Tolkien, J R R - 1- The fellowship of the ring

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J. R. R. Tolkien — The Lord Of The Rings. (1/4)
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THE LORD OF THE RINGS
by
J. R. R. TOLKIEN
Part 1: The Fellowship of the Ring
Part 2: The Two Towers
Part 3: The Return of the King
_Complete with Index and Full Appendices_
_Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie._
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
PROLOGUE
1. Concerning Hobbits
2. Concerning Pipe-weed
3. Of the Ordering of the Shire
4. Of the Finding of the Ring
Note on the Shire records
THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING
Book I
Chapter 1 A Long-expected Party
Chapter 2 The Shadow of the Past
Chapter 3 Three is Company
Chapter 4 A Short Cut to Mushrooms
Chapter 5 A Conspiracy Unmasked
Chapter 6 The Old Forest
Chapter 7 In the House of Tom Bombadil
Chapter 8 Fog on the Barrow-Downs
Chapter 9 At the Sign of The Prancing Pony
Chapter 10 Strider
Chapter 11 A Knife in the Dark
Chapter 12 Flight to the Ford
Book II
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Chapter 1 Many Meetings
Chapter 2 The Council of Elrond
Chapter 3 The Ring Goes South
Chapter 4 A Journey in the Dark
Chapter 5 The Bridge of Khazad-dûm
Chapter 6 Lothlórien
Chapter 7 The Mirror of Galadriel
Chapter 8 Farewell to Lórien
Chapter 9 The Great River
Chapter 10 The Breaking of the Fellowship
THE TWO TOWERS
Book III
Chapter 1 The Departure of Boromir
Chapter 2 The Riders of Rohan
Chapter 3 The Uruk-Hai
Chapter 4 Treebeard
Chapter 5 The White Rider
Chapter 6 The King of the Golden Hall
Chapter 7 Helm's Deep
Chapter 8 The Road to Isengard
Chapter 9 Flotsam and Jetsam
Chapter 10 The Voice of Saruman
Chapter 11 The Palantýr
Book IV
Chapter 1 The Taming of Sméagol
Chapter 2 The Passage of the Marshes
Chapter 3 The Black Gate is Closed
Chapter 4 Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit
Chapter 5 The Window on the West
Chapter 6 The Forbidden Pool
Chapter 7 Journey to the Cross-roads
Chapter 8 The Stairs of Cirith Ungol
Chapter 9 Shelob's Lair
Chapter 10 The Choices of Master Samwise
THE RETURN OF THE KING
Book V
Chapter 1 Minas Tirith
Chapter 2 The Passing of the Grey Company
Chapter 3 The Muster of Rohan
Chapter 4 The Siege of Gondor
Chapter 5 The Ride of the Rohirrim
Chapter 6 The Battle of the Pelennor Fields
Chapter 7 The Pyre of Denethor
Chapter 8 The Houses of Healing
Chapter 9 The Last Debate
Chapter 10 The Black Gate Opens
Book VI
Chapter 1 The Tower of Cirith Ungol
Chapter 2 The Land of Shadow
Chapter 3 Mount Doom
Chapter 4 The Field of Cormallen
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Chapter 5 The Steward and the King
Chapter 6 Many Partings
Chapter 7 Homeward Bound
Chapter 8 The Scouring of the Shire
Chapter 9 The Grey Havens
APPENDICES
A ANNALS OF THE KINGS AND RULERS
I The Númenorean Kings
(I) Númenor
(II) The Realms In Exile
(III) Eriador, Arnor, and The Heirs Of Isildur
(IV) Gondor and The Heirs Of Anñrion
(V) Here Follows a Part of The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen
II THE HOUSE OF EORL
III DURIN'S FOLK
Here follows one of the last notes in the Red Book
B THE TALE OF YEARS (CHRONOLOGY OF THE WESTLANDS)
The Second Age
The Third Age
C FAMILY TREES
D CALENDARS
SHIRE CALENDAR FOR USE IN ALL YEARS
THE CALENDARS
E WRITING AND SPELLING
I Pronunciation of Words and Names
II Writing
F
I The Languages and Peoples of The Third Age
II On Translation
INDEXES
I Songs and Verses
II Persons, Beasts and Monsters
III Places
IV Things
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FOREWORD
This tale grew in the telling, until it became a history of the Great War of the Ring and included
many glimpses of the yet more ancient history that preceded it. It was begun soon after _The
Hobbit_ was written and before its publication in 1937; but I did not go on with this sequel, for
I wished first to complete and set in order the mythology and legends of the Elder Days, which had
then been taking shape for some years. I desired to do this for my own satisfaction, and I had
little hope that other people would be interested in this work, especially since it was primarily
linguistic in inspiration and was begun in order to provide the necessary background of 'history'
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for Elvish tongues.
