IN THE SHIRE-RECKONING by Diane Finnis-Robb  

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Interlude

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i) On Growth and Industry

   By its Twenty-ninth year the Shire had gone a long way toward becoming a safe and independent nation of its own within the splintered kingdom of Arnor and the northwestern part of Middle-earth. It is unclear if the people of neighbouring lands, or the King himself for that matter, had any idea of how rapidly this was happening. It seems that word of the Shire had spread only to hobbits throughout the northlands and, answering the call, it was only hobbits who came there in great numbers. Occasionally small groups of Dwarves might pass through the land and, while they were always greeted kindly, they showed no interest in the developing cities along the Road. Some of the Big Folk would come riding through from time to time, but always in haste and without the courteousness of meetings. For many early years of its existence the land of the Shire was all for hobbits alone. Moreover, by Year Forty no other community of hobbits was to be heard of in that part of the world other than in the Shire and those few remaining (and stubborn) ancestors which the Shirefolk had still living in the Bree-land.¹

   Crop and livestock production was also bountiful in the early days of the Shire, aiding the boom in population. Potatoes, a familiar bumper crop for farmers in lowlands throughout the North, became the staple food of every table. Carrots and tomatoes the hobbits also grew in large numbers. Game in the Shire was both plentiful and non-threatening. Some said that there were wolves in the North-farthing, but if that is so then they certainly troubled the hobbits very little. Much of the land’s bounty was shared with the Breelanders in early days and goods moved freely over the Stonebows bridge for nearly a dozen years. But as their population grew the Shirefolk wisely became much more interested in sustainability than in trade. Twoody, always watchful of developing markets, sent fish and strawberries from Stock to be traded with pork and dairy from Buckland, to be in turn traded with vegetables and grains from the Bridgefield Farms and further traded for breads and delicacies and other fineries from Budgeford.

   Currency and documentation were becoming increasingly important in the early days of the Shire as the population swelled. In her accounting of the “FIRST FAMILIES OF THE SHIRE” Alaura had recorded just a few more than four hundred families who entered and were granted land in Year One. Many of those were young hobbits from near the Bree-land who had few or no children at the time. But by Year Ten as most of those families increased, newer families were listed with six or more children in Alaura’s revised editions and therefore the making of marriage licenses and birth certificates became another booming industry. Many of the Shire-does who had aided Alaura in the writing of pamphlets and copying of documents became successful bookkeepers and accountants; for in the long and nearly forgotten days of their pre-Shire history it was always the mothers and does among those hobbits who took up the art of writing.

ii) On Population and Documentation

   The first great population explosion of new hobbits came to the Shire in Years Three and Four. The earliest copies of THE SHIRE-RECKONING, circulated as a handbill spread throughout the Northlands, had done its job and word of the land’s success had found its way into the small and scattered hobbit communities which remained in the north. Every hobbit who could come did, and in a surprisingly orderly fashion. Most were like the Bree-land settlers who came before them; family groups of different sizes but from far away places. They had accents which seemed strange even when they spoke with expressions and manners which were surprisingly familiar.² Very few came with ponies or livestock as the Bree hobbits had. Instead they carried their few belongings in carts or pulled them in sledges. They did not appear to be especially poor but instead seemed lacking in any of the luxuries that Bree-hobbits had come to know over the past century. They did not appear sickly or ill-kept, for many were indeed very spry from their look and exceedingly good-natured in their manners. Their clothing was rough and handmade. There were some of those who came from southern lands wearing short kilts made of grasses. These were called “Stoors” by the people who knew them and they had dark hair, slender builds, quick hands and muddy feet. Others there were who claimed to come from over the northern mountains and were shorter in build. “Harfoots” these hobbits were called, Isengrim Tinyfoot’s own people, and they were browner of complexion, wore skins and furs and even a few among them wore boots! None of these newcomers carried weapons, other than bows and some short knives or hunting javelins, and, to a person, they did not seem fearful as they came over the Stonebows bridge to meet other hobbitfolk. But they all seemed watchful of the way behind them, as if there were great storms gathering there which they felt relieved to have escaped in time.

   And these hobbits, so different from the young folk who had lived around Bree-hill, brought great changes with them.

   The population of the Shire was never, in any history which we have found, firmly established by census. For the first three decades of its existence the careful records of land and business titles alongside the records of marriages and births and the registering of public officials were the only documents by which we may track the growth of this new land and its people. This system is, of course, unfavourable to bachelors, single females, widows and non-landowners. It sadly overlooks the important wandering workforce of cobblers, tinkers, carpenters, cropworkers, serving-help, cleaners, herd-drovers and every travelling salespersons who may hope to participate in an unnoticed (and untaxable) economy. Many of the newcomers fit into these often under-reported categories. Twoody and Alaura, and the many, many registrars and recorders who worked alongside them, had managed better than most could ever expect against the rush of immigrants and the marriages and childbirths which occurred in Years Three and Four of the Shire. Add to that the hobbitish penchant for name changes and you will see that the matter of assessing the population of the Shire in its first two or three decades is largely one of informed guesswork.

   If four hundred young small families had first registered themselves to settle the Shire in Year One this meant that a little over two thousand people may have come into the land to claim it as their own. By Year Twelve that number, as shown through the then more well established and still existing records, had swelled to twenty-two thousand. Keep in mind that the mechanism for recording this information was still made up of hand-written documents kept by a very low number of people working in three or four more densely populated settlements. While the whole of the land had still not been explored, the total area of the Shire was thought to extend to roughly 18,000 square miles. It is easy to see how only a handful of community leaders like Twoody and Alaura had any idea of how fast the community was growing and the problems which it might face.

iii) On Centres of Trade and Administration

   Great changes came to all the settlements of the Shire between Year Three (where we left our tale in Part I) and Year Twenty-nine (where we will take it up again in Part II). These changes were likewise recorded by hand and most often coloured by opinion. As the job of building the internal mechanisms of self-governance was growing so too were the voices of other settlers. With Gondolpho Boldbuck, the perceived if reluctant leader of the pioneers, gone missing, the centre of government (such as one might call it) was relocated to the Buckland under the guidance of Twoody and Alaura. The Bucklanders had already built the fine beginnings of a little town around the Wisher’s Well and the original young hobbits who had first dared to settle Buckland with Gondo now had large holdings of property and were starting families of their own. Gondo and Alaura (“the Oldbucks” as they are still called) were, by everyone’s account, the first family of the Shire and so other Bucklanders were ever ready to help take on the responsibilities of their Founders. This part of the Shire would, as of Year Four, become a principal center for culture and community for many generations to come.

   But those same original Bucklanders, loners and individualists just as their founder himself had been, did not receive strangers easily and many of them were reluctant to lease or sell some of their land to newcomers. Many new immigrants to the Shire went there to earn a living as sharecroppers and field hands. So it was that Buckland, from the beginning an outlier of young pioneers, became a thriving town full of small shops surrounded by great plantations of wealthy farmers. Some of the most desirable land of the Shire was found there in the southern West-farthing and the early settlers of Buckland had profited greatly by coming to this part of the land before anyone else had dared to. But they also knew the value of being first and holding on to property so that the Buckland became a great community noted as an example to young entrepreneurs; for the twenty young hobbits who settled there first alongside Gondo became among the wealthiest landowners for many generations. It went from being the cutting edge of settlements to a place of illustrious success within five years and many newcomers to the Shire went there first to learn farming and industry from the experienced and prosperous Bucklanders. They were paid good fair wages for their service and went on to develop lands to the south and the north of the village of Buckland adding new roads to that part of the Shire even before new names for these settlements were chosen.

   The disappearance of Gondo, the first recorded (but never witnessed) death in Shire history, set off numerous legal problems for a community who did not yet have a formalised local government. The Bucklanders, loyal to Alaura and her son without question, were not distrustful of Twoody, but were aware that no document bearing Gondo’s signature had been left behind dealing with his many land holdings. There were many folk, outside of the Bucklanders of course, who believed Gondo to be dead after Year Four, and many of those then began to whisper questions about this land and its availability. Twoody foresaw this and, using his position as Chief Assayer and Gondo’s business partner, put some of Sarehole in the name of young Theudebert, Gondo’s son, on the occasion of his first birthday.

   But this may have made matters worse. No one questioned Berty’s right to the land, but there were many who wondered about their own land rights in the death of a spouse. Given that the land deeds were all in the names of male hobbits now, the old family traditions were changing; things were being passed from a father to a first-born son instead of a mother to her children and this left many hobbits in a place of uncertainty. Added to this is the fact that Gondo and Alaura, being the first to wed on the very gates of the Shire, had never filed a certificate of their marriage.

   It would take years before a new tradition of heritage would be set in place, but Twoody’s move to make sure that Berty’s future was secure caused ramifications. The Shire was not yet five years old, most of its citizens, still illiterate, had no courts nor established government, but already they had set themselves a fertile ground for lawyers.

   Other settlement towns begun by the four hundred families who first came into the Shire had also grown to a surprising success. From as early as Year Three these busy settlers had built farms and roads, mills and silos, public bath-houses and local markets, a post office and an office of deeds and a bank. Stone and wood for building were abundant but at a size and height which was manageable to folk of a hobbit’s stature. Every hobbit who came into the new land had the opportunity to, according to their own resources, create a future previously undreamt. It seemed clear to all that the Shire was, just as Alaura had described it, “a LAND of REWARD for the INDUSTRIOUS.”

   The First Bank and Trust at the Assayer's Office which Twoody had built in the Bridgefields alongside his brother’s trading post was abandoned and all of its files, were relocated to a new, and much bigger, hole in Buckland when he took permanent residence there in Year Four.

   The Postal Office which Alaura had established in Bridgefields remained there throughout Shire history and, by Bilbo Baggin’s time over a thousand years later, it was referred to as the Free Post Office of the Shire. The reason for this distinction would come much later of course, but the rule of free postage to or from this location has always been considered a memorial to the Shire’s first Postmaster (or “Postmistress” depending upon who you speak to).³ That office, like the others which followed in later settlements, served a dual purpose; for they became a schoolhouse for hobbits, young or old, who had not yet learned their letters. All lessons were free to attend and the literacy rate in the Shire rose rapidly within the first generation of citizens.

   The Bridgefield farms themselves were, from the very start, immensely profitable. Settlers from the first wave in Year One had laid claim to those lands but, consistent with the great demand and the fear early settlers had of minimal resources, many of these farms were small. This allowed them to grow quickly enough in the first few years but, faced with the influx of new pioneers wishing to move further west and south, their lands quickly became hemmed in by neighbours. Unlike the Bucklanders, the first farmers of Bridgefield were constrained by only going a little way from the Stonebows bridge. With smaller and more moderate portions of land they couldn’t hire more than a few hands to expand their holding more quickly as the Bucklanders would do. But as the years grew longer they learned to profit from their position on the Road and planted crops which sustained the publichouses in the neighbouring settlements. Pioneers in out of reach places would come to see the fresh produce, meats and cheeses of the Bridgefield Farms as rare delicacies for the most civilised palettes.

   The community of Stock had likewise adapted to the market of sudden growth and westward settlement. For a people who claim to fear large bodies of water all the hobbits of the Shire have a curious and undeniable liking for fresh fish. Hobbits coming up from the south, mostly families of Stoors, settled in this area and began good trades as fisherfolk along the Stockbrook and up the Brown River. The town of Stock itself was small and given over mostly to tradesmen and freight carriers who were responsible for shipping the mornings’ fresh catch as far away as the tables of Buckland by sunset. “Morning work in Stock,” or so many there said, “began while the farmers of Bridgefield still lay farting in their featherbeds.” And this may be true, for the fishers of Stock had a days’ catch barreled and loaded before the Sun showed herself each morning. They were, for the first ten years of the Shire’s history, the major suppliers to the dinner tables of wealthy hobbits. The land of Stock itself is soft and not well suited to hole-dwellers, so many there lived in houses of wood or brick or, more shocking still, built homes for themselves on quays which hung over the river, with long fishing poles and comfortable chairs; “stocking from their own backyard” as some called it. Those Shire hobbits who had not come from the Stoors or other river folk found this behaviour queer and left these neighbours to themselves. But they all ate the fish and strawberries from Stock and made sure that the roads to this vital resource were well maintained. It was here, outside of the greater traffic found on the Old Road, that the second publichouse of the Shire was built; The Golden Perch it was called, and from all recorded evidence it survived as a family establishment well past the days of Frodo Baggins and the War of the Ring.

   In Year Seven the first major bridge was constructed in the Shire. The land west of the Stonebows was hilly, just as hobbits liked, and the Old Road had many small bridges across rills and streams leading off to the unknown ends of the world. Who had built these bridges remained as much a mystery to the Shirefolk as it does to us today, but it was a mandate of the King’s Agreement that the hobbits should be charged with their maintenance so, from the very start, they began to very responsibly study the science of bridge building.

   Despite their nomadic wanderings hobbits had, from all of their remembered histories, preferred to make their homes in the comfort and safety of well-constructed holes. Where this characteristic predilection came from, no one could ever say but it did seem to imbue many hobbit architects with a keen understanding of compression and tension which is so necessary to bridge design. Like tunnelcraft (or wellmade hobbit-holes), bridge-building requires not only a sophisticated understanding of materials and stresses but also a clear vision of one’s current purpose, a thoughtful understanding of future usefulness and a close friendship with the earth usually uncommon among the bigger and clumsier races.⁴ When we build a road we are most often finding a way to travel faster from one place we know to another we also know; we build a road to make our current lives easier. When we build a bridge we think about how much we may yet discover and we plan for our ambitions on that further shore; we build a bridge to make the dreams of our future possible.

   Alaura’s youngest brother Clothair, who had always been something of a dreamer, was only seventeen years old when he followed Gondo into the Buckland with the First Pioneers. He travelled at Gondo’s side for nearly three years, as he had done since he was still a fawn back in the Bree-land, and learned all that he could about the new land and the careful thoughtfulness which would be required to build it. There were many who said that Gondo had a wide range of undirected (or perhaps under-employed) interests; farming, irrigation, cartography, drawing, stonecutting, woodworking, hunting, dendrology and, in his later years, herbology. These interests proved useful to him in his wanderings and a blessing to all his neighbours in the early settlements of the Shire. He had a voracious appetite for learning the world around him and became a quick master of skills which were useful and practical to his needs. His acolyte Clooty had a mind that was very much different. ‘Less broad, less restless and more set to wrestling,’ Clooty said on more than one occasion, but that was only his own humility speaking. Clooty was not so wise in the ways of his neighbours as Gondo had been and did not go on speaking much about plans for “the scope and future of a nation” or “vistas of our liberty yet unseen.” In fact, since coming to the Shire, Clooty had left quite a bit of his former approval-seeking blather off and had, through his own personal leanings or his time spent travelling quietly at the shoulder of Gondo, developed a habit of simply looking without talking. And what he looked at most was the construction of the Old Road and its various bridges. What he discovered there became a guiding principle throughout his life which he was happy to share with all of his neighbours; “good things should be built to last.”

   Whether or not dwarves had built the bridges and laid the course of the Old Road was not important. They were, to Clooty’s eyes, the most beautiful things which he had ever seen. He spent much time studying them. He did not have Gondo’s hand for drawing, so his initial designs are simple and direct. It was said that he could explain the force and stresses of a structure better than any one of his fellow pioneers and had helped many of his Bucklander friends in their own hole-building. He had played a part in the design of all the early public buildings of the Shire and, after Gondo’s disappearance, when Clooty was still just twenty years of age, his services as an architect and engineer were sought throughout the land.

   How Clooty came by this talent is unknown. His father Isengrim had taught him nothing of ironwork and little of anything else. Isengrim was greedy with his skills and wanted no rivals, whether they be his sons or any other Breelanders. Perhaps Clooty, quite in secret, had watched his father perform every exercise of his art with keen eyes and a sharp mind; and so he understood the construction of their home on Bree-hill very well through careful observation. He had told no one about this of course, except perhaps Gondo or Twoody, and had no practical outlet for his talent until he came to the Shire. Certainly Gondo and Twoody had both done all they could to rely upon the young hobbit’s knowledge and to foster it right away. It was Clooty, in Year Six and Seven who built the Budgeford bridge, the first great architectural feat of the Shire.

