Stoors

One of the three races of the Hobbits, Stoor is the name used to recognize the breed that lived in the swampy regions. According to the earliest records, the Stoors inhabited the Vales of Anduin just like other Hobbits. They were mainly a riverside tribe residing in the Gladden fields and were fishermen by profession. Smeagol was one of the most popular Stoor who eventually turned out to be a creature named Gollum. [1]​

The Stoors were stronger, heavier, and broader in build than other kinds of Hobbits. They had bigger limbs and feet. Among all the Hobbits, the Stoors were the ones who resembled Men to a great extent and were very friendly to men. [2] They were also the only Hobbits to grow facial hair. What made them different from Fallohides living in the forests towards the north and Harfoots residing in the foothills of the mountain was their preference for riversides and flatlands. Stoors were the only Hobbits to use boats, swim, and fish. They also made use of boots in the mud. These characteristics of the Stoors existed among the Hobbits of the Bree, Buckland, and Eastfarthing. The Stoors also used a dedicated dialect of Hobbitish as they had spent some time in Dunland and took up new words and names. They carried these to the Shire and retained until the late Third Age.​

According to references, the Stoors lived in the southern vales of the River Anduin. When the Hobbits used to wander, the Harfoots migrated in 1050 of the Third Age towards the West and the Fallohides followed them sometimes later. The Stoors had remained in the Anduin before migrating West between 1150 and 1300 of the Third Age. Taking a different route as compared to other Hobbits, the Stoors went on a southern route across the Redhorn Pass. Many of them departed and moved south to Rivendell and mingled with different types of Hobbits living there. However, a majority of them proceeded to Dunland that looked like their old lands. They were introduced to the Dunlendings because of which they started adopting their language and speech.

After about a century, Angmar started threatening Eriador, and a lot of Stoors fled to the south in Dunland to become woodland people. Some others settled in the Gladden fields to become the people of Riverland. The Stoors from Dunland later went back to the north to mingle with other Hobbits and colonized the Shire. The places they resided got some linguistic changes as they had been in contact with the Dunlendings. Finally, the three races of the Hobbits came together and mixed with each other throughout the centuries after the Shire was found though there were a few differences by area.

A number of villages where they had settled would have existed until the War of the Ring when the Ringwraiths sought them out. A majority of Stoors went to the north and West and settled in the newly established Shire in 1630 of the Third Age. Mingling with the other Hobbit races, they stayed in the Eastfarthing and later shifted to Buckland.​

Those who returned in 1356 and settled in Gladden Fields by the River Anduin came to be known as the Riverland people of fishers. They were no longer in contact with any other Hobbit race and nothing about their culture is clear except what Gandalf carried from his conversation with Gollum. They probably led a primitive and wild lifestyle, unlike their cousins in the Shire who developed a social life.​

The word ‘Stoor’ is probably unique to the Hobbits and did not exist in their dialect when the War of the Ring took place. Stoor is an early English word which means ‘strong and large’ and suggests that these Hobbits had a heavier build.​