When those whose advice and opinion I sought corrected _little hope_ to _no hope,_ I went
back to the sequel, encouraged by requests from readers for more information concerning hobbits
and their adventures. But the story was drawn irresistibly towards the older world, and became an
account, as it were, of its end and passing away before its beginning and middle had been told.
The process had begun in the writing of _The Hobbit,_ in which there were already some references
to the older matter: Elrond, Gondolin, the High-elves, and the orcs, as well as glimpses that had
arisen unbidden of things higher or deeper or darker than its surface: Durin, Moria, Gandalf, the
Necromancer, the Ring. The discovery of the significance of these glimpses and of their relation
to the ancient histories revealed the Third Age and its culmination in the War of the Ring.
Those who had asked for more information about hobbits eventually got it, but they had to
wait a long time; for the composition of _The Lord of the Rings_ went on at intervals during the
years 1936 to 1949, a period in which I had many duties that I did not neglect, and many other
interests as a learner and teacher that often absorbed me. The delay was, of course, also
increased by the outbreak of war in 1939, by the end of which year the tale had not yet reached
the end of Book One. In spite of the darkness of the next five years I found that the story could
not now be wholly abandoned, and I plodded on, mostly by night, till I stood by Balin's tomb in
Moria. There I halted for a long while. It was almost a year later when I went on and so came to
Lothlórien and the Great River late in 1941. In the next year I wrote the first drafts of the
matter that now stands as Book Three, and the beginnings of chapters I and III of Book Five; and
there as the beacons flared in Anórien and Théoden came to Harrowdale I stopped. Foresight had
failed and there was no time for thought.
It was during 1944 that, leaving the loose ends and perplexities of a war which it was my
task to conduct, or at least to report, 1 forced myself to tackle the journey of Frodo to Mordor.
These chapters, eventually to become Book Four, were written and sent out as a serial to my son,
Christopher, then in South Africa with the RAF. Nonetheless it took another five years before the
tale was brought to its present end; in that time I changed my house, my chair, and my college,
and the days though less dark were no less laborious. Then when the 'end' had at last been reached
the whole story had to be revised, and indeed largely re-written backwards. And it had to be
typed, and re-typed: by me; the cost of professional typing by the ten-fingered was beyond my
means.
_The Lord of the Rings_ has been read by many people since it finally appeared in print; and
I should like to say something here with reference to the many opinions or guesses that I have
received or have read concerning the motives and meaning of the tale. The prime motive was the
desire of a tale-teller to try his hand at a really long story that would hold the attention of
readers, amuse them, delight them, and at times maybe excite them or deeply move them. As a guide
I had only my own feelings for what is appealing or moving, and for many the guide was inevitably
often at fault. Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it
boring, absurd, or contemptible; and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of
their works, or of the kinds of writing that they evidently prefer. But even from the points of
view of many who have enjoyed my story there is much that fails to please. It is perhaps not
possible in a long tale to please everybody at all points, nor to displease everybody at the same
points; for I find from the letters that I have received that the passages or chapters that are to
some a blemish are all by others specially approved. The most critical reader of all, myself, now
finds many defects, minor and major, but being fortunately under no obligation either to review
the book or to write it again, he will pass over these in silence, except one that has been noted
by others: the book is too short.
As for any inner meaning or 'message', it has in the intention of the author none. It is
neither allegorical nor topical. As the story grew it put down roots (into the past) and threw out
unexpected branches: but its main theme was settled from the outset by the inevitable choice of
the Ring as the link between it and _The Hobbit._ The crucial chapter, "The Shadow of the Past',
is one of the oldest parts of the tale. It was written long before the foreshadow of 1939 had yet
become a threat of inevitable disaster, and from that point the story would have developed along
essentially the same lines, if that disaster had been averted. Its sources are things long before
in mind, or in some cases already written, and little or nothing in it was modified by the war
that began in 1939 or its sequels.