   The Bolger family in Budge had entered the Shire earlier than any other and, owing to their numbers and their range of skills, had built the most comfortable, most truly civilised, community in the new land. There was a mill and a bakery, a townmarket and a brewery in Budge as early as Year Three and many merchants set their shops there at first, mingling with the Bolgers and taking advantage of the quick influx of pioneers who saw this as the original “Big City” of the Shire. And Budge was indeed, from all that we can discern, one of the most populated settlements for the first two or three decades of Shire history.

   But Budge was a divided city from Year Four. The small northern river, then called the Norbourn, had been its northern border when the Bolgers first settled there in Year One. The river was shallow here, even by hobbit standards, allowing a natural ford only one hundred and fifty paces across in springtime when the river was in its fullness. But the Norbourn was cold and fast and many hobbits (skittish around any threat of drowning) feared to cross it.

   As the town grew in size, and the Bolgers grew in wealth, there was a desire among the residents of Budge to build along the further shore. So it was that old Heindewin Bolger sent for Clooty to find a dry solution to Budge’s northern expansion. A bridge was called for.

   Now the span of one hundred and fifty hobbit paces over shallow water might not sound like a great accomplishment for us today. But there are no records of hobbit construction which predate this accomplishment and many documents of the day which treat it as the marvel it certainly had been. The Budgeford bridge was, without question, the first great public work ever accomplished by hobbits; built by the new community who still lacked any system of taxes, government funding, worker payment or worker incentives. And it certainly was the last great public work in many of these categories. Put quite simply, Budge had grown faster than much of the Shire and there were many young pioneers who by then had become quite wealthy and had an interest in seeing it grow faster still. Clooty’s plan, commissioned by the Bolgers (though no record of payment has ever been found), presented a work of such unique accomplishment that many other young Shirefolk became involved in its building for reasons of their own; pride seeming to have been their greatest motivator. By all records this bridge survived for over nineteen hundred years as all the land grew around it. It is said that the Budge bridge was the last door closed in the Shire when the hobbits finally departed.

   The Bridge consisted of five small arching spans as its support, all made from river stones. There was a surprisingly straight and even road of quarried slate (likely added later), and a covered roof of baked clay shingles. In its earliest days a great round door protected its north gate and there were round windows along the walls on either side. Together Clooty and his friends had built a singular public work. The question of how “public” the bridge itself might be would come into question later.

   And so the settlement of Budge, now called “Budgeford” for the splendid bridge there, grew all the faster. The Bolger family, knowing that the bridge was coming, had visited Twoody in the new Assayer’s Office and taken up great parcels of land on the northern side of the river. Their ownership of the north bank within half a mile of either side of the bridge was set well before its completion. Old Heindewin, always fearful of water, crossed the bridge on the day of its opening and never went back. He built a great mansion of a hole for himself on the farther side and left the running of the town to his sons and grandsons. But for many years he collected a toll from every hobbit who made the crossing and at his death in Year Fourteen he was thought to be the wealthiest of all Shirefolk. That was not exactly true, though it would take the events of Year Fifteen and Sixteen to prove that matter out.

   Hobbiton-by-the-Water was growing and growing from Year Four to Year Fifteen. The plans which Gondo, Twoody and Alaura once had of making this a governmental capital of the Shire faded when Gondo disappeared and Twoody moved to the Buckland. But the land itself was so lovely and manageable that it quickly nurtured a community of gentry; for many hobbits were becoming quite wealthy with the influx of new workers and there were many among them who were excited to find a place which would showcase the trappings of their wealth.

   Most of the shops founded in Hobbiton-by-the-Water were part of a service industry that was new in the North; glovemakers and candlesmiths, weavers and spinners, farriers and tailors, patissiers and embroiderers were not familiar trades in the Breeland or any other communities. But in the Shire, and in Hobbiton-by-the-Water particularly, these craftspeople and the luxuries they offered were in great demand. It should be remembered that hobbits were not at this, or any other time in their history, an extravagant people. They were never so interested in luxury as they were in comfort. Many hobbits may have yearned for trappings of wealth but, if so, those yearnings were only made visible by their delight in (and not their excess of) comfort. From their earliest days, and well in keeping with their fugitive and nomadic past, the economic dreams of the Shirefolk were built upon providing comfort. They never knowingly wanted for excess but all aspired to comfort as an indication of their newfound security. And so while excess of luxury had never been the plan for Hobbiton-by-the-Water, by Year Fourteen it was an accepted condition. “Fancy as Bywater” became a term as early as Year Ten and lasted for thousands of years in Hobbit history.

iv) On Notable Families and Great Advancements

   There were seven large family groups recorded in Alaura’s volume “THE FIRST FAMILIES OF THE SHIRE”; they were the Bolgers, the Mugworts, the Chumleys (later called the Chubbs), the Sandyheavers (later called the Sandymans), the Noakesburrows, the Gamwich (later called the Gamgees) and the Whitfoots. These were families which settled with twenty-five or more members by the end of Year Two of the Shire-reckoning. As we have noted before, Gondo had no known relatives in the Bree-land but was the first of the long line of Bucks who would settle the Shire. Twoody was accompanied to the Shire by one disreputable brother and three sisters who married into other prosperous families. And, as we will see, from Twoody and his brother Childy, and their further exploits, the Swiftalks later became known as another great family in Shire history called the Tooks. While she was at times called “missus Oldbuck” by the Bucklanders, Alaura took no other name for herself in all her writing but "Fairheart"; and there are no others in all the long history of the Shire who have dared to take such an ill-fated name as that for their own. But her brothers and sisters who were recorded in the early histories were named the Pudifoots (largely in honour of the bravery of Marcho and Blanco who came to the land first) and some of them were later called the Proudfoots. In some documents they are also called “Proudfeet”, but that argument was later put to rest by an expert.⁵ In the first few years of the Shire’s history the main push of early settlers came from the lands surrounding Bree-hill and south toward the Greyflood.

   For the first decade of their expansion the Shirefolks’ relationship with the Breefolk remained strong and, just as Gondo had predicted, Isengrim Tinyfoot made a tidy income while he remained responsible for virtually all of the metalwork and tools needed by the pioneers. But in Year Eight the large family of Tomba Fallohide, an enterprising and much more personable hobbit than old Isengrim, came to the new land. 

   The Fallohides arrived together as a group of seven hundred or more and the Shirefolk had not heard of anything like this flood of people since Twoody’s own grandfather, Priamus Swiftwalk, had come into the Bree-land eighty-four years ago. Unlike old Priamus, who came from out of darkness with his sword in hand, Tomba rode a painted wooden cart, a mock chariot really, drawn by eight large hogs and he laughed and he smiled at all as he brought his people over the Stonebows bridge and into safety. If fear and darkness were behind him it did not show on his glad face.

   What relationship existed between Tomba and the other seven hundred hobbits who travelled with him remains unclear. All of them seemed to call themselves “Fallohides” and they acted very much like a family.⁶ But many among them had other surnames as well as titles or other secret names spoken in a strange tongue. They were taller and slimmer of build than other hobbits, some growing to four feet or more in height.⁷ Both their skin and their hair tended to be fair and no Fallohide ever grew a beard of any kind. They had travelled from farther east than any of the Shire hobbits had heard of in generations; from the river Hoarwell and in sight of the Misty Mountains, lands the other hobbits had fled long generations ago. They wore rather finely-made clothing of greens and browns, billowing cloaks of grey and tight waistcoats with many bright buttons. There were many who carried short bows for hunting and some even had small swords in scabbards of tooled-leather. But they were by no means a war-like or aggressive people. They smiled freely and, while their speech was strange, they spoke graciously. They were quite prone to laughter and merriment, but not afraid of hard work when convinced of its importance. They knew very well many old songs and stories which most hobbits might only dimly recall and they had clear voices for singing as well as keen wisdom for listening.

   In later years of the Shire-reckoning some research was done into the three great families (sometimes grossly referred to as “breeds”) of hobbits. This work is problematic as it suggests that certain traits, favourable or unfavourable, could be linked to the original strains of these three families. That is an unfortunate misunderstanding of these kindhearted people and of the time they lived in. History shows us that among the Shirefolk this kind of narrow-minded typification of individual character through ethnic background, the very seed of racism, was never embraced nor considered. Through a closer study of history we see that Hobbits, no matter where they came from, no matter the language that they spoke, the clothes that they wore, their height or their hair color, their handiness with either a bow or a plough, a fishing rod or a stewpot, no matter their gift for singing or their talent for writing, hobbits were instantly and universally recognized by one and all as simply being hobbits.

   The attempt to distinguish between Harfoots, Fallohides and Stoors was never centred in our modern (and tragically near-inescapable) tendency toward racial stereotypes. Hobbits of the Shire were simply trying to identify or examine their lost and unrecorded pasts as a disparate people through the three major lines of hobbit migration which eventually found their way into the new land. The “stock”, or genetic backgrounds, of Stoor, Harfoot and Fallohide could be found in all of the Shirefolk by Bilbo’s time and, as any reclaimed history should, the mention of it was meant to tell every hobbit-child more about their background and to limit nothing of their future.

   Tomba Fallohide, the reported and identified leader of his family, set up his first blacksmith shop in Frogmorton and, within a year’s time, he and his family were making all the tools for the Shirefolk. Records tell us that Tomba had heard, shortly after crossing the bridge, that blacksmiths were needed and, with a characteristic sort of ease, he himself became a blacksmith. How he had acquired the skill is unknown but, unlike old Isegrim Tinyfoot back in the Bree-land, he taught it freely to all who wished to learn.

   One of his sons, Turpin, established himself as a cooper down in Stock. He married a daughter of the Mugwort family and for centuries the “Roundwort” name was on every good quality barrel and box made and shipped throughout the land.

   Another cousin, one Hugo Stumbletoe, was an uncommonly good stone-cutter, though he certainly did not look the part. He wore simple, practical clothing, always of some neutral grey tone, and carried no great sack of tools as other stonecutters, tunnellers and builders might. But he was reportedly very dapper in his appearance with a large collection of brightly coloured neckscarves. In his work apron, also grey but never dirty, there were pockets for one small hammer, three iron chisels and a strange tube-shaped device which he would draw forth with some flourish and carefully hold to his eye. With this he would examine great slabs of stone, sometimes spending long hours just looking. “Hugo Firstcut” many of the hobbits later called him, for he had an uncommon knack for dropping only one chisel-cut into a stone from which his assistants could draw the rest away in minutes. Alongside Clooty, Hugo became the major architect of the Delvings, the far western cities that would become the most densely populated region of the Shire by Frodo’s time, and there was stonework there, built in Firstcut’s day, which would make the few dwarves to ever visit that place marvel.

   In his most well-received work, “Herblore of the Shire”, Meridoc the Magnificent claims that the custom, or art, of smoking pipeweed was the Shire’s greatest contribution to the culture of Middle-earth. But at the time of his book’s writing he had, through his own interests, quite overlooked one of the Shire’s greatest, more long-lasting and most singular achievements.

   There was another cousin of the Fallohides, his name is quite unfortunately forgotten, who brought the science of high-fire ceramics into the Shire. There is no evidence to be found of hobbits firing clay in high temperatures before this. Indeed, the later and more enduring roof of the Budgeford bridge could not have been built without this advancement. But we can say with some certainty that kiln-fired ceramics begin in the Shire about Year Ten and the art advances to high-fired porcelain there by Year Seventy-One. While developments in pottery can be found elsewhere in Middle-earth, no records exist in Gondor or any other place in the known world of this important and sophisticated development. Historians believe that this may indeed be the earliest introduction of porcelain into the world and that the art was sadly lost in later years never to be regained in the later Fourth Age. Men of the west fell out of contact with the hobbits then, and the skill, if it was ever known outside of the Shire at this time, does not come into the broader world for many centuries. Yet great stores of porcelain pots and kettles and cups were discovered in the excavation of the Great Smials in Year 1961 of our present age. Whether King Elessar, the Grey Wizard or even King Thorin Oakenshield told anyone of the splendid place settings of Bilbo Baggins’ table remains unknown. But it seems that the obsession hobbits had with comfort and dinnerware would lead to an invention lost to other people for thousands of years.

   Another notable family of the Shire arrived in Year Ten and brought with them a major and defining resource for hobbit culture. It was at this time Obidias Maggot, leading his family of eighty and his livestock of five hundred, came across the Sarn Ford to make a new home. Where he came from remains undetermined, for he and his family all had light-coloured hair as some of the Fallohides did, though the Maggots all spoke to one another with a different language. Coarse it sounded to some, but rolling, rhyming and alliterative it seemed as well to those who bothered to listen. The Maggots made no claims regarding their former home or ancestry, but claimed to know well the lands east to the Misty Mountains and across the Great River.

   ‘Ponies, I’ve brought from there,’ Obidias said in his rough and rugged accent,⁸ ‘and I’ve driven them far to bring them here. They’ll shoulder ploughs, drive carts and deliver packages as they’re needed. I could sell them to you all, I suppose, for the fact is that all of you farmers and porters need them more than I do. But I’d rather trade them for a strip of land which I and my family may call our own.’

   And so ponies, formerly a rarity in the Northlands and prized by hobbits and dwarves for their manageable size, came in plenty just as the land’s growth was in great need. From that day on they would remain the great working beasts of all the Shire’s industry. Obidias did indeed trade off nearly all of his herd and in return took for himself much of the land in the East-farthing south of the Bridgefields. But four score head for breeding he gave to his eldest son, Hartgard, and the boy drove them north and west into the lands still undiscovered. He followed the river that ran through Hobbiton-by-the Water and found a safe place for himself and his livestock along a hillside which he called “Needle”. It was long and thin and tapered with a great green valley below and there Hartgard built a hole which looked out on a fenced grazing field. He lived as a bachelor there for many years with only a few helpers to tend his growing herd. The “Boy’s Farm” hobbits called it for a long time and so Hartgard lost the surname of Maggot and came to be called Catton instead.⁹ In later generations many of his people would settle into Hobbiton and farm the area around the Bywater becoming known as the Cottons.¹⁰

   The Shirefolk then had little need to travel back and forth to the Bree-land after these last demands for their self-reliance were met and, without plan or consideration, they turned inward (as was always a hobbit’s usual manner) so that their contact with outer lands abruptly ceased. Some trade with the folks of the Bree-land remained of course but, by Year Twenty-nine the two civilizations became like distant cousins who had met at a grandmother’s wedding; they knew of their kinship, respected one another’s distance, and seldom sought one another’s company. The Shirefolk had now become a nation of their own in custom and consideration and cared little for the world they had left behind.

v) On The Ingenuity of Childebrand Swiftook

   The history of any new nation can often be written around the originality of a few free-thinking people and their struggles for freedom and independence. But we might also shape our understanding of any nation’s history through its rare and unique opportunity for economic success. Often we will find that an applied understanding of economics, while much less exciting, can be more useful to a history than any tales of its heroic pioneers.

   If we are to examine the early years of the Shire before turning back to our story of the Bucks and the Tooks, some attention must be drawn to the events of Year Fifteen. For generations after, the Shirefolk would call this “the Year of Entanglements,” which certainly seems appropriate in light of later events. While there is no direct evidence to be found in her remaining writings, it is largely believed that Alaura was the first to coin that term and that also seems appropriate given her strong feelings of opposition to a central government.

   Year Fifteen was most certainly a time of major consequence in the growing community and hobbits, like most people, were always very keen to place a name upon such interesting periods so that they might better establish their own place in it. The recorded history of the Shire would see only seven major upheavals in their citizens’ otherwise comfortable and prosperous way of life; the Economic Crisis of Year Fifteen, the Opening of the South in Year Twenty-nine, the Southerner’s Sickness in Year Thirty-six, the Fall of the King in Year Three-Hundred and Seventy-four, the Battle of the Greenfields in Eleven-Hundred and Forty-six, the Fell Winter of Year Thirteen-Hundred and Eleven, and the Subjugation by Sharkey in Year Fourteen-Hundred and Eighteen.¹¹ In all seven of these crises hobbit lives were lost and the Shirefolks’ views on their need for government and their position with the outside world were changed. It should be said that any Shire-hobbit of any good-sized family knew exactly what their ancestors were doing at any of these important moments of history and would happily share their opinions on these matters as if they had lived through these times themselves.

