not immediately be bulldozed; before work could restart, they were attracting over 12,000 tourists per year to Ian Alexander's farm, where Hobbiton and Bag End had been situated.<ref name="LA Times 2003">{{cite news |last=Huffstutter |first=P. J. |title=Not Just a Tolkien Amount |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-oct-24-fi-frodoecon24-story.html |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=24 October 2003}}</ref><!--for analysis of the film treatment of Bree, see [[Bree (Middle-earth)]]-->

Jackson revisited the Shire for his films ''[[The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey]]'' and ''[[The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies]]''. The Shire scenes were shot at the same location.<ref>{{cite news |last=Bray |first=Adam|title=Hanging out in Hobbiton |url=http://travel.cnn.com/explorations/life/hanging-out-hobbiton-539076 |access-date=20 November 2013 |newspaper=CNN |date=21 May 2012}}</ref>

=== Games ===

In the 2006 [[Real-time strategy|real-time strategy game]] ''[[The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth II]]'', the Shire appears as both a level in the evil campaign where the player invades in control of a goblin army, and as a map in the game's multiplayer skirmish mode.<ref>{{cite web |last=Ocampo |first=Jason |title=Review The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II Review |url=https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/the-lord-of-the-rings-the-battle-for-middle-earth-/1900-6145313/ |date=2 March 2006 |access-date=12 April 2020}}</ref>

In the 2007 [[MMORPG]] ''[[The Lord of the Rings Online]]'', the Shire appears almost in its entirety as one of the major regions of the game. The Shire is inhabited by hundreds of [[non-player character]]s, and the player can get involved in hundreds of quests. The only portions of the original map by Christopher Tolkien that are missing from the game are some parts of the West Farthing and the majority of the South Farthing. A portion of the North Farthing also falls within the in-game region of Evendim for game play purposes.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Lord of the Rings Online Vault: The Shire |url=http://lotrovault.ign.com/View.php?view=Maps.Detail&id=14 |publisher=IGN |access-date=12 April 2020}}</ref>

In the 2009 [[action game]] ''[[The Lord of the Rings: Conquest]]'', the Shire appears as one of the game's battlegrounds during the evil campaign, where it is razed by the forces of [[Mordor]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Wolfe |first1=Adam |title=Trophy Guide – The Lord of the Rings: Conquest |website=Playstation Lifestyle |url=https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2009/02/06/trophy-guide-the-lord-of-the-rings-conquest/ |date=6 February 2009 |access-date=12 April 2020}}</ref>

Games Workshop produced a supplement in 2004 for ''The Lord of the Rings'' Strategy Battle Game entitled ''The Scouring of the Shire''. This supplement contained rules for a large number of miniatures that depicted the Shire after the War of the Ring had concluded.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Scouring of the Shire|url=http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?setLocale=en_US&prodId=prod1140200 |publisher=Games Workshop |access-date=12 April 2020}}</ref>

== Notes ==

{{notelist}}

== References ==

=== Primary ===

{{reflist|group=T}}

=== Secondary ===

{{reflist}}

== Sources ==

{{Commons category|The Shire}}

* {{ME-ref|Letters}} * {{ME-ref|ROAD}} * {{cite encyclopedia |last=Stanton |first=Michael N. |editor-last=Drout |editor-first=Michael D. C. |editor-link=Michael D. C. Drout |title=Shire, The |encyclopedia=[[The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia|The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment]] |year=2013 |orig-year=2007 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0415865111 |pages=607–608 }} * {{cite book |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |editor-last=Lobdell |editor-first=Jared |editor-link=Jared Lobdell |chapter=[[Guide to the names in The Lord of the Rings|Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings]] |title=[[A Tolkien Compass]] |date=1975 |publisher=[[Open Court Publishing Company|Open Court]] |isbn=978-0-8754-8303-0 }} * {{ME-ref|FOTR}} <!--Tolkien 1954a--> * {{ME-ref|ROTK}} <!--Tolkien 1955--> * {{ME-ref|ROTS}} <!--Tolkien 1988-->

{{Hobbit}} {{The Lord of the Rings}} {{Middle-earth}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shire (Middle-earth)}} [[Category:Shire (Middle-earth)| ]]

[[de:Regionen und Orte in Tolkiens Welt#Auenland]] [[lb:Länner a Stied aus Middle-earth#The Shire]]