The real war does not resemble the legendary war in its process or its conclusion. If it had
inspired or directed the development of the legend, then certainly the Ring would have been seized
and used against Sauron; he would not have been annihilated but enslaved, and Barad-dûr would not
have been destroyed but occupied. Saruman, failing to get possession of the Ring, would m the
confusion and treacheries of the time have found in Mordor the missing links in his own researches
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into Ring-lore, and before long he would have made a Great Ring of his own with which to challenge
the self-styled Ruler of Middle-earth. In that conflict both sides would have held hobbits in
hatred and contempt: they would not long have survived even as slaves.
Other arrangements could be devised according to the tastes or views of those who like
allegory or topical reference. But I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and
always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer
history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers.
I think that many confuse 'applicability' with 'allegory'; but the one resides in the freedom of
the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.
An author cannot of course remain wholly unaffected by his experience, but the ways in which
a story-germ uses the soil of experience are extremely complex, and attempts to define the process
are at best guesses from evidence that is inadequate and ambiguous. It is also false, though
naturally attractive, when the lives of an author and critic have overlapped, to suppose that the
movements of thought or the events of times common to both were necessarily the most powerful
influences. One has indeed personally to come under the shadow of war to feel fully its
oppression; but as the years go by it seems now often forgotten that to be caught in youth by 1914
was no less hideous an experience than to be involved in 1939 and the following years. By 1918 all
but one of my close friends were dead. Or to take a less grievous matter: it has been supposed by
some that 'The Scouring of the Shire' reflects the situation in England at the time when I was
finishing my tale. It does not. It is an essential part of the plot, foreseen from the outset,
though in the event modified by the character of Saruman as developed in the story without, need I
say, any allegorical significance or contemporary political reference whatsoever. It has indeed
some basis in experience, though slender (for the economic situation was entirely different), and
much further back. The country in which I lived in childhood was being shabbily destroyed before I
was ten, in days when motor-cars were rare objects (I had never seen one) and men were still
building suburban railways. Recently I saw in a paper a picture of the last decrepitude of the
once thriving corn-mill beside its pool that long ago seemed to me so important. I never liked the
looks of the Young miller, but his father, the Old miller, had a black beard, and he was not named
Sandyman.
_The Lord of the Rings_ is now issued in a new edition, and the opportunity has been taken of
revising it. A number of errors and inconsistencies that still remained in the text have been
corrected, and an attempt has been made to provide information on a few points which attentive
readers have raised. I have considered all their comments and enquiries, and if some seem to have
been passed over that may be because I have failed to keep my notes in order; but many enquiries
could only be answered by additional appendices, or indeed by the production of an accessory
volume containing much of the material that I did not include in the original edition, in
particular more detailed linguistic information. In the meantime this edition offers this
Foreword, an addition to the Prologue, some notes, and an index of the names of persons and
places. This index is in intention complete in items but not in references, since for the present
purpose it has been necessary to reduce its bulk. A complete index, making full use of the
material prepared for me by Mrs. N. Smith, belongs rather to the accessory volume.
PROLOGUE
This book is largely concerned with Hobbits, and from its pages a reader may discover much of
their character and a little of their history. Further information will also be found in the
selection from the Red Book of Westmarch that has already been published, under the title of _The
Hobbit_. That story was derived from the earlier chapters of the Red Book, composed by Bilbo
himself, the first Hobbit to become famous in the world at large, and called by him _There and
Back Again,_ since they told of his journey into the East and his return: an adventure which later
involved all the Hobbits in the great events of that Age that are here related.
Many, however, may wish to know more about this remarkable people from the outset, while some
may not possess the earlier book. For such readers a few notes on the more important points are
here collected from Hobbit-lore, and the first adventure is briefly recalled.
Hobbits are an unobtrusive but very ancient people, more numerous formerly than they are
today; for they love peace and quiet and good tilled earth: a well-ordered and well-farmed
countryside was their favourite haunt. They do not and did not understand or like machines more
complicated than a forge-bellows, a water-mill, or a hand-loom, though they were skilful with
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tools. Even in ancient days they were, as a rule, shy of 'the Big Folk', as they call us, and now
they avoid us with dismay and are becoming hard to find. They are quick of hearing and sharp-eyed,
and though they are inclined to be fat and do not hurry unnecessarily, they are nonetheless nimble
and deft in their movements. They possessed from the first the art of disappearing swiftly and
silently, when large folk whom they do not wish to meet come blundering by; and this an they have
developed until to Men it may seem magical. But Hobbits have never, in fact, studied magic of any
kind, and their elusiveness is due solely to a professional skill that heredity and practice, and
a close friendship with the earth, have rendered inimitable by bigger and clumsier races.