   To call the events of Year Fifteen an “economic crisis” is simply a matter of academic explanation. It should be noted that the very concept of money was new to most of the hobbits who had not lived in the Bree-land or had not interacted much with the Big Folk. It was the original pioneers of Year One who brought the use of currency with them. Shopkeepers, like old Heindewin Bolger and Twoody’s brother Childebrand, entrepreneurs like Horris Bunce and purveyors like the farmers of Bridgefield all used this familiar system for the valuation of goods and services which they had learned from the Big Folk. And it was indeed useful from the very beginning. With so many hobbits coming from so many strange and far off places it was important to set standards of value. Currency was seldom exchanged in the first few years, for many of the hobbits had very little of it. Something like a shovel could always be bartered for of course, and most often it was, but, just as it was back in the Bree-land, there was a monetary value also attached to the shovel and that value was, in the most practical sense, set by the shovel’s usefulness. This sounds simple enough at first glance, even for hobbits unfamiliar with the use of money. But, as anyone can tell you, when everyone is digging holes the value of a shovel can become greatly increased.

   Twoody, forethinking as ever, implemented a rudimentary form of currency in Year Four and some version of it was used exclusively among the Shirefolk throughout their known history. The principal unit was called a “kast”,¹² a printed note which bore the likeness of King Argeleb II as drawn by Porro Noakesburrow from careful descriptions by Twoody himself. This item was commonly called the “Kingsnote” and it may well represent the first use of printed currency in the west of Middle-earth outside of the Númenórean cities of Gondor and old Arnor. The Kingsnote was not quite money as we know it today, for it was not backed by any bankable reserve or traded in any other lands outside of the Shire. These notes were, in Twoody’s conception, only to be used as promisories of value and therefore not many were issued in those first few years. They were meant to only be exchanged when other goods were not available to hand. A hobbit might trade a pig at the Stonebows’ market for one note and walk further up the Road to exchange that note for a shovel. If a pig was worth more than a shovel on a given day then, certainly, more notes would be granted and exchanged. The seller of the shovel might then exchange that note for a pig or some other thing of relative value at a different marketplace. It was a simple enough arrangement for expediting trade and Twoody felt it would curtail the inflated cost of everyday goods made important through demand; if a shovel was worth one note at the market then only the surprising and sudden lack of shovels could make it worth two notes elsewhere. It seemed to him to be an efficient enough idea as far as things went, though he found it difficult to explain to the other pioneers (for in the earliest days of the Shire hobbits worked on many projects together and owning an idle shovel when a neighbour might need to do some digging was largely unheard of).

   Food is not shared in this same way, of course. When important goods like food can no longer be bartered for but are instead sold at an open market, and when there is a shortage of currency for people to use at these markets, inflation of prices can cripple the everyday consumer. If the potatoes in their own garden which formerly fed a hobbit family are suddenly or surprisingly gone then someone from the family must go to the market for potatoes. But if there is very little currency available the opportunity for purchasing becomes restricted; if a Kingsnote is more rare than a potato then how much should a potato cost? And if there is no control of market costs, then the wealthiest of hobbits, either through currency or barter, may pay inflated prices and accrue debt in the purchasing of potatoes which will fix a valuation on potatoes that might leave the poorest of hobbits, without Kingsnotes or credit, going hungry. Needless to say, there were no hobbit experts in economics at this time able to explain the subtle pressures of marketplace and inflation. And, as anyone might suspect, many of the Shirefolk became angered when a force which they could not understand might eventually lead to a life-threatening situation or disrupt their enjoyment of an otherwise good meal.

   With the Shire growing so alarmingly fast and the successful pioneers trading goods to pay for services more rapidly, the valuation of these things became dependent on a currency which was misunderstood and in short supply. But the simple matter of printing more Kingsnotes, promissory notes not backed by a standard surplus, would only devalue the goods and services; if a shovel is worth one Kingsnote out of a thousand, what is that same shovel worth when there are forty thousand Kingsnotes? It is easy to see how the early settlers of the Shire could become confused by such an arcane system and we should never blame them too strongly for their ignorance or for their trust in fellow hobbits.

   Those who live in the history of a new nation, brave pioneers and free-thinking people, often dream beyond the constraints of practical economics in their struggles for freedom and independence. But historians know that the chance of a nation’s success can also be readily measured through the actions of keen businessmen who perceived their rare opportunities for economic success. The troubles related to money were not entirely unexpected by the townfathers. The main focus of many arguments between Twoody and Alaura, and even Gondo, since the Shire’s initial founding had centred around economic independence. But in Year Fifteen that subject they had argued about would be finally put to the test. The answer they would settle on would divide Twoody and Alaura further in years to come.

   For, as many learned in Year Fifteen, it was Twoody’s own brother, Childebrand Swiftalk, that was the true problem.

   For if we are to extend our metaphor just a little further it may be said that Childebrand Swiftalk, as early as Year One, owned all the shovels.

    Childebrand was the second son of old Hincmar Swifwalk, the shrewd entrepreneur who had been the first of his clan to make his fortune in the Bree-land. Hincmar had purchased the Inn of the Four Greenfields while still under the age of thirty and, through his unique blend of cleverness and congeniality, quickly made it the most noteworthy tavern in that area of the north. In Year 1558 of the Third Age Hincmar married a distant cousin of the Swiftwalk hobbits, Ingletrude Swiftsower, who, like himself, had come into the Bree-land as a young fawn. Ingletrude, like her husband, was considered an excellent host and a great charmer and reputedly had a great gift for singing. So in the early days of their marriage many people in the lands surrounding Bree-hill would come often to the Inn of the Four Greenfields to hear songs and laughter and smatterings of gossip from the larger world. The first son of Hincmar and Ingletrude, Hartnid, was born in the springtime of Year 1560 and many regular customers came to see and celebrate the youngster and the happy couple.

   Childebrand was born late in the next year before the Yule. It is remembered by a few that the day of his birth was dark and cold with rain. Ingletrude tragically died that day in giving birth and all the town grieved at the loss. The lights went out at the Inn of the Four Greenfields that day and for the long weeks of Frery (the month we now call January) the doors there remained locked. Hincmar retired to the hole he had built for his family on the Hill and accepted no visitors.

   Then, on the very first day of Solmath (January 21st in our modern calendar), Hincmar opened the inn once again with a spectacular party to introduce his new son to all of the Bree-land. All the Breefolk were happy to see Hincmar come out of mourning, but there were many who also missed the singing and laughter of Ingletrude. To those who would be bold enough to mention it, Hincmar would thank them for their memories of his wife and say, “but she has left us these two young bright voices, Hartnid and Childebrand, to fill our future with songs.” As the years went on Hartnid developed a fine voice and made many of his neighbours happy with the songs he had learned. But Childebrand did not take to music as his brother did and instead paid close attention to the business of his father.

   And Hincmar remained as busy as ever. He remarried five years later and his second wife, Gloriana Hopesinger, also had a splendid voice. There were many older townsfolk who would argue about which of Hincmar’s wives was the better singer (though never in the family’s presence, of course). Gloriana bore ten more children for Hincmar and Twoody was the seventh babe of that line. Thus Hartnid and Childebrand were fifteen years and more older than Twoody and did much to shape his upbringing, particularly in matters of business.

   From a very young age all the children of Hincmar Swiftwalk worked alongside their father at the Inn of the Four Greenfields. The business expanded as the family did and all of them had a share in its success. Together the eldest brothers Hartnid and Childebrand inherited the responsibility of managing the Inn of the Four Greenfields under their father’s watchful eye. But everyone knew that Hartnid, less than one year older than Childy, would, on the eventual but still unrealized occasion of their father’s retirement, always be the leader in their shared enterprise. Hartnid was the oldest child and there were traditions within hobbit culture which were maintained even in the Bree-land. There are some who say that Childy found this condition unfair (though no one ever heard him speak of it openly). And it was certainly true that even from a young age it was Childy who was considered to be more observant of an opportunity, keener with a cost, and harder at a bargain; all very respected qualities of a young businessperson in the Bree-land. But no matter his acumen or his abilities, Childy’s brother Hart would always be the first son of their father. So, or so it has been said, Childy set his eyes well beyond the ownership of the Inn of the Four Greenfields while still in his twenties. But he was also characteristically patient in waiting for a truly solid opportunity to arise.

   Hartnid met and married a very respectable Bree-land hobbit while he was still at the young age of twenty-five. Within a year there were grandchildren who made old Hincmar very happy. It was at this time, Year 1585, that Childy made his first business trip east of Bree-hill along the Road to the Weather hills. There were still a few hobbit settlements along the Road in those days and there Childy met and married Oda Brownlock of the Midgefield Marshes. Oda returned with Childy to the Bree-land for a time and there she bore him a son, Reginard, on a winter’s day in Year 1587. But unlike Hartnid’s family who continued to grow under the shadow of Bree-hill to their grandfather’s delight, Childy sent Oda and their son back to the Marshlands to attend to the new business opportunities he had established there. Childy would leave his father’s house to visit his wife and son occasionally over the next fifteen years, fathering two more children, but his wife never visited their family in the Bree-land again. Twoody, who grew up in a large family which he loved very much, had nieces and nephews whom he would not meet for more than forty years.

   Some say that it was Childebrand who convinced his father to fund the first excursions over the Stonebows bridge. And there are some who say he also prompted his brother Twoody and his friend Gondo to go north to Fornost and petition the King for usage of the land. There is nothing of that to be found in Twoody’s own journals however and, given the later developments, we should recognize that this might just be the gossip of hindsight. But it is certain that Childebrand Swiftalk and the dubious value of his contributions were held in great regard by the earliest pioneers and townfathers of the Shire. His original plans we cannot know, but the results of his business can be seen in the earliest days.

   For we know that Childebrand had prepared himself for just such an opportunity as the King’s Agreement would present. Living at his father’s home and being legendarily frugal (if not miserly) in his social attachments, Childebrand had scrupulously saved all of his earnings. What was spent on his family in the Marshlands was unknown, but all Breelanders saw the Marsh-dwellers as poor and provincial. Many joked that Childy had gotten himself a family out of his “knowing a bargain”, but this was crude talk which no one would say openly to one of Hincmar’s sons.

   At the age of thirty-three, while still managing the inn alongside his brother, Childy purchased the Bree-land stables and, with the help of builders, eventually tripled its size. In Year 1601, while Twoody and Gondo were away in Norbury, Childy hung a less-than-humble sign on the door frame there declaring his new business; “Swiftwalk Purchasers, Purveyors, Packagers and Porters -Things Provided and Things Took.” There were indeed many of the Bree-folk who found this to be a sign of the young hobbit’s foolishness, for at that time very few things were bought or sold in the little village other than the pints and provenders at the inn and very little goods were packaged or ported to or from the village to anywhere else in the world. How much business Childebrand was doing before the signing of the King’s Agreement is unknown and most folks, believing this new enterprise to be unwise (but still wishing to respect Childy because of the high opinion they held of his father) seldom asked about his newfound venture. But they did notice that he commissioned help from outside of the Bree-land in the expansion of his stables; help which came from strangers and Big Folk. These workmen came and went on loaded wagons from the east, none staying too long or becoming familiar to the Breefolk. With the assistance of these strangers the stable grew rapidly just as Childy’s storehouse did in the back of his establishment. In the six months that Gondo and Twoody were away the additions to the stable were completed but the doors to Childy’s storehouse remained closed. If any of the Breelanders were at all curious, there is no record of their suspicions until after Year Fifteen; and those are observations which we might certainly put down to the clearer vision of hindsight. To most Breefolk Childy’s new business was both an enigma worthy of speculation and an opportunity for back-talking gossip and ridicule. No one knew what he was doing and so, by their own self-important regard, he must be doing things wrong.

   Breelanders, like any small-town folk, cannot resist the opportunity to gossip about a neighbour whom they believe is doing things wrong.

   After the King’s Agreement was signed, in fact the very day that Twoody and Alaura posted it on the walls of the inn, we are told that Childebrand went to his father and his elder brother Hartnid asking to sell his share of inheritance. Childy was forty then, in that time we name as Year One of the Shire-reckoning, and his father, for so long the big voice of the family, was seventy-six but still quite active in the family business. With the use of money being so rare in hobbit culture during this time, the selling of a family legacy would have been seen as a very peculiar occurrence. How old Hincmar originally took to the idea is unknown. But Twoody, in one of his early letters with Alaura (perhaps late in Year Two before his own move to the Shire), hinted at the significance of this unique situation. In this letter we see the germ of the Kingsnote and the lesson of economic planning which Twoody had been learning from his older brother for some time:

   “Money, some kind of valued currency of our own, will be necessary for us to move settlement forward rapidly. Childy has recognized this and reacted to the fact of it faster than all of us. Hobbits pouring into the Bree-land as a gateway to the Shire will need currency to make barter easier. Childy has wisely based all of his earliest prices for goods against the cost of a drink at the Four Greenfields; for the disposable currency of an inn can be seen as the best quantifier of what a hobbit (or even one of the Big Folk) is willing to spend. Childy has planned better than any of us. He takes a share of the inn’s profits and uses it to build his surplus of trade goods. In this way most of the new coin coming into the Bree-land passes through Childy’s own hands.

“My brother is no more a pioneer than I am, but he is uncommonly keen at an opportunity. He has traded away his legacy and his future in the Bree-land over the success of the Shire. To my thinking this was an act of boldness and forethought. But he knew that his buyers of that legacy, my brother Hart and my Father, had less practical use for currency at that moment than he would, and so Childy took the great chance that the currency’s value would increase as the Shire’s needs grew. He was indeed correct in that observation and it was a bold move; I doubt that even my Father understood its full importance. If only a few families of hobbits had come to make their home in the Shire then Childy’s plan would never have been successful; he would have given up his security for stamped pieces of wood and metal which have no value in a new land and only small usage here surrounding Bree-hill. But as the many hundreds of hobbits keep pouring in he has become the community’s principal vendor; he owns a surplus of goods, stockpiles the coins which flow into the region, uses them to purchase more goods quickly from outside sources and is thereby capable of establishing his own prices. We will need to see to that if we are to keep pricing fair in the new land.”

   There is no way to know the details of Childebrand’s settlement with his elder brother and his father but certainly, with the influx of hopeful pioneers, trade goods were greatly demanded in the Bree-land and Childebrand’s new business opportunity, just as Twoody notes in the letter, benefited best by having both currency and goods readily at hand. When he opened his shopdoors one week after the announcement of the King’s Agreement many curious people from the Bree-land filled the space. They found all of Childy’s wares were selected specifically for the needs of anyone willing to go forth and settle the Shire. And they found him very willing to buy (or trade) for some of the former luxuries of any hobbits interested in making the journey. He offered currency to those who would not depart, but always preferred trade- good and honest trade- with those who would. He encouraged the building of the Shire in every way and all of the Breefolk could now see how the whole of his business was built upon the land’s success.

   In the meanwhile, wains and barrows of hobbit-folk were arriving in the Bree-land daily during Year One seeking the tools they might need for building a new life in the open lands which they had heard about. Those tools could only be found at Childy’s shop and so “Things Provided and Things Took” became a common departure point for many of the new settlers. It was their gateway into the West and more hobbits came through there in the first two years of the migration than visited the Inn of the Four Greenfields. They spent what coin they had, and traded whatever they might no longer need. And still, all this time, the loaded wagons of the Big Folk brought goods to and fro to Childy’s storehouse.

