Regions of the Shire

The Shire is the land of the Hobbits, separated into four main sections called Farthings. There are also independent Hobbit towns and nearby lands which united with the land of the Shire in the Fourth Age.

Farthings divide the early regions of the Shire. The word came from quartering or dividing by four, hence its called fourth-ing. Three rocks signify the divisions of the four Farthings. They set the divisions on the exact place where the three boundaries of Eastfarthing, Southfarthing, and Westfarthing intersect. This point is on the Great East Road.

The Shire region with the fewest inhabitants is Northfarthing. The legendary Battle of the Greenfields occurred in this place.

• Long Cleeve is a village haven of the North-Tooks, the Took family lineage of Bandobras "Bullroarer" Took. He established his home there when the Battle of Greenfields ended.
• Hardbottle is the dwelling of the Bracegirdle clan, one of which is Lobelia Sackville-Baggins. Although some maps indicate that this is in Southfarthing, the village is actually in Northfarthing.

The Shire's most inhabited area is Westfarthing. Bilbo and Frodo Baggins' home is here. Westfarthing's towns are Hobbiton, Tuckborough, which is a part of Tookland, and the town of Michel Delving.

• Hobbiton is the place of Bag End, Bilbo Baggin's home, and Frodo Baggins afterward. They are neighbors with Sam Gamgee and Sam's father, called the Gaffe, who dwell below Bag End on the path called Bagshot Row.
• Michel Delving, which means "an enormous hole', is the central town of all the Shire. The town's mayor is the Shire's only appointed leader, and he is appointed every seven years.
• Bywater is a small settlement very close to Hobbiton, about a few minutes stroll to the east. The famous inns of Ivy Bush and the Green Dragon are situated here in Bywater.

This south part of the Shire [1] is well known for its plantations of pipe-weed, with its rustic, high-yielding lands. It is also the location of the villages of Longbottom, Gamwich (which is the ancestral land of the Gamgee clan), and Cotton.

• The name Longbottom means an extensive valley. In TA 2670, at the beginning of the pipe-weed enterprise, Tobold Hornblower established the town because of the favorable outcome of the pipe-weed trade.

This eastern region is the early Shire's boundary with the land of Buckland. The settlements of Whitfurrows, Frogmorton, and the plantations of Marish are also situated here. In the early days, the Oldbuck clan was in charge of Eastfarthing. Later on, the Eastfarthing [2] tenants regarded the Brandybucks more instead of the Mayor and the Thain (the Hobbit's military leader).

• Yale is the Shire's lowlands located north of the extensive path heading to the west (from Stock to Tuckborough). The dwellers here are scarce, there was but one establishment here represented in the map of the Shire in The Lord of the Rings. The name of this Hobbit town has no identified origin. Yale is a famous English word for people and locations. It is a Welsh word, which means productive land. With its unusual name, there is speculation that the dwellers who named the town had dealings with foreign tongues, such as the Dunland language. [3]
• The Marish of Eastfarthing is a farming town, the swampy but fruitful lands of the Shire. The Oldbuck clan first resided here. But later on, Gorhendad Oldbuck relocated his clan away because of the Brandywines. They migrate into Buckland, and there used a new name for the clan.

Westmarch and Buckland do not belong to any of the Farthings, although most consider them as included in the Shire. In the Fellowship of the Ring (A Conspiracy Unmasked, Fifth Chapter), it mentions Buckland as almost a nation of its own, but it is the Shire's territory. With the events in the Lord of the Rings (Fourth Age), Westmarch also became a territory of the Shire.

Buckland is by the eastern Brandywine river (Baranduin). The inhabitants of Buckland created a protective hedge to shield the Hobbit land from the perils of the neighboring Old Forest. They called this barrier the High Hay, which runs through the eastern boundary of Buckland. Hay Gate serves as the single entryway to Buckland and enclosing the area in the north. This gate is also close to the Brandywine Bridge.

The south boundary of Buckland continued from the High Hay towards the Haysend settlement, where the Withywindle meets the Brandywine river. Bucklebury is the primary township of Buckland, where the Master of Buckland dwells, another influential leader of the Shire. Another notable aspect of Buckland is the Bucklebury Ferry, a wooden river transport carrying Hobbits across the Brandywine River, from the Shire to Buckland.

It's one of the two main places to cross Baranduin, the other is Brandywine Bridge, which is twenty miles south of Bucklebury Ferry. The Hobbits may freely use the ferry, it is tied with a rope to the bank, for everyone's use. Frodo, Pippin, Merry, and Sam took the ferry on their way to the Crickhollow home, right before the Black Rider reached them. There is only one vessel kept at the bank, so the Ringwraith had to ride for miles to Brandywine Bridge, to pursue the Hobbits. In the Fellowship of the Ring movie, this event happened quickly.

In TA 2340, Gorhenhad Oldbuck established Buckland and was named Master of Buckland. Later on, he changed his name from Oldbuck to Brandybuck, [4] and so does the name of his clan. He was also the forefather of Meriadoc Brandybuck, also called Merry. Buckland is not part of the region that King Argeleb II of Arthedain first awarded to the Hobbits, as it is east of the Brandywine River. Hence it was independent of the Shire for many years, only in the early Fourth Age as King Elessar granted Buckland as well as Westmarch as a recognized land that belongs to the Shire. The Buckland Hobbits are different because they are always ready for perils from the nearby lands. At night they always secure the Hay Gate as well as the doors of their homes. They are alert for battle at the sound of the Horn of Buckland. Many of the Buckland Hobbits are descendants of the one Hobbit family who rides boats, the Stoor clan. The Shire hobbits are more innocent and trusting compared to Bucklanders.

When the War of the Ring ended during the beginning of the Fourth Age, King Aragorn Elessar gave the Shire its independence from the rule of Men. He proclaimed the Hobbits in charge of their lands within the unified kingdom, and no man is allowed to set foot in the land of the Shire. He gave an additional expanse of land to the Shire, from its west boundary lands, the Tower Hills and White Downs. The land separating the Tower hills and White Downs gained the name Westmarch. Samwise Gamgee became a mayor, and his first daughter named Elanor the Fair wedded Fastred of Greenholm. Later on, the couple migrated to Westmarch. When Samwise passed away, the couple and their new family gained the name Wardens of Westmarch or Fairbairns of the Towers. They kept the red book of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, afterward called the Red Book of Westmarch. Westmarch is an independently ruled land, just as Buckland beyond the Baranduin. They had independent Hobbit leaders, as this land is separate from the Shire's Farthings.

1. ^The Southfarthing.
2. ^The Eastfarthing of the Shire.
3. ^Language of the Dunlendings.
4. ^Brandybuck Family.