For they are a little people, smaller than Dwarves: less tout and stocky, that is, even when
they are not actually much shorter. Their height is variable, ranging between two and four feet of
our measure. They seldom now reach three feet; but they hive dwindled, they say, and in ancient
days they were taller. According to the Red Book, Bandobras Took (Bullroarer), son of Isengrim the
Second, was four foot five and able to ride a horse. He was surpassed in all Hobbit records only
by two famous characters of old; but that curious matter is dealt with in this book.
As for the Hobbits of the Shire, with whom these tales are concerned, in the days of their
peace and prosperity they were a merry folk. They dressed in bright colours, being notably fond of
yellow and green; but they seldom wore shoes, since their feet had tough leathery soles and were
clad in a thick curling hair, much like the hair of their heads, which was commonly brown. Thus,
the only craft little practised among them was shoe-making; but they had long and skilful fingers
and could make many other useful and comely things. Their faces were as a rule good-natured rather
than beautiful, broad, bright-eyed, red-cheeked, with mouths apt to laughter, and to eating and
drinking. And laugh they did, and eat, and drink, often and heartily, being fond of simple jests
at all times, and of six meals a day (when they could get them). They were hospitable and
delighted in parties, and in presents, which they gave away freely and eagerly accepted.
It is plain indeed that in spite of later estrangement Hobbits are relatives of ours: far
nearer to us than Elves, or even than Dwarves. Of old they spoke the languages of Men, after their
own fashion, and liked and disliked much the same things as Men did. But what exactly our
relationship is can no longer be discovered. The beginning of Hobbits lies far back in the Elder
Days that are now lost and forgotten. Only the Elves still preserve any records of that vanished
time, and their traditions are concerned almost entirely with their own history, in which Men
appear seldom and Hobbits are not mentioned at all. Yet it is clear that Hobbits had, in fact,
lived quietly in Middle-earth for many long years before other folk became even aware of them. And
the world being after all full of strange creatures beyond count, these little people seemed of
very little importance. But in the days of Bilbo, and of Frodo his heir, they suddenly became, by
no wish of their own, both important and renowned, and troubled the counsels of the Wise and the
Great.
Those days, the Third Age of Middle-earth, are now long past, and the shape of all lands has
been changed; but the regions in which Hobbits then lived were doubtless the same as those in
which they still linger: the North-West of the Old World, east of the Sea. Of their original home
the Hobbits in Bilbo's time preserved no knowledge. A love of learning (other than genealogical
lore) was far from general among them, but there remained still a few in the older families who
studied their own books, and even gathered reports of old times and distant lands from Elves,
Dwarves, and Men. Their own records began only after the settlement of the Shire, and their most
ancient legends hardly looked further back than their Wandering Days. It is clear, nonetheless,
from these legends, and from the evidence of their peculiar words and customs, that like many
other folk Hobbits had in the distant past moved westward. Their earliest tales seem to glimpse a
time when they dwelt in the upper vales of Anduin, between the eaves of Greenwood the Great and
the Misty Mountains. Why they later undertook the hard and perilous crossing of the mountains into
Eriador is no longer certain. Their own accounts speak of the multiplying of Men in the land, and
of a shadow that fell on the forest, so that it became darkened and its new name was Mirkwood.
Before the crossing of the mountains the Hobbits had already become divided into three
somewhat different breeds: Harfoots, Stoors, and Fallohides. The Harfoots were browner of skin,
smaller, and shorter, and they were beardless and bootless; their hands and feet were neat and
nimble; and they preferred highlands and hillsides. The Stoors were broader, heavier in build;
their feet and hands were larger, and they preferred flat lands and riversides. The Fallohides
were fairer of skin and also of hair, and they were taller and slimmer than the others; they were
lovers of trees and of woodlands.
The Harfoots had much to do with Dwarves in ancient times, and long lived in the foothills of
the mountains. They moved westward early, and roamed over Eriador as far as Weathertop while the
others were still in the Wilderland. They were the most normal and representative variety of
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Hobbit, and far the most numerous. They were the most inclined to settle in one place, and longest
preserved their ancestral habit of living in tunnels and holes.
The Stoors lingered long by the banks of the Great River Anduin, and were less shy of Men.
They came west after the Harfoots and followed the course of the Loudwater southwards; and there
many of them long dwelt between Tharbad and the borders of Dunland before they moved north again.