   Where those wagons came from none knew and, with business of their own to care for, none of the eager settlers, nor even Childy’s Bree-land neighbours, thought to ask.

vi) On the Childsbank

   Childebrand retained ownership in the Bree-land stables for many years after but, early in Year Two of the Shire, just before the first families came (and before his own influential brother Twoody came as well), Childy relocated his shop to where the business of trade was most needed. His new place for business ran along the Old Road, just an hour or so walk from the Bridge and right where the new northern road to Budgeford began. His own offices and stalls there were not large; a hastily built above-ground place to meet with his clients, a stable for ponies and the unloading of goods which was erected of wood and plaster with a thatched roof, and a small number of open air stalls stretching themselves westward along the Old Road. Whatever else would be said about him in later days, Childebrand was not one to believe in comfort or ostentatiousness over efficiency. His new property was, to the casual observer, much smaller and much less grand than his old stable and warehouse in the Bree-land.

   But the deed he staked out for this business, easily the size of any small neighbouring farm, consisted of two narrow strips of land on either side of the Road. That land, being so close to Road, was largely unwanted by most of the pioneering farmers who had already come to the Bridgefields. Many of those pioneers believed, and rightly so, that the Road might eventually become a busy throughway and wanted little to do with such a potential disturbance to their peace and success. So the Bridgefield farmers, hesitant to build too close there, had set their fenceposts farther back and the Roadside was, in Year Two, not something to which they gave their attention. When Childy came to make an offer on this underused property the farmers, busy enough with their own concerns and somewhat indebted to Childy already for helping them with their early stakes, graciously agreed to move aside and see how he might develop the land. They were the first Shirefolk to turn over parts of their deeded land and, from all the records we have found, they did so free of charge thinking it would benefit themselves and all of their neighbours.

   It is in this place that Childebrand put his foresight and his opportunity to use, expanding on the success of his older marketplace in the Bree-land. He built and arranged simple stalls of long outdoor booths, first set up on crates and overturned barrels, which lined the roadway and seemed to lead travellers west rather than north towards the competing shops which had crept up in Budgeford. His sign above the Bree-land stable was taken down and a much larger version of it was erected here at the crossroad; "Childebrand’s Purchasers, Purveyors, Packagers and Porters -Things Provided and Things Took." No one thought to ask about the change of Childy’s family name on the previous sign to his personal name on this location. Like many who came to the new land, they assumed that Childy simply wished to make a fresh reputation for himself. And that he certainly did.

   Here he brought all of the supplies from his old shop behind the Bree-land stables, concentrating on things of greatest need to the recent arrivals. His tall sign could be seen by any pioneers coming up the Road from the Bridge and his goods here were smartly arranged to attract the attention of enterprising hobbits upon their entrance into the Shire. Barrels and tools, boxes and sacks, seed and brick and lumber were sold here first and much of that came, as they did in the Bree-land, on wagons driven by the Big Folk from parts unknown. Childy had downsized his inventory to focus on the most important items.

   But here too is an example of his ingenuity.

   In a very short time, other hobbit vendors came there to set up shop, paying rent to Childy for the length of stalls which he had the foresight to build and provide. The surrounding Bridgefield farmers came first, looking to sell their perishable foods and charming household crafts to the newcomers. They had given this land to Childy by deed and now, simply because of this newly perceived opportunity, they found themselves renting stalls from him on the same property. His prices were fair, as always, and the opportunity was not a mistake; many of the Bridgefield farmers established their reputations in the Roadside shop of Childebrand’s P.P.P.&P. And if there were some who were suspicious of this situation at the time then, sadly, they did not mention it to their neighbours.

   Not long after this the tradesmen from Budgeford, missing some of their former business, set up shops on Childy’s land as well, selling breads and cheeses and household practicalities like blankets, leathercrafts, cookingspoons and wheelbarrows. Some of these merchants preferred to build shops rather than the stalls that the farmers used and Childy understood and appreciated their needs. As the cost of these buildings would be initially expensive, he agreed to defer the payment of rents against a percentage of profits and this too sounded like a very good arrangement for his tenants. Small shops were built then on both sides of the Road, on Childy’s own land, and promissory notes were signed by the owners of these shops as to the shares which Childy might expect in coming years.

   After Year Eight and the building of Tomba’s forge in Frogmorton (less than two miles away from Childy’s shops) one of the Fallohides set up an impressive boutique of iron cookingpots, ceramic containers and an array of unusual spices and herbs. We do not know the original shopkeeper’s name, but some version of this original idea for a shop dedicated to comestibles would exist in hobbit culture for many generations to come. There were others; weavers, coopers, loomers and tanners who all leased their small shops in the stalls of Childy’s market. Eventually, as immigration numbers grew, there was a pledgebroker,¹³ an honest and likeable member of the well-respected Bolger family who made trades with the new and poorer hobbit families for their old and archaic luxuries (now unneeded) like telescopes, joolstones, toyboats, handkerchiefs and embroidered handbags. It was not long after this that the very talents and aptitudes of those poorer immigrants also became a part of the marketplace; for this became a kind of trafficstop for newcomers and a good place to find inexpensive labor. New settlers went there to meet “placementbrokers,” fellow hobbits who would use their knowledge of the land and their friendly contacts to suggest where a new settler might find his best opportunities; all at a nominal price.

   And so the length of Childebrand’s Roadside marketplace grew and grew for a dozen years, and always it pointed west toward greater possibility while making profit from people who were transitioning themselves into a new life.

   When Twoody had first come to live in the Shire during the early months of Year Three some of Childy’s land along the Road was leased (but not granted) to him so that he might build the very useful First Bank and Trust; a place where hobbits could safely deposit or withdraw the currency which was in such short supply. Twoody, like his brother, had rightly seen that a bank would eventually be needed to invest in the Shire’s growth. The First Bank offered accounts and small loans as needed but collected no interest. Unlike Childy’s enterprises, Twoody’s were seldom built around an idea of great personal profit. Cautious in its initial ambitions, Twoody hoped that the Bank would aid the flow of currency which was hampering much of the trade and building going on at that time; the hobbits still laboured side-by-side together, but supplies were always in demand to match the speed of the communities growth.

   Next to the Bank building, and also on Childy’s land, was the very important and more often visited Office of Deeds (referred to earlier). This too was operated by Twoody and some of his more forward-thinking associates. Here pioneers filed for their land grants, showed evidence of their history of public work, and were given copies of their deeds for lands or the titles and registrations for their shops. The Office of Deeds was one of the largest and most ambitious public buildings of its time and, while the architecture was unfortunately wooden and all above ground, the building was also greatly noted as the home of “The Shire Map”, a lost relic of the early days. This was a large mural depicting all the known lands of the King’s Agreement which was constantly being updated with information of new settlements and deeds.

   In the early days of the Shire’s growth one would wait there in the Great Hall for their deed to be processed while watching Porro (now charmingly referred to as “Daddy”) Noakes paint and define their holdings on the Shire Map. The mural was a work of greater pride than purpose perhaps, but here- in the place all hobbits came to as they took the land in their own name- here was visible evidence of their place in a new and growing community. To sit in the great open space and watch one’s property be marked and assigned was one of the most proud moments of belonging recognized by those pioneers of the early expansion. There are many long books of hobbit family histories which begin by recounting the joy of that singular experience. But the Office of Deeds collected no taxes in the early days and charged no registration fees for the handing out of property. Twoody, and all those who built it, always hoped that the Office of Deeds would remain a house of pride for all the Shirefolk for many generations. But this was not to be.

   Also built at this time (and also referred to earlier) and on the strip of land directly across the Road from the Office of Deeds, was the Shirefolk’s first Post Office. It was not so large a building as the Office of Deeds, for fewer hobbits wrote letters in those days than laid claims to land ownership, but it was built in the same architectural style. It was believed for many years that Gondolpho the Oldbuck had made the first drawings for both these buildings as a gift to his friends Twoody and Alaura but new evidence shows that both were in fact early works of Cloot the Builder. Only the Post Office remained in Frodo’s time and we have a writing from Thane Peregrin Took (of all people!) which speaks of the building and its importance:

   “We must, at any cost, preserve this grand old building! The story of our connection as a People exists there still in its dusty letterboxes and cobwebbed sorting slots. Since Year Four of our Reckoning this building was the heart of our communications and all of our growth. Every Shire-family, and most certainly my own, has preserved letters and documents which have been received, sorted and delivered through this beating heart of our history.

   “The wood-shingled roof is now nearly gone, but the great pillared porch is still strong and resilient nearly fourteen-hundred years after its construction! The signature round windows and door have all lost their glass, but not the charm which inspired generations of our distinctive hobbit architecture. This old and glorious structure, both interior and exterior is still strong but in need of replacement and reinforcement. Why have we hobbits, proud of our past, allowed it to fall into such disrepair?

   “To preserve the First Post Office is to preserve the most important building of our earliest days. To balk at such a project out of concern for its expense is to ignore the value of our history and I will not condone nor forget any foolishness of this sort.”

   The First Post Office and the Postal Service itself was the work of Alaura Fairheart of course, and whether or not the land was granted or leased from Childebrand for this project remains unclear. But from here the very beginnings of a postal system and a school system were created in the North and, as Thane Peregrine notes many centuries later, through it all of the communication between the Shire’s settlements became possible. Like the First Bank and the Office of Deeds, it was a public work built upon the idea of providing services to the people rather than upon its own profitability. The Post Office charged no fees and paid no wages to its carriers. The teachers there taught their lessons for free and the copyists, who responsibly managed THE SHIRE-RECKONING, the land’s free and public newsheet, all assembled at this post office in the earliest days. It was, for many generations, run by volunteers who came there everyday to help move correspondence, educate neighbours and disseminate public information throughout the Shire. Despite the condition which Thane Peregrin finds the building in after the Subjugation of Sharkey in Year Fourteen Hundred and Eighteen it was, for all its long history the most notable Free Post Office in all of the land.

   All three of these public buildings were important destinations for newcomers and vital to the workings of the new country. Gondo and Twoody and Alaura had all hoped to put them at Hobbiton-by-the Water, but it was decided to be more practical here closer to the Stonebows bridge and the eastern edge of the Shire. To some eyes the importance of these buildings, standing as they were amid Childy’s marketplace, was co-opted by commerce. Some saw that the public buildings there legitimised the market’s importance and gave it a kind of official authority. But it could not be argued that every new immigrant came here, to this strip of land along the Road in Bridgefields, expecting to settle their futures.

   And all of them did business at Childy’s market.

   During the first fifteen years there were wagonloads, always driven by the Big Folk, arriving at Childy’s market every tenth day carrying familiar goods from the Bree-land as well as new and useful tools from places far beyond. The public services of the Post Office, the First Bank and the Office of Deeds brought the newcomers; but Childy’s marketplace turned them into customers. For those hobbits lacking currency to pay the market prices- and that was many of them- Childebrand graciously took promissory notes from any who were in need. If Kingsnotes were not available from the Bank, then they signed separate agreements with Childy himself. This arrangement seemed to many of the newcomers to be a friendly and welcoming gesture by their new neighbours and, having little goods of their own and needing much, they signed these notes against the only practical worth they now had; the freshly written deed to their newly allotted land.

   Unnoticed by many, this practice began in the winter of Year Two after the families had come over. There was an increased desire to build in all of the young pioneers and make their new holes more comfortable. Many took loans from Twoody at the new Bank and Trust but many more signed notes in the market with his brother Childy. And there were many, no matter who their lender, who found this situation embarrassing and seldom spoke of it to their friends or neighbours. There were many others in the same situation, particularly the new arrivals from lands to the south, who had almost no experience with money or debt. They had no expectation of what indebtedness meant other than the gratefulness which comes from being offered help by a neighbour in a time of need and no experience of the difference between gratefulness and debtorship.

   And Childebrand continued to take their business while all the while seeming to keep his prices reasonable.

   Twoody departed for the Buckland early in Year Four to help Alaura with her newborn son and the businesses of the First Bank and the Office of Deeds moved with him. Many newcomers at this time were increasingly interested in the land of the West-farthing and happily went there to make their start. But even so, many more used Childy’s services. So many that as pioneers first came across the Stonebows bridge the marketplace and the Post Office and the surrounding area became known as “Childsbank”; a marketplace and loan service unto itself. Even though the prices seemed fair, it was not spoken of fondly by many of these new immigrants. Through their experiences at Childsbank many came to learn that they might have to give up much of their old self-reliance to live in the new land; something the rumours and the broadsheets had not told them.

   In Year Ten Childy annexed the old and then unused Office of Deeds which held the Shire Map. It still maintained the ongoing mural of all the landowners and, despite the Assayers’ Offices being moved to Buckland, Daddy Noakes still came there every month or so to update the Shire Map. It is said that Childy would take his conferences there with new debtors to show them the glorious opportunities which lay before them. But it is also said that he had his own employees add blue paint to many of these properties, never explaining the cause for this change. By Year Fourteen and its failed harvest, much of this map was blue and, for a time, to have your name and your land written on the great mural there became something quite short of an honour and would, in the next year, lead to dangerous troubles which no hobbit had foreseen or would ever forget.

vii) On the Crisis of Year Fifteen

   In Year Fourteen the Shire saw its first season of heavy rains. There were some diarists from this period, mostly among the Fallohides, who attached a mystical and malignant force to the change in weather. “Fell voices” were said to be heard in storms and, believing this or not, all of the hobbits in the Shire began to protect their heads in the rain. Hats became a fashion for a brief time but Tomba Fallohide, agreeable to his neighbours’ needs and as inventive as ever, built the first umbrella anyone had seen and ushered that novel little luxury into the hobbit lifestyle. Milliners who saw new prospects in a wet summer were put out of business by the fall. Within a month Tomba left his smithing job behind for the much less exhausting work of umbrella-manufacture. By doing so he remained happy and wealthy for the rest of his days, his products always in demand, often left behind, and badly needed only on occasion.

   But whether through the runoff of heavy rains or the dark curse of fell voices, a blight had come to the potatoes and carrots of the Shire in Year Fourteen. After years of growth and prosperity the Shirefolk were unprepared for the collapse of their most plentiful homegrown food. Systems of trade between the new towns and settlements were well in place by this time, other crops were abundant and fish and game were still plentiful; so no hobbit starved during the Blight of Year Fourteen. But for the first time in their history, hobbits had to rely not on barter but on purchasing to feed themselves. This created a hitherto unknown and (by many) certainly unexpected run on currency.

   And Childebrand Swiftalk, once again, was more prepared for the situation than most.

   Childy’s portage company was the first true success of the lean Autumn of Year Fourteen. He had wisely purchased many ponies from old Obidias Maggot and young Hartgard Catton a few years before, so from the first his stables in Bridgefields was prepared to carry goods to meet the needs of all the Shirefolk affected by the Blight. These services were at a cost which was reasonable to many, but they were always at a cost.

   As prices for perishable goods rose in the stalls of Childy’s market, so too did the rents upon those stalls. Farmers and tradesmen who owed money to Childy for establishing their businesses were forced to take out additional leans against their debts. And, as always, these new debts were seen as genuinely helpful and the borrowers, if embarrassed for their need, were thankful for the assistance. And all the time the blue paint filled out more and more of the Shire Map and all the while the wagons of Big Folk from the east brought new goods which might be purchased on these extended lines of credit.

   And then, on Yule Day of Year Fifteen, the Big Folks in their wagons made their regular deliveries but did not leave. A large makeshift bunker was set up for them near the old Office of Deeds and within a week’s time two score of these Big Folk were standing around the market, eating food and drinking beer and taking liberties for themselves in Childebrand’s name. Soon after this the first real trouble came.

   On the twelfth day of AfterYule the Forge building in Frogmorton was the first to fall. Tomba Fallohide had left the business to his son (or cousin or nephew or some other indistinct relation with the same last name) some months before. He however neglected to inform his heir of the rather large debt which the forge, as a business and not Tomba himself as a private citizen, still owed to Childebrand Swiftalk. On the early morning of that cold day a dozen of Childy’s enforcers walked into the forge offices and seized control. Workers were thrown out and new locks were put on all of the doors and windows. From the storehouse they took two wagonloads of supplies; rakes and hammers, shovels and spikes, cutting tools and pickaxes. The Men broke the office table in two¹⁴ and from the wreckage made a new sign to hang over the door; “Took in Arrears”¹⁵ it said, and if any questioned its meaning they were given little or no answers. No violence was committed in this takeover and it was said that the Big Folk moved quickly on to their next targets without explaining anything to the dumbfounded Fallohides who had formerly run the forge’s business who stood with their mouths agape.

