Shire places that are never mentioned

[Deleted member 12094]

I found it a little curious to notice that some place names on the map of the Shire have no role in LotR.

After some systematic reviewing, I compiled a list of Shire villages that remained unmentioned, both in TH and in LotR.

Just in case anyone would be interested, here is this list:

• Deephallow
• Little Delving
• Needlehole
• Nobottle
• Oatbarton
• Pincup
• Rushock Bog
• Rushy
• Tookbank
• Willowbottom

Regarding Deephallow, HOME6 confirms that it was present in earlier pre-publication versions and that subsequent text changes made the name disappear. Therefore, this place is probably a “vestige” from older versions.

As regards Rushy, this should actually be Rushey on the map and that’s how it is mentioned in LotR as well. In HOME6 it says:

The spelling Rushy on the published map of the Shire is an error, made first on my elaborate early map [...] through misreading of my father's. The second element is Old English ey 'island'.​

As a sidenote for users of the Atlas of ME from Fonstad: she used the name Tuckburrow -which isn't mentioned anywhere- for what should have been Tuckborough.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

I'm sure there's at least one PhD dissertation somewhere wholly devoted to untangling the origins, histories, and uses of these names, but I'll mention that T.A.Shippey, in both The Road to Middle Earth (which, thanks to Barliman, I'm now rereading) and Author of the Century , examines the subject.

One point he emphasizes is that Tolkien believed that the sounds of words could convey meaning; this is seen in some of the songs and phrases he presents, untranslated, and their effect on those who hear, or in our case, read them (it's notable that he said his work was meant to be read aloud). He even shows us this in action, with Frodo's reaction to the song of the Elves in Rivendell.

Combine this with his philological understanding that names, especially place-names, tend to hang on through changes in language and peoples, and his particular interest, one might say obsession, with them becomes understandable. For his English readers, at least, certain names would, for instance, unconsciously or not, have a Northern "flavor". To convey a feeling of difference from the Shire, he used names of Welsh origin for the area around Bree: Archet being Ar Chet: The Wood; Combe, cwm: valley; and of course Bree itself, Welsh for hill. This last is probably one of his "low philological jokes", as "Bree-hill" would translate as "Hill-hill", as does its contraction into "Brill" in the real England.

Thus it differs from places like Nobottle in the Shire, which comes from Old English niowe botl, "new house". And it goes with the idea that the Breelanders predated the arrival of hobbits in the Shire, as the Britons predated the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons in England.

BTW, I found it amusing that the young Christopher, before learning its derivation, thought "Nobottle" meant it was so small that it didn't even have an inn.

Shippey also notes how all the names and maps give a sense of solidity, and especially history, to Middle Earth. And it doesn't stop with the Shire, of course, which is why so many of us long for more information about his world. Did the Druedain survive in Druwaith Iaur? I would have liked a "close-up" view of the fords at Tharbad, beyond the tantalising reference by Boromir. And I still want to have a beer in the Floating Log at Frogmorton ("Frog Marsh").

But this just one more thing that places Tolkien in a different league from his imitators; as Diana Wynne Jones put it, whenever you see a map at the beginning of a fantasy trilogy, "you must not expect to be let off from visiting every damn' place shown on it".

 

[Deleted member 12094]

Indeed, Tolkien seems to have had his fun inventing such names, and that's perhaps the simple reason why he made far more of them than he actually needed for his tales.

Let me add this text from his letter 276 in that sense:

The names already entered, even those that seem unlikely (as Nobottle), are in fact devised according to the style, origins, and mode of formation of English (especially Midland) place-names. I should be delighted to construct new names on the same principles as desired and to find them places on the maps of Bree and the Shire.​

 

[Ithilethiel]

Regarding naming, it is JRRT's knack for it which reminds me of Charles Dickens. Part of the fun of reading Dickens (and JRRT) are the very descriptive and outright hilarious names and place names they created.

Some of Dickens's, Uncle Pumblechook, Charity Pecksniff, Master Bates ...Serjeant Buzfuz...

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Don't forget Mr. Podsnap, who gave rise to a noun.

 

[Ithilethiel]

My favorite is Mr. M'Choakumchild

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Not Dickens, but Tom Jones's tutors, Thwackum and Square come to mind. And all the great characters in Sterne.

 

[Ithilethiel]

The UK writers got it down, the sound, cadence and magic of words