The Fallohides, the least numerous, were a northerly branch. They were more friendly with
Elves than the other Hobbits were, and had more skill in language and song than in handicrafts;
and of old they preferred hunting to tilling. They crossed the mountains north of Rivendell and
came down the River Hoarwell. In Eriador they soon mingled with the other kinds that had preceded
them, but being somewhat bolder and more adventurous, they were often found as leaders or
chieftains among clans of Harfoots or Stoors. Even in Bilbo's time the strong Fallohidish strain
could still be noted among the greater families, such as the Tooks and the Masters of Buckland.
In the westlands of Eriador, between the Misty Mountains and the Mountains of Lune, the
Hobbits found both Men and Elves. Indeed, a remnant still dwelt there of the Dúnedain, the kings
of Men that came over the Sea out of Westernesse; but they were dwindling fast and the lands of
their North Kingdom were falling far and wide into waste. There was room and to spare for
incomers, and ere long the Hobbits began to settle in ordered communities. Most of their earlier
settlements had long disappeared and been forgotten in Bilbo's time; but one of the first to
become important still endured, though reduced in size; this was at Bree and in the Chetwood that
lay round about, some forty miles east of the Shire.
It was in these early days, doubtless, that the Hobbits learned their letters and began to
write after the manner of the Dúnedain, who had in their turn long before learned the art from the
Elves. And in those days also they forgot whatever languages they had used before, and spoke ever
after the Common Speech, the Westron as it was named, that was current through all the lands of
the kings from Arnor to Gondor, and about all the coasts of the Sea from Belfalas to Lune. Yet
they kept a few words of their own, as well as their own names of months and days, and a great
store of personal names out of the past.
About this time legend among the Hobbits first becomes history with a reckoning of years. For
it was in the one thousand six hundred and first year of the Third Age that the Fallohide
brothers, Marcho and Blanco, set out from Bree; and having obtained permission from the high king
at Fornost, they crossed the brown river Baranduin with a great following of Hobbits. They passed
over the Bridge of Stonebows, that had been built in the days of the power of the North Kingdom,
and they took ail the land beyond to dwell in, between the river and the Far Downs. All that was
demanded of them was that they should keep the Great Bridge in repair, and all other bridges and
roads, speed the king's messengers, and acknowledge his lordship.
Thus began the _Shire-reckoning,_ for the year of the crossing of the Brandywine (as the
Hobbits turned the name) became Year One of the Shire, and all later dates were reckoned from it.
At once the western Hobbits fell in love with their new land, and they remained there, and soon
passed once more out of the history of Men and of Elves. While there was still a king they were in
name his subjects, but they were, in fact, ruled by their own chieftains and meddled not at all
with events in the world outside. To the last battle at Fornost with the Witch-lord of Angmar they
sent some bowmen to the aid of the king, or so they maintained, though no tales of Men record it.
But in that war the North Kingdom ended; and then the Hobbits took the land for their own, and
they chose from their own chiefs a Thain to hold the authority of the king that was gone. There
for a thousand years they were little troubled by wars, and they prospered and multiplied after
the Dark Plague (S.R. 37) until the disaster of the Long Winter and the famine that followed it.
Many thousands then perished, but the Days of Dearth (1158-60) were at the time of this tale long
past and the Hobbits had again become accustomed to plenty. The land was rich and kindly, and
though it had long been deserted when they entered it, it had before been well tilled, and there
the king had once had many farms, cornlands, vineyards, and woods.
Forty leagues it stretched from the Far Downs to the Brandywine Bridge, and fifty from the
northern moors to the marshes in the south. The Hobbits named it the Shire, as the region of the
authority of their Thain, and a district of well-ordered business; and there in that pleasant
comer of the world they plied their well-ordered business of living, and they heeded less and less
the world outside where dark things moved, until they came to think that peace and plenty were the
rule in Middle-earth and the right of all sensible folk. They forgot or ignored what little they
had ever known of the Guardians, and of the labours of those that made possible the long peace of
the Shire. They were, in fact, sheltered, but they had ceased to remember it.
At no time had Hobbits of any kind been warlike, and they had never fought among themselves.