  On that same morning these and other ruffians marched up and down the Road seizing and locking property in the name of Childebrand Swiftalk; from the Budge-and-Bridge publichouse at the eastern edge to the farms in Bridgefields and to some of the houses and many of the shops in Frogmorton, businesses were seized whose owners had an unarguably substantial debt to Childebrand Swiftalk. Signs were hung over their doors indicating a new ownership, but no one was given any instruction of what these new conditions of ownership would mean. In the meanwhile Childy himself remained secluded; whether in his offices or his home or elsewhere none of the Big Folk would say. But all the Men carried with them very official looking papers which bore the hobbit-landlord’s handwritten name. In this way Childebrand Swiftalk, a name he had earned from his younger brother’s accomplishments, was, in one winter morning’s time, renamed “Swiftook” by all his neighbours, and this was not a name which they used in jest nor kindness. But all of these hobbits who saw the shops and businesses being taken knew that they represented only a small portion of Childy’s debtors. They worried over what might happen next and what their own debts might be. Childy, from wherever he stood in hiding, had exerted the force of his economic power with surprising quickness using the support of outsiders, thuggish Big Folk in his employ who intimidated every one they met. Now he lay back waiting to hear how the Shirefolk would respond.

   Many did not respond on that morning and there is very little record of any argument between the surprised citizens and the Big Folk. The "Reacquisitioning Officers”, as these fellows called themselves, had come early in the winter morning and made quite a ruckus, as Big Folk invariably do, and then moved on quickly to mark and lock their next targets. It remains uncertain why the hobbits did not push back when first confronted. Perhaps they held back because they felt embarrassed for their debtorship, or perhaps it was simply a shock for them to be preyed upon for their need, or maybe they felt cowed and bamboozled in their naivety; why they didn’t resist at first is unknown and did not much matter. The seizure of their property was over before most of them had finished their second breakfast, let alone had time to organise a revolt.

   The fact that they were not quick to retaliate no doubt saved a tremendous amount of potential bloodshed, for the Big Folk were reportedly armed with clubs and knives and all manner of wicked weapons which the hobbits had never seen in their hands before. If it was simply surprise and a lack of organisation which prevented an early resistance then history, and the Shire-hobbits themselves, are the better for it. The Big Folk who seized hobbit lands in Childy’s name were organised, they had maps and an established route, and they went about their work as a large and efficient group. More terrible, they also seemed all too ready for confrontation. If the meanness in their eyes was a trait of their own or the instructions of their master was unknown, but any hobbit would have been unwise to meet and resist these usurpers if they were not themselves prepared for desperate violence.

   And then there was something else which happened that made the situation even more desperate. As trouble was happening from the Budge road and moving its way west another score of these ruffians came marching over the watched but unguarded Stonebows bridge shortly after sunrise on that same day. These fellows were not porters or baggagemen. All had the look of criminals and dangerous folk and they carried clubs and poles and curving knives of unusual design. At their head was a tall rider on horseback, dressed all in black, and he carried a curved sword, unsheathed, its oily black blade lying menacingly across his lap and upon his saddle. These folk answered no questions from the Bridge-wardens as they crossed and many laughed at the hobbits they encountered along the way. The black rider himself said nothing. And so, with this new and decidedly more dangerous group added to the mix, there were sixty of these Big Folk forming an encampment around the Office of Deeds and they were busily engaged in keeping any hobbit protesters or questioners away.

   By early afternoon the Big Folk had locked up three dozen businesses and stalls from the Budge road to Frogmorton and taken nine wagonloads of confiscated goods back to the Office of Deeds. There they had set a camp for themselves with attention to its defences. Crowds of hobbits were now starting to form there, but none of the Shirefolk were let inside the perimeter of the Office to speak their peace and Childy was still nowhere to be found.

   The hobbits now knew, though they had ignored it previously, that they had very unwisely signed away their futures while trusting upon their dreams. Worse, and much more disheartening, they had been blinded by the disingenuous helpfulness of a fellow hobbit. These revelations brought about feelings which can shatter the hopefulness of any trusting people and so we should not be surprised by their slow reaction or response. They were not so much paralyzed by fear as they were stunned by this first disappointment of their trust.

   Twoody and Alaura heard about the foreclosures just before noon and went to the town centre of the Buckland to speak with their neighbours and all other interested parties. It should be remembered that the Shire had no Mayor nor Court nor Captain, no ruling body elected or appointed who might sit in judgement of Childy’s claims or speak on the effects this incident may have on the community, but many folk experiencing the troubles in East-farthing sought the “townfathers” for advise. An unplanned townmoot had begun around the Wisher’s Well which, by end of day, drew hundreds of people from all of the surrounding area. Reports kept coming in which made the situation look increasingly bleak. After hearing of the second group of Big Folk crossing the Stonebows, more and more of the Shirehobbits were showing up to the meeting armed and ready to march. But there was no direct leadership in place to spark them.

   Alaura went about those assembled and tried to calm them. Meanwhile Twoody met with many of the wealthier landowners, from Buckland and from the East-farthing, and tried to make sense of the new reports and the ongoing situation. Some cautious estimates were drawn up of the amount of Childy’s lien on Shire property and the forecasts were staggering. Budge and Stock and the Buckland itself were more or less free of his usury, but many of the newer settlements along the Great Road were not. Childy’s holdings in Frogmorton, Bridgefields and Hobbiton-by-the-Water were extensive and the calculations of this debt was beyond even Twoody’s excellent mathematical skills. The First Bank and Trust in Buckland became a scene of panic and confusion for a time as many Shirefolk, fearing the worst, began withdrawing their holdings and preparing to flee further west. This caused a run on the bank and, when the hobbits discovered that the bank did not hold enough ready currency to pay, their panic increased. Alaura and Twoody could do little to calm the fears of the growing crowd.

   The greater part of the discussion amongst the townfathers and landowners centred not just on what they should do of course, but on what they could do; for no one amongst them contested the debts which they and their neighbours had freely agreed to. For many this was the darkest moment of the Shire. Faced with debt and distrust, many of the young hobbits’ dreams were broken. These earlier pioneers, who worked so hard to build something new, were now faced with a shocking realisation of their naivety and of the results of usury. Many turned their heads away in sadness and despair rather than raise them in anger or vengeance. There were none amongst them who could say which, anger or despair, was the wiser response to Childy’s aggression. For all those assembled in the discussions that afternoon the dream of the Shire had been their greatest call to action. They were all mostly young and for fifteen years the idea of a new land of their own had been their greatest ambition. Some were Twoody’s age; idealistic and hopeful of a new future, while a few were older and had known fear and failure in their dangerous and nomadic past. Many of those folks were ready to take what they had left and move on just as their history had taught them; avoiding more conflict, they were willing to accept that their dreams had been a mistake and were once again unwilling to challenge their persecution. The conversations between these hobbits were stalled for many long hours and there were many at that meeting who doubted that the Shire could go on in the face of such an unresolvable dilemma.

   In the springtime of Year Sixteen, after the bloody cost of settling these disputes had been paid, Alaura wrote one of her most poignant pieces in THE SHIRE-RECKONING regarding the formation of a central government:

   “TOO OFTEN when we EXAMINE THE INEQUITIES of POLITICAL CHANGE do we OVERLOOK the CRIPPLING SADNESS and the PERCEIVED HOPELESSNESS of THOSE PEOPLE who were FORCED TO LIVE through SUCH CALAMITOUS TIMES; through our COMFORTABLE PLACE IN HISTORY we wonder HOW THEY DIDN’T SEE IT COMING.

   “BUT in doing so WE FORGET that THE SPIRIT OF PIONEERS is BUILT UPON HOPEFULNESS. WE FORGET how BOLD A PEOPLE MUST BE to LEAVE BEHIND their erstwhile POSITIONS OF COMFORT IN CITIES and BESIDE FERTILE RIVERBANKS for only a TENUOUS PROMISE OF NEW FREEDOMS. WE FORGET that PIONEERS do NOT BEGIN as MALCONTENTS, WANDERERS, REFUGEES, OUTSIDERS or EXILES but mostly THEY BEGIN AS DREAMERS.

   “THE FIRST CRIMINAL of OUR COMMUNITY WAS NOT AN OUTSIDER or AN INVADER. THE FIRST CRIMINAL of ANY COMMUNITY is, and ALWAYS was, THE LANDLORD; FOR it is THE LANDLORD and THE USURER who employ BANKRUPTCY and FORECLOSURE as the PRACTICAL WORLD’S WAY of DESTROYING the OPTIMISM of PIONEERS AND DREAMERS. THEY USE THIS PRACTICALITY to DASH OUR HOPEFULNESS OF A NEW FUTURE against THE HARSH MEASUREMENTS of our OWN NOTIONS of PROFITABILITY, SELF-WORTH AND SUCCESS.

   “IN A LAND which is meant to be FREE TO ALL HOBBITS we see how IT IS the POSSESSOR OF DEEDS AND TITLES, the LOANER OF GOODS OR PROPERTY, who can EXERT THEIR CONTROL OVER ANY HOBBIT’S FREEDOMS.

   “THE DREAM OF THE SHIRE is STILL that of A FREE LAND in which all HOBBITS MIGHT DEVELOP OUR OWN FUTURE. TO SUBJECT OURSELVES to the CONTRACTS and OBLIGATIONS of ANY LANDLORD is to DENY OUR OWN FREEDOMS within THIS LAND FREELY GIVEN TO ALL HOBBITS BY THE KING.

   “IF THE SHIRE BELONGS TO US ALL, as THE KING has GRANTED and INTENDED, then THOSE WHO CAME FIRST should SHARE in this BOUNTY and NOT BE ALLOWED TO PARCEL AND SELL THEIR CLAIMS to NEIGHBOURS AND NEWCOMERS.

   “THOSE CRIMINALS who would DO SO have CLEARLY NOT HEARD OF THE KING.¹⁶

   “BE NOT TOO TRUSTING of any HELPERS WHO WOULD QUANTIFY YOUR DREAMS through a SET PRICE and an ESTABLISHED VALUE. Their MECHANISM and their MEASURE is UNFAIR, UNKIND and UNINTERESTED IN ANYTHING OTHER THAN THEIR OWN VALUES and PROFITS. A LANDLORD is A BOSS and A POWERBROKER and NOT A FRIEND NOR A NEIGHBOUR. A LANDLORD has NO INTEREST in HIS TENANT’S SUCCESS beyond the VALUE OF HIS RENTS. THIS is the VERY SAD but also the VERY TRUE MODEL of our CURRENT ECONOMY and, if the DREAM OF THE SHIRE as a FREE LAND is to SURVIVE, then TOGETHER WE MUST FIND A WAY TO CHANGE THAT CRIPPLING CONDITION.”

   Horris Bunce, a member of Twoody’s Buckland council that night, was not so inclined to give up his dreams and leave as many of his neighbours were discussing. He had taken up large holdings of land between the newer community of Hobbiton-by-the-Water and his own home in the Buckland and owned many deeds on these lands with people who also had debts to the “Childsbank.” If Childy and his Big Folk were to foreclose on these properties Horris’ own investments would be threatened. He had never borrowed a dime or entered into a single contract with Childebrand Swiftook himself but now, or so it seemed, his own future had become tied to the outcome of this struggle.

   Horris had come to the Shire from the Bree-land in Year One recognizing an exciting opportunity. Like Childy, Horris sold all of his former business to set himself up with an eye to profit in the new land. Like most of his neighbours, he had made the very smart business decision of following Gondo’s bold development of the Buckland rather than remaining closer to the Stonebows bridge. But unlike Twoody or Childy or even Gondo the Oldbuck, Horris Bunce was, by his nature, fierce as a badger when backed into a corner.

   In his long and windy family narrative, “The Bunces Between the Bridge and the Borderlands,” Horris’ grandson Clovis has this to say:

   It must be set down that, while still a fawn, Horris Bunce beheld with his own eyes a scene as stirring as any known in the annals of hobbit-folk: the fall of his father, Borris Bunce, who perished bravely in the act of securing the escape of his family into the Bree-land. Was it this that set his heart aflame with that strange yearning to take up arms for what he deemed right? Perhaps so. Yet, my grandfather—both before the desperate affair of the Battle of the Bank and in the years that followed—spoke but rarely, and always with a certain reluctance, of this trait that impelled him to action. He would confess, in moments of candour, that to be moved by wrath or the thirst for battle was to be marked by some failing for any hobbit, even though such impulses would one day bring him renown. Truly, he was born to an age when courage was a coin of the highest value, unlike the calm and comfort which we know today. For fifteen years in the Shire, Horris Bunce was, so far as any hobbit can say, a gentle soul, peaceful and reserved. Yet within him there smouldered a fire, one that made the perils threatening his home and kin more grievous to him than to any of his companions in the Shire.

   Horris had been involved in all of the meetings Twoody held regarding strategy and economic assessment and measured response. He listened alongside all of his peers and, for many hours, he also argued for patience. He hoped, as many did in these meetings, that the matter could be sorted out and the correct diplomatic approach might be taken. He was five years older than Twoody but they had been friendly since childhood and, for many hours of that long day, he respected and supported Twoody’s call for a cautious and measured response.

   It is not known, through his grandson’s history or any other source, what changed his opinion. While there are numerous accounts of Horris’ activities on that day which can be found in many written resources, we will encapsulate some of them here.

   We are told that an hour after the Sun had set Horris walked straight and silently out of the new Assayer’s Office in Buckland where Twoody’s important meetings were being held. By this time there were at least two hundred Shirehobbits assembled into various groups awaiting more news and hopeful that something may be done quickly to solve the situation. A great bonfire had been erected near the Wisher’s Well and, by all reports, Horris walked directly toward it, ignoring the eager questions from his neighbours and eyeing only the fire. There was a long-handled axe nearby which someone had left alongside a bench and Horris took it up without asking of its owner or their permission. He then turned to a nearby table and, speaking to no one, moved plates and cups aside to take up its tablecloth. With everyone giving up on their questions and watching him, Horris walked toward the bonfire while wrapping the iron of the axe’s blade in the long folds of tablecloth; wrapping it over and over, as he spoke to the crowd;

   “You ask if anything has been decided,” he called to them with a strong and steady voice. “As we speak here and as we decide about our safeties and our securities and our commitments, there are others who are running about this land and stealing our freedoms. It is all too familiar. We- my family and so many of yours- we have always fled from these abuses in the past. If we regretted trading our homes for our safety in those days I cannot say. We did what our fathers and mothers decided for us for many long generations and so, in safety and as wanderers, we survived. But none of us, no hobbit I have heard of, has ever had a land which we could call our own until we came here into the Shire. Maybe in the past it was easier to leave, for we had no more than our own lives to defend. But now we have been granted land by the King himself. And now, or so it seems, that land which he has given to us is being stolen. And worse I think; we are being told and convinced that our loss of this land is caused through our own shortsighted trust in helping one another.

   “I will not, NOT! let the lands which the King has given me escape my hands or let them be torn from the future of my family over something so meagre, so cheap, as usury and thuggery,’ Horris said, now thrusting his cloth-wrapped axe into the bonfire. “I will NOT allow invaders or false-friends to take the land and the hope and the promise of the Shire, the promise that the King has given us.”

   The flame on his axe caught quickly and he held it high amongst all of the Shirefolk who had been listening. Now, loudly, he said:

   “I will carry this brand to defend the Shire for all who would take it from us! I will throw out the invaders and the usurer and see us defend our land! And I will not, NOT! see us flee again!”

   Such a cry of rally and fervour went up amongst those assembled so that Twoody, Alaura and the others came from the Assayers Office believing that an attacking army had come to the Buckland.

   They were only half right, for the army had been waiting there all along.