In olden days they had, of course, been often obliged to fight to maintain themselves in a hard
world; but in Bilbo's time that was very ancient history. The last battle, before this story
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opens, and indeed the only one that had ever been fought within the borders of the Shire, was
beyond living memory: the Battle of Greenfields, S.R. 1147, in which Bandobras Took routed an
invasion of Orcs. Even the weathers had grown milder, and the wolves that had once come ravening
out of the North in bitter white winters were now only a grandfather's tale. So, though there was
still some store of weapons in the Shire, these were used mostly as trophies, hanging above
hearths or on walls, or gathered into the museum at Michel Delving. The Mathom-house it was
called; for anything that Hobbits had no immediate use for, but were unwilling to throw away, they
called a _mathom_. Their dwellings were apt to become rather crowded with mathoms, and many of the
presents that passed from hand to hand were of that son.
Nonetheless, ease and peace had left this people still curiously tough. They were, if it came
to it, difficult to daunt or to kill; and they were, perhaps, so unwearyingly fond of good things
not least because they could, when put to it, do without them, and could survive rough handling by
grief, foe, or weather in a way that astonished those who did not know them well and looked no
further than their bellies and their well-fed faces. Though slow to quarrel, and for sport killing
nothing that lived, they were doughty at bay, and at need could still handle arms. They shot well
with the bow, for they were keen-eyed and sure at the mark. Not only with bows and arrows. If any
Hobbit stooped for a stone, it was well to get quickly under cover, as all trespassing beasts knew
very well.
All Hobbits had originally lived in holes in the ground, or so they believed, and in such
dwellings they still felt most at home; but in the course of time they had been obliged to adopt
other forms of abode. Actually in the Shire in Bilbo's days it was, as a rule, only the richest
and the poorest Hobbits that maintained the old custom. The poorest went on living in burrows of
the most primitive kind, mere holes indeed, with only one window or none; while the well-to-do
still constructed more luxurious versions of the simple diggings of old. But suitable sites for
these large and ramifying tunnels (or _smials_ as they called them) were not everywhere to be
found; and in the flats and the low-lying districts the Hobbits, as they multiplied, began to
build above ground. Indeed, even in the hilly regions and the older villages, such as Hobbiton or
Tuckborough, or in the chief township of the Shire, Michel Delving on the White Downs, there were
now many houses of wood, brick, or stone. These were specially favoured by millers, smiths,
ropers, and cartwrights, and others of that sort; for even when they had holes to live in. Hobbits
had long been accustomed to build sheds and workshops.
The habit of building farmhouses and barns was said to have begun among the inhabitants of
the Marish down by the Brandywine. The Hobbits of that quarter, the Eastfarthing, were rather
large and heavy-legged, and they wore dwarf-boots in muddy weather. But they were well known to be
Stoors in a large part of their blood, as indeed was shown by the down that many grew on their
chins. No Harfoot or Fallohide had any trace of a beard. Indeed, the folk of the Marish, and of
Buckland, east of the River, which they afterwards occupied, came for the most part later into the
Shire up from south-away; and they still had many peculiar names and strange words not found
elsewhere in the Shire.
It is probable that the craft of building, as many other crafts beside, was derived from the
Dúnedain. But the Hobbits may have learned it direct from the Elves, the teachers of Men in their
youth. For the Elves of the High Kindred had not yet forsaken Middle-earth, and they dwelt still
at that time at the Grey Havens away to the west, and in other places within reach of the Shire.
Three Elf-towers of immemorial age were still to be seen on the Tower Hills beyond the western
marches. They shone far off in the moonlight. The tallest was furthest away, standing alone upon a
green mound. The Hobbits of the Westfarthing said that one could see the Sea from the lop of that
tower; but no Hobbit had ever been known to climb it. Indeed, few Hobbits had ever seen or sailed
upon the Sea, and fewer still had ever returned to report it. Most Hobbits regarded even rivers
and small boats with deep misgivings, and not many of them could swim. And as the days of the
Shire lengthened they spoke less and less with the Elves, and grew afraid of them, and distrustful
of those that had dealings with them; and the Sea became a word of fear among them, and a token of
death, and they turned their faces away from the hills in the west.
The craft of building may have come from Elves or Men, but the Hobbits used it in their own
fashion. They did not go in for towers. Their houses were usually long, low, and comfortable. The
oldest kind were, indeed, no more than built imitations of _smials,_ thatched with dry grass or
straw, or roofed with turves, and having walls somewhat bulged. That stage, however, belonged to
the early days of the Shire, and hobbit-building had long since been altered, improved by devices,
learned from Dwarves, or discovered by themselves. A preference for round windows, and even round
doors, was the chief remaining peculiarity of hobbit-architecture.
The houses and the holes of Shire-hobbits were often large, and inhabited by large families.
(Bilbo and Frodo Baggins were as bachelors very exceptional, as they were also in many other ways,
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such as their friendship with the Elves.) Sometimes, as in the case of the Tooks of Great Smials,
or the Brandybucks of Brandy Hall, many generations of relatives lived in (comparative) peace
together in one ancestral and many-tunnelled mansion. All Hobbits were, in any case, clannish and
reckoned up their relationships with great care. They drew long and elaborate family-trees with
innumerable branches. In dealing with Hobbits it is important to remember who is related to whom,
and in what degree. It would be impossible in this book to set out a family-tree that included
even the more important members of the more important families at the time which these tales tell
of. The genealogical trees at the end of the Red Book of Westmarch are a small book in themselves,
and all but Hobbits would find them exceedingly dull. Hobbits delighted in such things, if they
were accurate: they liked to have books filled with things that they already knew, set out fair
and square with no contradictions.
There is another astonishing thing about Hobbits of old that must be mentioned, an
astonishing habit: they imbibed or inhaled, through pipes of clay or wood, the smoke of the
burning leaves of a herb, which they called _pipe-weed_ or _leaf,_ a variety probably of
_Nicotiana._ A great deal of mystery surrounds the origin of this peculiar custom, or 'art' as the
Hobbits preferred to call it. All that could be discovered about it in antiquity was put together
by Meriadoc Brandybuck (later Master of Buckland), and since he and the tobacco of the
Southfarthing play a part in the history that follows, his remarks in the introduction to his
_Herblore of the Shire_ may be quoted.
'This,' he says, 'is the one art that we can certainly claim to be our own invention. When
Hobbits first began to smoke is not known, all the legends and family histories take it for
granted; for ages folk in the Shire smoked various herbs, some fouler, some sweeter. But all
accounts agree that Tobold Hornblower of Longbottom in the Southfarthing first grew the true pipe-
weed in his gardens in the days of Isengrim the Second, about the year 1070 of Shire-reckoning.
The best home-grown still comes from that district, especially the varieties now known as
Longbottom Leaf, Old Toby, and Southern Star.
'How Old Toby came by the plant is not recorded, for to his dying day he would not tell. He
knew much about herbs, but he was no traveller. It is said that in his youth he went often to
Bree, though he certainly never went further from the Shire than that. It is thus quite possible
that he learned of this plant in Bree, where now, at any rate, it grows well on the south slopes
of the hill. The Bree-hobbits claim to have been the first actual smokers of the pipe-weed. They
claim, of course, to have done everything before the people of the Shire, whom they refer to as
"colonists"; but in this case their claim is, I think, likely to be true. And certainly it was
from Bree that the art of smoking the genuine weed spread in the recent centuries among Dwarves
and such other folk, Rangers, Wizards, or wanderers, as still passed to and fro through that
ancient road-meeting. The home and centre of the an is thus to be found in the old inn of Bree,
_The Prancing Pony,_ that has been kept by the family of Butterbur from time beyond record.
'All the same, observations that I have made on my own many journeys south have convinced me
that the weed itself is not native to our parts of the world, but came northward from the lower
Anduin, whither it was, I suspect, originally brought over Sea by the Men of Westernesse. It grows
abundantly in Gondor, and there is richer and larger than in the North, where it is never found
wild, and flourishes only in warm sheltered places like Longbottom. The Men of Gondor call it
_sweet galenas,_ and esteem it only for the fragrance of its flowers. From that land it must have
been carried up the Greenway during the long centuries between the coming of Elendil and our own
day. But even the Dúnedain of Gondor allow us this credit: Hobbits first put it into pipes. Not
even the Wizards first thought of that before we did. Though one Wizard that I knew took up the
art long ago, and became as skilful in it as in all other things that he put his mind to.'
The Shire was divided into four quarters, the Farthings already referred to. North, South,
East, and West; and these again each into a number of folklands, which still bore the names of
some of the old leading families, although by the time of this history these names were no longer
found only in their proper folklands. Nearly all Tooks still lived in the Tookland, but that was
not true of many other families, such as the Bagginses or the Boffins. Outside the Farthings were
the East and West Marches: the Buckland (see beginning of Chapter V, Book I); and the Westmarch
added to the Shire in S.R. 1462.