   Saying nothing further Horris Bunce, ever after referred to as “The Firebrand,” strode quickly out of Buckland and up the West-farthing road toward Childsbank. Nearly all of the hobbits assembled at the Wisher’s Well went with him, lighting torches of their own. By the time they reached the Farthing Stone they were easily three-hundred strong and the blaze of their torches could be seen from many miles away. The Shire had mustered against its first threat.

viii) On the First Battle of the Shire

   Records from the beginning of the Fourth Age tell us that the Battle of the Bywater in Shire Year Fourteen Hundred and Ten was “the Second Battle of the Shire.” This is true, but somewhat misleading. For many years before the discovery and excavation of the Great Smials in 1961 of our present age, we had only the scant records found in Gondor (and curated for King Elessar largely by Thane Peregrin) along with the Red Book found in the excavation of the Undertowers with which to describe Shire history. The accounts found in both these cases were concerned primarily with the War of the Ring (as one might expect) and did not include the detailed Shire histories that the much later excavation of the Great Smials has provided.¹⁷

   For a long time our notion of what the first battle of the Shire may be comes from Bilbo’s only other citation of dangers which befell the Shire; namely that incident in Year Eleven Hundred and Forty-six when a band of Orcs, separated from their kind further north yet led by their king Golfimbul, crossed the Brandywine and were met by Brandobas “Bullroarer” Took above the Norbourn river not far from Budgeford. There in the hilly area called the Greenfields, the Bullroarer knocked the head of the goblin king from his shoulders with a club and so, Bilbo goes on to tell us, the game of “golf” was invented.¹⁸

   To mark this event as the “First Battle of the Shire” is a misunderstanding of Bilbo’s intention in telling that rather comic tale. We now know, through our further evidence, that the danger, the hobbit casualties and the severity of that battle in Eleven Hundred and Forty-six were small. Golfimbul and his people had been routed by the Rangers of the North; they were few in number, unprepared and unexpecting of any organised resistance. Despite Bilbo’s amusing record of it, the Battle of the Greenfields does not compare with the losses, and the many repercussions, of the Battle of the Bank in Year Fifteen.

   As Horris Bunce led three hundred hobbits up the West-farthing road from the Buckland torches were kindled by those who went alongside him. As the throng turned east at the Farthing-stone they were met by more armed hobbits who, in support and in anger, kindled torches of their own. These were in turn seen blazing by the hobbits of Bywater and Frogmorton who also joined. The phrase “Fear! Fire! Foes! Awake!’ was heard for the first time in the land and all the hobbits who could respond answered the call.

   For the best account of the coming battle we must return to Clovis Bunce’s book, “The Bunces Between the Bridge and the Borderlands:”

   It may well be imagined that the Big Folk, entrenched about the grand Office of Deeds, beheld from afar the glimmering procession of torches that marked the approach of the Shirefolk—a sight as ominous as any that ever troubled their dreams. Whether some among them, seized by dread of the swelling host, abandoned their posts and slunk away into the darkness none can say, for if such tales were whispered in later years, they have long since vanished into oblivion. Meanwhile, those hobbits who had already encircled the Childsbank offices found their courage quickening; the flames of their torches flickered ever brighter, and voices rose in chant, swelling to a mighty chorus that echoed across the night. Thus it was that, when Horris at the vanguard reached the marketplace, he beheld a multitude—hundreds upon hundreds of Shire-hobbits, their faces aglow, torches and humble weapons held aloft with grim determination. The Big Folk, discerning that mere clubs would no longer suffice to hold their ground against this relentless tide, withdrew into the building; and soon the sinister sight of drawn longbows could be seen in the round windows, auguring the violence yet to come.

   Swift and sure, as if drawn by destiny’s hand, the newly mustered throng of Shirefolk encompassed Childebrand’s office—the venerable Office of Deeds—so that not a soul could escape their vigilance. As for Horris, let it be said he was no soldier by schooling, nor, indeed, was any hobbit of his generation versed in the arts of war. Yet so compelling was his manner, so instinctive his wisdom, that the others hastened to obey, keeping to prudent cover as he directed. The outhouses and stables were scoured thoroughly, and those among the hobbits who could string a bow took their places, arrows nocked, eyes fixed upon the windows and doors of that ill-fated edifice. Nor was this all: from the wagons—those very same that the Big Folk had seized in their greed—were drawn forth pikes, axes, and sturdy staves, so that each new arm added to the swelling arsenal of the Shirefolk, their resolve hardening with every moment.

   For a brief space there fell a hush—deep and portentous—over the assembled host, and from within the looming edifice not a whisper nor challenge came. The silence was as the calm before a tempest, fraught with unseen menace. At length, bidding his neighbours to steel themselves, Horris Bunce strode forth alone, undaunted. In one hand he bore his soot-blackened axe, in the other a new-lit torch, his figure limned by flame as he advanced into the uncertain gloom.

   “Hearken, ye that dwell within!” cried Horris, his voice ringing clear and bold through the torch-lit gloom. “We, the honest citizens of this land granted us by the hand of the King in Norbury, have come in open council to parley with our neighbour, Childebrand Swiftook. If he be present, let him come out forthwith! But if he is not, then know this: all those who claim allegiance to him and yet hide behind these walls are but trespassers and usurpers, unbidden upon the King’s own soil. We, the King’s own sworn folk and rightful guardians, bid you begone! You are beset and unwelcome. What say you?”

   For many heartbeats, a tense and weighty silence hung over the scene, as if the world itself awaited the next stroke of fate. At last, with a slow and ominous creak, the door was drawn open, and there emerged a figure—one of the Big Folk—stooping low to pass through the humble and hobbit-sized portal, only to rise up upon the porch in all his formidable stature. He stood head and shoulders above his kind, towering more than twice the height of Horris, and was clad from crown to heel in sable garb, with high boots of gleaming leather such as a horseman might wear. In his left hand he bore a long, sinister sword, its blade curved, dark, and glistening with oil; and upon his countenance there rested a look at once composed and cruel—a mask of calm beneath which malice may be read.

   “Well, well,” intoned the Man, his voice deep as thunder rolling over distant hills, as he descended the steps and came to stand, vast and menacing, above his diminutive adversary. “Are you then the bold little captain who dares to challenge me? Speak, small one—declare your name, and by what strange courage you presume to command me and my company?”

   For an instant, the spirit of Horris wavered beneath the weight of that ominous voice, and in the flickering torchlight, with the dark form of his adversary looming before him, he was seized by the bleak conviction that he had blundered grievously.¹⁹ Who was he, a humble hobbit of the Shire, to marshal his folk against such a formidable foe, lacking all plan or stratagem? The spectre of responsibility for the lives of his neighbours pressed upon him with crushing force, and—honour to his heart—this dread was more grievous to him than any peril to his own person posed by the Black Captain. For a space he stood silent, stricken by doubt; and that silence stretched, heavy and unending, so that it seemed to all present as though time itself faltered, and their hopes ebbed away in a swelling tide of despair.

   Then, from the ranks of his neighbours—none could ever say from whose lips it first sprang—there rose a cry: "Firebrand! Firebrand! Firebrand!" Like the clarion call of an ancient battle, it swept through the assembly, growing in strength until it became a mighty chorus of hope and resolve. And Horris, hearing that cry and feeling the fierce loyalty of his folk, found the chill of fear banished from his heart. Deep within, as though a secret flame had been rekindled, his courage blazed anew, and purpose surged through him with the force of destiny.

   “Know me, then, you thug,” cried Horris, his voice rising clear through the shouting, “for I am called Horris the Firebrand. You name me bold, and well you might, for as you hear, I am not alone: the voices of my friends and my people rally at my back. I am the son of Borris, whose courage none may gainsay, and who gave his life for kin and kind. By the King’s own writ I hold my place among the first citizens of the Shire, my claim founded in service and in steadfast loyalty to neighbour and land. Who am I? I am he who commands you and your band of marauders to quit these fields, even as a housecat, watchful and true, might bid a scurrying knot of field mice be gone from its threshold. That is who I am, black captain. Tell me, little mouse-lord, do you not know the clemency of cats when it is freely offered?”

   That answer, so full of daring, struck the Black Captain with a force for which he was ill-prepared. He recoiled as if stung, a hiss escaping his lips, his visage contorted—not simply with frustration, but with the shock of one long unaccustomed to resistance. Gone was the composure of a master; in its place, fear gleamed in his eyes, awakened by the unexpected valour of the Shirefolk. In a surge of wrath and desperation, the Captain swept his sinister blade at Horris, but by fortune or by fate, the hobbit twisted aside, suffering only the glancing blow that tore at his leg and bore him to the earth. The Black Captain, towering in his fury, raised his sword for the coup de grâce—yet in that instant, doom befell him. From many angles, the archers of the Shirefolk loosed their arrows in a deadly storm. The Black Captain fell where he stood, pierced by a dozen shafts, the last cry of his malice dying unspoken on his lips.

   Thus it was that, bereft of their captain and gripped by a sudden panic, the Big Folk within the Office of Deeds loosed a wild and desperate volley from every window. Many of the arrows were sent blindly into the crowd, yet not a few found their mark among the ranks of the Shirefolk. But the hobbit archers, calm amid the tumult, answered with a storm of their own—shafts swift and true, loosed in such number and with such deadly purpose that silence soon fell upon the beleaguered edifice. Meanwhile, swift-footed runners darted forth to retrieve Horris, rejoicing to find their champion yet alive. He was borne to the shelter of a waiting wagon, where gentle hands tended his wounds. For a fleeting interval, the tumult of battle subsided, and a heavy stillness brooded over the field.

   By what agency the next dire act was wrought, none can say with certainty, nor has any soul ever stepped forth to claim responsibility for the fatal turn that now ensued. Yet it happened that, in the tumultuous interval between Horris’ bold stand against the black captain and the storm of arrows that swept thereafter, the venerable Office of Deeds was set ablaze. Many a tale tells how the spark was struck at the building’s rear, even as Horris held his adversary in parley, and that the creeping flames went long unnoticed amid the clamour. Most chroniclers agree that Horris, for all his courage, neither sanctioned nor dreamt of such destruction; yet, as ever in the affairs of men and hobbits, there are those who would weave a web of intrigue and lay the blame at the feet of leaders, preferring a tale of conspiracy to the simple chaos of a roused and leaderless throng.

   In any event, the fire was kindled at the rear of the building, at a moment when every eye and ear was fixed upon Horris and his fateful parley upon the porch. By the time the dread truth was discerned, the moment for salvation had long since passed. As the timbered walls to the rear of the building caught and leapt with ravenous flame, the Shirefolk, seized by a passion seldom awakened in their gentle breasts, hurled their torches with wild abandon. A hundred brands, perhaps more, arced through the sooty air before a soul within could respond. The stately porch, with its proud pillars, was swiftly wreathed in fire, and a pall of choking smoke closed over all. Bereft of command, the multitude surrendered to the elemental fury—fire and tumult blazing alike in every eye.

   “Come forth, and claim your freedom!” called Horris, his voice strained yet resolute as he crouched behind the shelter of an overturned cart, his wounds tended by the gentle hands of his neighbours. “Step out and no harm shall befall you!” he cried again, though by now the flames roared with such fury that it was doubtful any within the Office of Deeds could hear mortal words. At length, a handful emerged—a dozen perhaps, for the chroniclers of the Shire are uncertain on this point—scarred and seared by fire, their faces blackened and their garments in tatters. Yet the hobbits, moved by compassion rather than vengeance, laid no hand upon them; indeed, some among the survivors were given what meagre healing supplies could be found. Though a border escort was mustered, it soon proved needless, for those Big Folk who had tasted the fire at the Battle of the Bank bore away a lesson they would never forget, nor would they trouble the Shirefolk again.

   Within two hours of Horris Bunce’s altercation with the black captain the old Office of Deeds was destroyed by flame; the Shire Map inside it, formerly a proud symbol of the community’s expansion but in recent years only an indication of hobbit debt, was now a memory. The neighbouring but abandoned First Bank and Trust, Twoody’s original offices taken over by Childy, the stables and many other stalls and low buildings burned down with it. The gathered hobbits, usually quick to respond in such a conflagration, seemed to have no interest in saving any of these buildings and were content to let them burn.

   All evidence of individual debt to Childebrand Swiftook was also presumably destroyed in the blaze. It is believed that more than forty of the Big Folk, along with their unnamed captain, had died in this battle or the fire and, for some time, no one was certain that Childebrand himself had not also perished.

   Nine hobbits were killed on that day; most by the volley of arrows which came from the building in response to the black captain’s death. A plaque was erected there at the site a year later bearing their names: Richomeres Harfoot, Cotman Longhole, Waiofar Bottomhill, Grifo Noakesburrow, Helinand Heathertoes, Fulbert Sandheaver, Reginar Rumblebelly and Tobias Oakbottom.

The ninth hobbit who died that day, Roderick Farfoot, a young cousin of Alaura’s, was discovered later. Roderick was a Bridge-warden, a hobbit of the Nightswatch, on that fateful evening, tasked to guard the Stonebows. While the other hobbits of the Nightswatch marched on the Office of Deeds that evening, Roderick stood alone at his post. His body was found the next morning at the centre of the Bridge, pierced by many knife wounds. Whether he had faced someone entering or fleeing the Shire is not known, but it was clear that he put up quite a fight in defence of his post. It is from this incident that his wife and children came to be called the Proudfoots.

ix) On Debt and Threat and Argument

   On the first morning after the Battle of the Bank a letter was found in Twoody and Alaura’s mailbox at Sarehole. How or when it had arrived was unknown as the matters of the previous days had certainly taken away everyone’s attention and quite stopped the delivery of daily posts. While found at their home, the letter was addressed “TO the SHIRE COMMUNITY” and written in Childy’s familiar, regular and even script. It read:

   “For FIFTEEN YEARS it has been THE BUSINESS of CHILDEBRAND’S PURCHASERS, PURVEYORS, PACKAGERS and PORTERS (THINGS PROVIDED and THINGS TOOK) to DEAL FAIRLY with ALL of our NEIGHBOURS and ALL NEWCOMERS here in THE LAND which THE KING has GIVEN to HOBBITS. WE have provided SERVICES, EQUIPMENT, LOANS and SUNDRIES to ALL HOBBITS wishing to TAKE THEIR PLACE in THIS NEW LAND which they have called THE SHIRE. ALL of our TRADES have been considered GENEROUS in accordance with MARKET PRICES and ALL of OUR TRADING PARTNERS have SIGNED AND AGREED on these FAIR PRICES.

   “GIVEN THE MOUNTING DEBT of OUR TRADING PARTNERS it has become OUR DECISION at CHILDEBRAND’S P.P.P.&P. to FORECLOSE ON THE ACCOUNTS of OUR MOST EXTREME DEBTORS and SEIZE in accordance with PREVIOUSLY SIGNED AGREEMENTS the LANDS, PROPERTIES, BUSINESSES and GOODS which were used TO ENSURE PAYMENT. For FIFTEEN YEARS we have FOSTERED the GROWTH of this NEW LAND and NOW THAT DEBT HAS COME DUE.

   “In a BLOODY and CRIMINAL ATTEMPT to FORESTALL PAYMENT of these debts A MOB of THE SHIRE COMMUNITY MARCHED UPON OUR OFFICES and PROPERTIES PUTTING THEM TO THE TORCH and KILLING MANY of our LAWFULLY APPOINTED WORKERS in an UNPROVOKED AND HEINOUS ACT OF ORGANISED VIOLENCE. This WILL NOT BE TOLERATED by ourselves or our associates and RESTITUTION WILL BE SOUGHT. Whatever PEOPLE of WISDOM see themselves as DIRECTORS of THE SHIRE’S BUSINESS or CAPTAINS of THE SHIRE’S MOB should BE AWARE that RECORDS of the PERSONAL DEBT of ALL were NOT LOST in this conflagration and THAT THE DEEDS, PROPERTIES AND GOODS which are DUE US WILL BE EXACTED. We at CHILDEBRAND’S P.P.P.&P. now consider the WHOLE OF THE SHIRE MOB RESPONSIBLE for these ORIGINAL DEBTS as well as LOSSES INCURRED in the DESTRUCTION of OUR OWN PROPERTIES.

   “RESTITUTION MUST BE MADE or we SHALL TAKE WHAT IS OURS BY FORCE.

   “THE DIRECTORS and CAPTAINS of THIS MOB THAT CALLS ITSELF A COMMUNITY have until the FIRST DAY OF RETHE 20 to COMPLY OR VACATE THESE PROPERTIES AND LANDS.

   -Childebrand’s Purchasers, Purveyors, Packagers and Porters- Things Purchased and Things Took, AfterYule Fourteen, Year Fifteen in the Shire-reckoning”

   We know from later writings that Twoody himself was the first to read this letter and to recognize it as being in his brother’s own hand. But in all of his later journals and letters he speaks of his brother seldom and we can only imagine how deeply he was affected by the betrayal. Alaura wrote about this moment of the Shire’s history many times in her future, but what she may have thought on a personal level is also sadly missing from the records. But we do know that the two understood better than most that this letter was not so much a suit for damages as an all out threat of war.

   Childebrand Swiftook, though he is dealt with later in this history, remains a great mystery to those scholars interested in the early development of the Shire. What do we really know about this person who so quickly and masterfully profited from the settlement of the Shire? What do we really know about his allegiances and resources? Nothing from his hand has survived other than a few scattered account sheets and an even fewer number of letters to his family and his debtors. We know that for years he had been providing the Shirefolk with a steady stream of their most necessary supplies, but how did he, as a hobbit with little travel experience, know so acutely what would be needed by his pioneering neighbours? Who were these Big Folk in his employ and where did they come from? If he did indeed encourage the early exploration of the Shire, if he also did encourage Gondo and Twoody to go north and petition the King, how much foreknowledge of the land did he have and, perhaps more importantly, how had he gained it?

   Unless more records should one day surface, the answers to questions like these will never be known. It seems certain that, to his generation and those who came just after, he was the first great villain of Shire history. But many since have wondered about where his opportunities and even his goals may have originated.

   A great Shiremoot was called. Unlike the spontaneous meeting in the Buckland of two days past, this would be the first organised assembly of the community. Runners were sent out to every settlement in the land and a time was appointed for early morning on the third following day. Twoody wisely decided to hold this meeting at the first Post Office so that those gathered could see the destruction from the Battle of the Bank just on the other side of the Road. A high podium for speaking was set on the front of the Post Office and a representative from every family, no matter how large or how small, was invited to sit along the covered porch. With so many families in attendance this space was quickly filled and had to spill onto the lawn as well. But each representative member was given a seat while all other hobbits assembled would have to stand or sit on the lawn or along the Road. A kind of makeshift platform of raised benches was made along the Road to accommodate such a large crowd of on-lookers; for the letters and family journals describing this event indicate that no fewer than two thousand Shirefolk were present.

   Twoody was the initial speaker. He did not begin by discussing any of the events of the last few days, nor did he read the letter from his brother. With a great softness in his voice which held everyone’s attention, he used his time to eulogise the nine hobbits who died on the day of battle. In all of this he did not mention his brother by name or give a personal opinion of any kind regarding the battle’s cause. He felt instead the strong need to discuss, with solemnity and sadness, the loss of lives separately from the loss of property. Wise as he was, wiser than most in the ways of politics, Twoody was careful not to allow politics to rule his heart’s intentions.

   We know from diaries that he asked Alaura to read Childy’s letter to the crowd. We also know that she refused. Many times in her life Alaura had been specific about how being clear on an opinion was more important to her than presenting a report. She fully intended to speak to the crowd that day, but had no interest in being the carrier of someone else’s information. “If I am to talk from my heart,” she is said to have told Twoody, “then my heart should not be shackled by the words of another.”

   So Rangfred Bolger, heir to old Heindewin from the Budgeford Bolgers, was asked to read. He had been prepared for this task the night before and remained one of the few Shirehobbits to see the letter before the meeting. Rangfred was, by all accounts, an excellent speaker and able to keep the audience’s attention as the threats and demands of Childebrand “Swiftook” were revealed to all assembled. As expected, there were great shouts of anger from the crowd which punctuated nearly every sentence of the letter, but a general sense of order remained until the end. At the phrase, “RESTITUTION MUST BE MADE or we SHALL TAKE WHAT IS OURS BY FORCE,” there was a lasting uproar and it seemed that all the hobbits were torn between feelings of rage and worry for their safety. There were long minutes of this open discussion before anyone took the podium again. No full record was made during this meeting of course, but we do know from various letters and family tales much of the discussion which ensued.

   There were many present who thought that they should immediately send a delegation to the King up in Norbury. “After all,” they said, “it’s he who has promised to protect us in his own lands.” There were others who pointed out the problem of this plan; “For after all,” they reminded their neighbours, “it’s he who granted us this land and he might not look too favourably on those of us who have sold it off without his say so.”

   Still another group suggested that they should stand and fight as they had done two nights before. “There’s many of us here, for the first time anywhere, with strength to hold onto ours and only one bridge to defend.” But there were still others who cautioned against such boldness. “There’s many of us, to be sure,” they suggested, “but few to none who know little to nothing about war defenses and such. Arrows and even stones cast from many hands can last only so long against Big Folk on horses with swords and armour, I should think.”

   Many faces in the crowd seemed darkened by shame rather than lit by terror. “It’s us that were foolish enough to bargain as we did. How do we, through force of arms, propose to hold onto a thing we so foolishly signed away?”

   “I’ll not ask any neighbour to lay down his life for my debts as those Nine heroic hobbits did here at the Bank four nights ago,” said another. “I’d sooner leave you all then see my poverty and gullibility get another hobbit killed.”

   Still others had a look of outrage on their faces and they spoke with loud and angry voices. “It’s one hobbit, one villain among all of us, who's done this all! We don’t need to stand against a host of the Big Folk on horses, but just to find one greedy and conniving criminal and set him straight!”

   As no clear answer was given to how any of these ideas might be accomplished the discussions went on in small clusters and knots of all those assembled for the better part of the hour until Twoody once again took his stand at the podium.

   His speech, or some revised form of it, was recorded in THE SHIRE-RECKONING on the following day and was saved in many other scrapbooks and family journals. Whether the original speech was impromptu or not, the effect that this published version had upon all the Shirefolk would be remembered for hundreds of years.

   “WE are STANDING on this BURNT BATTLEFIELD today, the FIRST BATTLEFIELD of OUR VERY SHORT HISTORY while we hold the FIRST GREAT MEETING to DECIDE THE FATE of OUR ONCE HOPE-FILLED FUTURE. This is the FIRST TIME IN RECORDED MEMORY that HOBBITFOLK have RISEN UP and PERISHED IN DEFENSE of THEIR LAND, but also THE FIRST TIME SUCH A NUMBER OF US, so MANY FAMILIES OF US, have ASSEMBLED to REMEMBER THOSE WHO HAVE FALLEN and have SPOKEN TOGETHER about WHAT WE MAY DO in the future ABOUT SUCH SERIOUS THREATS.

   “SO MANY FAMILIES! BOLGERS and MUGWORTS and CHUMLEYS and SANDHEAVERS! NOAKESBURROWS and GAMWICH and WHITFOOTS! BUCKS and PUDIFOOTS and FALLOHIDES and BUNCES! MAGGOTS and CATTONS, FARFOOTS and FLEETFOOTS, BROWNLOCKS and BARROWES, GOODCHILDS, STUMBLETOES and RUMPLEBELLYS! There are TOWNENDS and HAYWARDS, BOTTOMHILLS and BOPHINS, GOODSONGS, HOPESINGERS, HEATHERTOES and RIVERHOPPERS! And SO MANY, MANY MORE ASSEMBLED here today to RECOUNT OUR LOSSES, ASSESS OUR CONDITION and DETERMINE OUR FUTURE. I DON’T KNOW HALF OF YOU as well as I should but I PRAISE ALL OF YOU TWICE as much for YOUR ATTENDANCE.²¹

   “NO MOOT like this has EVER BEEN KNOWN TO HAPPEN in all of OUR DIMLY RECALLED HISTORIES. ALWAYS IN TIMES BEFORE we traveled AS EXTENDED FAMILIES, leaving a place WHEN TROUBLE CAME and going WHEREVER THE WISDOM OF OUR FATHERS and OUR MOTHERS MIGHT TAKE US. HERE, across this porch and this lawn and along this Road, WE ARE MANY FAMILIES and MANY MOTHERS and FATHERS FINDING OUR WAY. BUT HERE, IN THE SHIRE, WE can do AS WE HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO DO BEFORE; WE CAN COME TO OUR DECISIONS TOGETHER for, JUST AS the author of THIS LETTER chooses to CALL US, WE are finally A SHIRE COMMUNITY!

   “BUT WE are NOT A MOB. WE SHOULD NOT BE so RECKLESS in our DECISIONS as WE ARE QUICK TO OUR ACTION when PUSHED INTO A CORNER. WE ARE NOT the SHAMEFUL COSTDRAWEES, UNREPENTANT BORROWERS or MISCREANT ‘TRADING PARTNERS’ that THIS LETTER’S AUTHOR MIGHT name us. NEITHER SHOULD WE BE VICTIMS of FALSE CHARITY, WILLFUL USURY and DEADLY BULLYING. TOGETHER WE ARE A PEOPLE and, as such, WE SHOULD FACE OUR PROBLEMS TOGETHER!

   “WE MUST take on THE RESPONSIBILITY of this DIRE SITUATION for OURSELVES. I WILL NOT BRING NEWS to THE KING that we have SOLD HIS GOOD TRUST IN US for A SEASON’S WORTH OF SEEDS and BETTER PRICES ON PITCHFORKS. WE, the HOBBITS OF THE NORTH, were GRANTED THIS LAND BY THE KING and I WILL NOT GO and BEG HIM TO DEFEND IT FOR US against OUR OWN SHORTCOMINGS and INCAUTIOUS MISFORTUNES.

   “So WHAT SHALL WE DO? And, for THIS SEEMS VERY IMPORTANT IN THIS PARTICULAR MOMENT, HOW SHALL WE DECIDE TO DO IT? ARE WE TO REMAIN a LOOSE CLUSTER of FAMILIES ALL LIVING TOGETHER IN ONE PLACE, or ARE WE TO BECOME a NATION OF HOBBITS with the RULES and SYSTEMS IN PLACE to make SUCH DECISIONS and AVOID FUTURE ENTANGLEMENTS?²²

   “I BELIEVE that the TIME HAS COME for US TO DECIDE on THE SHIRE’S GREAT and LONG FUTURE. WE CAN NO LONGER MAKE DECISIONS just AS FAMILIES but MUST LEARN TO MAKE THEM as A COMMUNITY. WE ARE CALLED TO IT by the author of this letter and THREATENED NOT TO.

   “IF WE ARE TO RESPECT those HOBBITS WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES DEFENDING our PROPERTY and OUR FREEDOMS, WE MUST BEGIN by DECIDING OUR FATE, TOGETHER as a PEOPLE, and ESTABLISHING LAWS to help us FACE THIS and OTHER NEW CHALLENGES. Our FAMILIES MUST BE IN UNION to DECIDE OUR FATE.”

   This speech, delivered mid-day on the Seventeenth day of AfterYule, was quickly written down (presumably by Alaura) and copied in an emergency issue of THE SHIRE-RECKONING. That document was disseminated around the principal settlements of the Shire on the very next day, while the Shiremoot itself was still going on. Many more hobbits flocked to the meeting place to have their own voices heard at such an important occasion. It was there, on the Eighteenth and Nineteenth days of AfterYule that the first government of the Shire was born.

x) On Government, Death and Settlement

   Alaura Fairheart did not take the podium on the days of the First Shiremoot as she had intended. What opinions or criticisms she had regarding a localized government would eventually be published in THE SHIRE-RECKONING on many occasions, but whatever protest she may have wished to make at that first meeting went unspoken. Despite their “old argument” Twoody’s speech had won the day and all of the Shirefolk were ready to follow the course he had laid at their feet. Alaura chose not to dissuade them. Perhaps this was because she knew better than any the sorrow that Twoody felt from his brother’s betrayal or, as some others believe, she felt her own argument against a local government were lessened by the current threat. None can say for certain.

   But a unique government of the Shirefolk was indeed formed in Year Fifteen and it would change very little from its original construction for the next two thousand years’ of their recorded history.

   There were twenty-eight “Great Families” in the land at this time (all of them had been named in Twoody’s speech) and each had their representatives in front of the Post Office on that day. It was very quickly agreed that these twenty-eight should immediately form the first “Shire Council.” Twoody’s own name is not among them, but the name “Buck” is curiously inserted to the list. With Gondo’s presumed death his young son Theudebert was the only hobbit by that name in the Shire, so perhaps this was meant as an honorarium of sorts. Either way it seemed to have skewed the definition of “Great Family” away from sheer number of family members. Twoody and Alaura had been married for five years at this time and beside Thuedebert (whom Twoody had adopted) they had two other fine children of their own, hardly enough to sit on the Council, yet there were many Shirefolk present who trusted Twoody and wanted his advice on the “Swiftook Problem”. He was therefore elected to the position of Chief Assayer, a role he had held for some years already, and given the responsibility to assess the debt of the Shire and advise the Council on all economic issues.

   Alaura was likewise asked to serve as Secretary and keep record of the discussions of the new governing body. She declined this offer for her own reasons, but wished to maintain her current position as Postmaster and to attend Council meetings so that she might report on important matters and decisions. This position was immediately granted to her.

   Rangfred Bolger was chosen as Chief Organizer of the Council and given the task of presiding over their meetings and keeping order. His first official motion was to adjourn the Shiremoot so that the Council could retire to a smaller meeting hall at the Budge-and-Bridge Inn (a Bolger family-run business nearby noted for its fine beer and delicious pastries). Here the first great Shiremoot ended and while many of the citizens did not leave the area or return to their homes, the Council was adjourned to chambers to make their further decisions. Twoody returned to the Buckland to do his part as Chief Assayer and father while Alaura, a silent participant but careful reporter, attended the Council meetings.

   On the Nineteenth day of AfterYule, from within their private deliberations, the Council named Horris Bunce, the great hero of the Battle, as Chief Constable. He was immediately set to the task of defending the Bridge and the border. Horris’ wounds were still serious enough to preclude him from travel, so a temporary office was set up for him in a neighbouring building to the inn. He was granted power to choose two score of the young hobbits from the Battle as deputies who might rush with orders from the Council to various parts of the land carrying information. All would operate directly under the orders of the Council through the Chief Constable and further be empowered to pull labour or supplies where they were needed for the public defence. For this ability these deputies were given the title of “Reeves.”²³

   By the Twenty-third day of AfterYule Twoody, still respectfully called “Swiftalk” rather than “Swiftook” despite the now greatewr fame of his brother, had examined many of the contracts Childebrand had made with the Shirefolk. Many existing papers were provided to him by the many hobbits who owed money to Childebrand but many, many more of these were unavailable. Whether this was through an individual hobbit’s embarrassment about the cost of their debt or mistrust of Twoody himself none could say, but still only rough estimates of the overall cost to the Shire could be made. Twoody had begun some of these calculations on the day of the Battle and all the new evidence, scattered as it was, made him less hopeful; his brother Childy had managed to buy up nearly a quarter of the developed land or businesses in the Shire by swindling his fellow hobbits and cheating them through their hopefulness. We are told by others that Twoody was sickened by this discovery, though he never wrote about it; his journals, and his letters, reveal a propriety, an unwillingness to blame or chastise, which should be seen as a quality of his character. His heart had been broken by the criminal actions of his brother and we hear this from many sources. But never from Twoody himself.

   On the morning of the Twenty-fourth Twoody left the Buckland to deliver his report to the Council. He brought Berty, then twelve, with him so that the boy might see how a good government might solve the most difficult of problems.

   They were only an hour along the Great Road when they saw a messenger riding quickly toward them on a pony bringing with them bad news out of the Bree-land; Twoody’s beloved father Hincmar Swiftalk was dead.

   The funeral for Hincmar Swiftalk, held on the Twenty-sixth Day of AfterYule was the largest social occasion that any Breelander of that time could remember. There was a very modest and sober blackened wreath hung upon the door of his place of business, the Inn of the Four Greenfields, but for three days before the funeral and three nights after the commonroom there was filled with stories and laughter. The food (which was plentiful) and the drink (which was excellent) was free to all of the “friends of Ol’ Hinc” who might care to pay a visit with their respects. And many came from near and far to do just that.