The Shire at this time had hardly any 'government'. Families for the most part managed their
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own affairs. Growing food and eating it occupied most of their time. In other matters they were,
as a rule, generous and not greedy, but contented and moderate, so that estates, farms, workshops,
and small trades tended to remain unchanged for generations.
There remained, of course, the ancient tradition concerning the high king at Fornost, or
Norbury as they called it, away north of the Shire. But there had been no king for nearly a
thousand years, and even the ruins of Kings' Norbury were covered with grass. Yet the Hobbits
still said of wild folk and wicked things (such as trolls) that they had not heard of the king.
For they attributed to the king of old all their essential laws; and usually they kept the laws of
free will, because they were The Rules (as they said), both ancient and just.
It is true that the Took family had long been pre-eminent; for the office of Thain had passed
to them (from the Oldbucks) some centuries before, and the chief Took had borne that title ever
since. 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. The Took family was still,
indeed, accorded a special respect, for it remained both numerous and exceedingly wealthy, and was
liable to produce in every generation strong characters of peculiar habits and even adventurous
temperament. The latter qualities, however, were now rather tolerated (in the rich) than generally
approved. The custom endured, nonetheless, of referring to the head of the family as The Took, and
of adding to his name, if required, a number: such as Isengrim the Second, for instance.
The only real official in the Shire at this date was the Mayor of Michel Delving (or of the
Shire), who was elected every seven years at the Free Fair on the White Downs at the Lithe, that
is at Midsummer. As mayor almost his only duty was to preside at banquets, given on the Shire-
holidays, which occurred at frequent intervals. But the offices of Postmaster and First Shirriff
were attached to the mayoralty, so that he managed both the Messenger Service and the Watch. These
were the only Shire-services, and the Messengers were the most numerous, and much the busier of
the two. By no means all Hobbits were lettered, but those who were wrote constantly to all their
friends (and a selection of their relations) who lived further off than an afternoon's walk.
The Shirriffs was the name that the Hobbits gave to their police, or the nearest equivalent
that they possessed. They had, of course, no uniforms (such things being quite unknown), only a
feather in their caps; and they were in practice rather haywards than policemen, more concerned
with the strayings of beasts than of people. There were in all the Shire only twelve of them,
three in each Farthing, for Inside Work. A rather larger body, varying at need, was employed to
'beat the bounds', and to see that Outsiders of any kind, great or small, did not make themselves
a nuisance.
At the time when this story begins the Bounders, as they were called, had been greatly
increased. There were many reports and complaints of strange persons and creatures prowling about
the borders, or over them: the first sign that all was not quite as it should be, and always had
been except in tales and legends of long ago. Few heeded the sign, and not even Bilbo yet had any
notion of what it portended. Sixty years had passed since he set out on his memorable journey, and
he was old even for Hobbits, who reached a hundred as often as not; but much evidently still
remained of the considerable wealth that he had brought back. How much or how little he revealed
to no one, not even to Frodo his favourite 'nephew'. And he still kept secret the ring that he bad
found.
As is told in The Hobbit, there came one day to Bilbo's door the great Wizard, Gandalf the
Grey, and thirteen dwarves with him: none other, indeed, than Thorin Oakenshield, descendant of
kings, and his twelve companions in exile. With them he set out, to his own lasting astonishment,
on a morning of April, it being then the year 1341 Shire-reckoning, on a quest of great treasure,
the dwarf-hoards of the Kings under the Mountain, beneath Erebor in Dale, far off in the East. The
quest was successful, and the Dragon that guarded the hoard was destroyed. Yet, though before all
was won the Battle of Five Armies was fought, and Thorin was slain, and many deeds of renown were
done, the matter would scarcely have concerned later history, or earned more than a note in the
long annals of the Third Age, but for an 'accident' by the way. The party was assailed by Orcs in
a high pass of the Misty Mountains as they went towards Wilderland; and so it happened that Bilbo
was lost for a while in the black orc-mines deep under the mountains, and there, as he groped in
vain in the dark, he put his hand on a ring, lying on the floor of a tunnel. He put it in his
pocket. It seemed then like mere luck.
Trying to find his way out. Bilbo went on down to the roots of the mountains, until he could
go no further. At the bottom of the tunnel lay a cold lake far from the light, and on an island of
rock in the water lived Gollum. He was a loathsome little creature: he paddled a small boat with
his large flat feet, peering with pale luminous eyes and catching blind fish with his long
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