   Many of the Breefolk had considered Hincmar to be the richest of all their neighbours, though he had never been accused of being either miserly in his business doings nor ostentatious in his home; he was remembered as courteously-mannered and plain-speaking, bright-eyed and sharp-witted, kind-speaking and clear-voiced, firm-handed and clean-dealing by all of his neighbours and his customers. There were others, mostly Big Folk from the outlying regions around Bree-hill, who had little contact with the other townspeople but had fond memories of the old innkeeper, the stories and the news they had heard from him, the excellence of his beer and the genuineness of his laughter. But his closer friends and his immediate family, who were also many, knew that Hincmar’s wealth and congeniality ran deeper than his business. For that same old innkeeper had lived to a very full age of ninety years, sired a dozen children, buried two wives whom he loved greatly and played with dozens of grandchildren who would always remember him fondly. He had known many successes and seen very few failures, if one were to read his life as a ledgersheet. But his children and his close friends all knew (most of them at least) that the first thing Hincmar had ever taught them was that “to read the wealth of any person’s life as a ledgersheet would be, at the very least, a great misunderstanding of that person’s character and, at the more-than-likely worst, a terrible misunderstanding of life’s worth.”

   So for three days following the old hobbit’s demise his children and grandchildren kept the doors of the inn open for all who would pay their respects, but only during the daylight hours. They would listen to the kindly stories of Hincmar’s acquaintances and keep their private memories to themselves to share over dinner as plans were set for a funeral of special significance.

   While Hincmar was indeed old, his passing was sudden. He had retired from the business of the inn many years before, but occasionally still went there in the early evening to see all the new traffic moving through the Bree-land. He knew many long-bearded dwarfs by name and, when the Moon was full each month, he would keep an arranged meeting with a tall rider who would speak to no one else.²⁴ All of these little meetings would take place in the small hall in the north wing which Hincmar himself had built so that hobbits might comfortably engage with the Big Folk but still have some degree of privacy. It was to this room that Hincmar had taken Gondolpho Bucklestrap fifteen years earlier and here that the plan for settling the Shire was put into action.

   Hincmar had gone there again on the Twenty-first of AfterYule, the night of his death, and if he had met with anyone there none can say. But he was found in the little hall the next morning, quite peacefully gone in his sleep beside the embers of a fire, with a book in his lap and half a mug of Bree-land ale at his tableside.

   Twoody’s brother Allowin was dispatched that very morning to collect his family in the Shire so that they might attend their father’s funeral. He had been met by a very serious group of guardsmen at the Stonebows bridge that same evening but, giving Childy’s name before Twoody’s, found himself detained. Eventually he was allowed to cross and then led immediately to the Budge-and-Bridge Inn, which had become the new seat of Shire government. There he met Alaura and told her the news. It was clear that news of recent events in the Shire had not yet reached the Bree-land.

   Twoody and Alaura, with young Berty in tow, two babies left at home and another on the way, returned to the Bree-land with Allowin on the Twenty-fourth of AfterYule. They were not surprised to find Childebrand Swiftook already in attendance.

   There are no records of the things which were said by Twoody and Childy that have yet been found. Neither the excavation of the Undertowers (in 1892 of our present age) nor the later discovery of the Record Halls in the Great Smials (1961 of this same age)²⁵ give us any information of the deal which was struck in the Bree-land. There is gossip, of course, which seems to be the common case with all Shire-hobbits even in their earliest years. But archeological exploration of the area surrounding Bree-hill, changed and redeveloped over the long centuries as that land has been, provides us with no written histories as the Shire sites do. Whatever settlement and agreement was reached is commented on by later sources, but there is no one to tell us what was said between the two brothers on the occasion of their father’s death.

   Peace was made, of this we are certain, and the threat of war was lifted. Some restitution to all injured parties was promised and, of course, detailed in later Shire documents. But we have no record of how the deal was struck. The best indication we have of Twoody’s mind in this regard comes from a letter written to Alaura seven years later:

   “The land has been granted to all of us hobbits by the king and so he [Childy] has an undeniable right to have joined us here. And surely he has in the past used his resources to support our endeavour and help us all develop the promise of the land faster. He was full of guile from the first, which I did not see then but now very much believe, and through that guile he offered opportunities for others to build homes which he might later steal for himself. I don’t forgive his duplicity, but I also don’t doubt his honest claim to payment on honest debts.

   “By incorporating the Shire we, as a community, took on those debts and became forced to make restitution under threat of war. War of all things! The very idea of hobbits going to war with one another, brother against brother, is the most calamitous notion I have ever heard of and it shames me terribly that it comes from my own brother’s hand. I know, Alaura, that you do not forgive him for his usury, and I understand that. I am forced, through my understanding of his nature, to see his actions as control of a keen business opportunity by a person who chose, long ago, to be a competitor. He offered an honest price but always, always, attached a greater settlement on the default of his neighbours. As if he planned for it to happen.

   “I can forgive him for his ruthless acumen, but I cannot forgive him for his threat to all of our neighbours..

“I will not see him again and I will not let him meet any of our children. Let Horris or Matfrid or someone else from the Council meet with him and remind him to keep far away from our door. He has a place in our land, which I have staked out myself and held for his taking, but he is not welcome in our house. I should not enjoy telling him this myself. I’m glad that Berty has already forgotten him and we should do whatever we can to avoid them meeting again. Childy and his people have the right to their share of the Shire and its opportunities, but he is no longer a part of our family.”

   In the early morning on the day after Hincmar’s funeral, before most of the family was awake, we are told that Twoody and Childy met at the stables. While she did not witness this meeting, Alaura wrote about it many years later in a letter to her son Berty.

   “I am saddened by some of your choices, my darling, but I am happy that you remain so dedicated to our dear Twoody. His life has been filled by such terrible partings and always, in each moment of his abandonment, he has been made to feel shortchanged by fate. To myself and to all of his friends Twoody has given the greatest possible happiness. If anyone might have saved me from my fate it would have been him and, while we are now parted, I carry with me the certainty of his goodness and his affection. I know that I should never have lasted this long against my own darkness without his love and his kindness.

   “When your father disappeared it was Twoody who brought me the news. I remember the depth of his loss and his grief then and it hurts me to recall that I once believed mine was the greater. And I remember too the time he said to me ‘when you consider things like the stars, Alaura, our affairs don’t seem to matter much, do they?’ He had let your father go in a way which I yet could not, feeling that the call of your father's fate was greater than Twoody’s own.

   “Such a quiet and comfortable sense of one’s self and such a great care for others is rare in any person.

   “I remember too the day in which he parted company with your uncle Childy. He was deeply hurt by the things which had transpired in the Shire. His brother, despite all his offenses, had been a great inspiration to him in younger years. I did not see them part, but he came back to our room at your grandfather’s house in the Bree-land that morning and I have never forgotten what he said to me; ‘Growing up, I’m sad to say, is mostly a story of losing some of our youthful illusions in order to make room for new dissatisfactions.’ ²⁶

   “Twoody has been hurt by so many people, my dear one. You may think of me as the greatest of these, Berty, but I am only the last in a line. I am glad that he has you even though it means that I do not.

   “Remember that, my dearest. For it proves that I am not so selfish a person as others might paint me.”

   Twoody and Alaura and Berty returned to the Shire on the Twenty-eighth day of AfterYule and went directly to the Council to discuss the terms of settlement which Twoody had made while in the Bree-land. He had no direct power to negotiate this settlement of course, and made this clear to all in the Council. But the members all understood the rare opportunity which they had been given and so, once again, a deal was made between the hobbits of the Shire and Childebrand Swiftook. A second Shiremoot was called for the Thirtieth day of AfterYule where the Council could present the proposed agreement to all of the Shirefolk. These details, once voted upon, were then written down in THE SHIRE-RECKONING two days later. While no original document or bull has been found (for the Shire Council was not yet in the habit of writing these important things down), numerous copies have been found in the remaining books and memoirs of some of the original families, for it is written in the formal-sounding manner which all hobbits feel is appropriate for any official document:

   “AS the SHIREFOLK have FORMED THIS COUNCIL to SET THE COURSE of our RESPONSE to the CLAIMS OF DEBT and THREATS OF RETRIBUTION by THE LANDLORD, CHILDEBRAND SWIFTOOK, CERTAIN CONCLUSIONS ARE MADE and are herein RATIFIED BY ALL.

   “FIRSTLY, it is DETERMINED AND ESTABLISHED by this COUNCIL that ALL THE LAND of THE SHIRE was GRANTED TO HOBBITS by THE KING’S OWN JUDGEMENT.

   “SECONDLY, it is also DETERMINED AND ESTABLISHED by this COUNCIL that ALL HOBBITS HAVE A RIGHTFUL HOME in this LAND in ACCORDANCE WITH THE KING’S AGREEMENT.

   “THIRDLY, the DEBT of ALL SHIREFOLK to the LANDLORD, CHILDEBRAND SWIFTOOK, has been ESTIMATED, COLLATED and QUALIFIED by an AGREEMENT of the LANDLORD and OUR CHIEF ASSAYER, THEUDEBALD SWIFTALK. This COUNCIL has AGREED that ALL FORMER DEBT by ALL SHIRE CITIZENS to the LANDLORD are INCLUDED in our PLAN FOR SETTLEMENT.

   “FURTHERMORE, it is DETERMINED AND ESTABLISHED by this COUNCIL that NO HOBBIT may BE ORDERED or BANISHED from THIS LAND by ANY OTHER JUDGEMENT than THE KING’S OWN.

   “LIKEWISE it is DETERMINED AND ESTABLISHED by this COUNCIL that THE KING’S AGREEMENT SPECIFICALLY AND DIRECTLY ALLOWS a RIGHTFUL HOME in this LAND ONLY FOR HOBBITS and that NO OTHER FOLK should be ALLOWED TO SETTLE here without WRITTEN CONSENT OF THE KING.

   “FURTHERMORE it is DETERMINED AND ESTABLISHED by this COUNCIL that THE LANDLORD’S SUPPORT of the SETTLEMENT of this LAND is CONSIDERED to have been RENDERED AT A FAIR COST to all HOBBITS and therefore INSTRUMENTAL in OUR DEVELOPMENT. HOWEVER, the COUNCIL DETERMINES that the LIENS and SEIZURES of PROPERTY THROUGH DEBT should be CONSIDERED UNFAIR to any FAIR-MINDED PEOPLE and NOT IN ACCORDANCE with JUDGEMENT of THE KING’S OWN.

   “THEREFORE it is DETERMINED AND ESTABLISHED by this COUNCIL and ALL FREE-PEOPLE OF THE SHIRE that NO LANDLORD MAY EVER TAKE AWAY through THREAT AND USURY that which THE KING HAS GIVEN.

   “YET it is ALSO DETERMINED AND ESTABLISHED by this COUNCIL that THE DEBT STILL MUST BE PAID. A DEBT which was FAIRLY INCURRED must be FAIRLY RESOLVED.

   “WHEREAS THE LANDLORD has the SAME UNDENIABLY RIGHTFUL CLAIM to A HOME within THE SHIRE as ALL HOBBITS have by THE KING’S AGREEMENT this COUNCIL has DETERMINED AND ESTABLISHED CERTAIN CONDITIONS of REPAYMENT.

   “MANY UNDEEDED and UNDEVELOPED LANDS exist still in the SOUTH-FARTHING and in the LOWER WEST-FARTHING of THE SHIRE. It has BEEN PROPOSED that a LARGE PORTION OF LAND there SHOULD BE GRANTED TO THE LANDLORD, CHILDEBRAND SWIFTOOK, as RECOMPENSE for ALL PAST DEBTS. He SET HIS VALUES in UNDEVELOPED LANDS and WILL BE PAID FAIRLY AND IN KIND. THE LANDLORD is FREE to SETTLE and DEVELOP THIS LAND in whatever way HE WISHES, but it is ESTABLISHED that OWNERSHIP of this land shall be, as with ALL THE SHIRE, ONLY GRANTED TO HOBBITS in ACCORDANCE with THE KING’S JUDGEMENT. No OTHER FOLK may LIVE or RESIDE THERE.

   “FURTHERMORE THE LANDLORD, CHILDEBRAND SWIFTOOK, and HIS FAMILY may DO AS THEY WISH in their OWN LANDS, but will be ALLOWED NO ACCESS to MARKETPLACES in other parts of THE SHIRE until such a time that THE COUNCIL DEEMS THEM WORTHY.

   “We WILL GRANT THE LANDLORD HIS DUE as HONEST and RESPECTABLE PEOPLE. But we will NOT ALLOW HIS FURTHER CORRUPTION of the GROWTH OF THE SHIRE.”

   And so, on the Thirtieth day of AfterYule, in the Fifteenth Year of the Shire, this proposal was agreed upon and set into motion. With it came the fundamental points of a new and localised government: that the Shire was undisputedly a land ruled by the king up in Fornost and that its people would recognize the King’s Authority and the King’s Judgment; that the king had given stewardship of this land to hobbits and granted them a home there, but only the King’s authority could remove them from that home; that the land was intended for Hobbits only; and, lastly, that all hobbits were, despite past offense, free to live in the land unless the King’s Judgment should deem otherwise.

   Of great interest to historians is the subtle use of the word “grant”, both as verb and noun, in this document. THE SHIRE-RECKONING, like all the writing from this time in this part of the world, was in a curious blend of the Common Language of Westron with occasional elements of the much older Hobbitish spoken language from their forgotten past. The word chosen here was “creant” from the older language.²⁷ It has the specific meaning of “promise, guarantee, confirm and authorise” and identifies the land as remaining the property of the King and that the Hobbits do not themselves own it.

   This is, of all documents found and translated, the most direct example we have of any localised government, small or large, in the Third Age of the world. If the Númenórean’s, in their own ancient kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor, voted on, ratified and recorded such precise legal decrees then those have been lost to time. We cannot say with certainty if the kings of Arnor themselves knew of this document or how the Shirefolk had interpreted the rules and laws of their community as both separate but part of the King’s Authority. But nearly fifteen hundred years later King Elessar, standing before the Stonebows bridge, quoted much of this document as he declared the Shire a Free Land under his protection and turned the Hobbitish word for “grant” into another Hobbitish word; “ghifte”.²⁸

xi) On the Ordering of the Shire and the New Wave of Expansion

   And so, by decree of the newly elected Council of Families aided by the timely intervention of their Chief Assayer, the debt of all the Shirefolk was relieved and the threat of war was quickly resolved. A great feast day was called for and all the hobbits of the land, now temporarily freed from their worries, very happily took the time to celebrate their good fortune. Within a few days, and after many celebratory toasts had been made in praise of their wisdom, the twenty-seven members of the Council were released from service, and an agreement was made that they would reconvene twice a year to settle any other important matters which may arise. In announcing this decree it was clear from the tone of Chief Organizer and Council Chairman Rangfred Bolger’s voice that he did not expect any such matters to in fact ever again arise and such future meetings would only be an excellent excuse for a holiday.

   It was also unanimously ‘determined and established’ that Horris Bunce, “the Firebrand”, should remain in the position and hold the duties of Chief Constable and, furthermore, that he should retain one score of good hobbits as Reeves to travel throughout the land keeping on eye on the borders and keeping the general peace. A salary was to be provided to Horris and his lads for their important service and the Council, very happy to have accomplished so much in their very short term of meetings, would decide upon how payment would be made at their next convenience.

   And that, of course, would create more problems; for in their enjoyment of successfully abating a terrible threat, the Council had also determined and established the idea of public works without a notion for how those services would be paid for.

   Childebrand Swiftook, as he was now called, became owner of a great part of the Shire by this new decree. Indeed, more land was to be registered in the Swiftook name than ever before in the Shire’s history. The deed for this settlement was to be written in absentia; for the former “Landlord” had departed the area and his whereabouts remained unknown. There were a few Shire-hobbits who thought his return was doubtful, but they agreed with the decision of the Council nonetheless and wished to see the matter resolved into a good and clear document for all the parties to understand. Preferably one with a keen and important-sounding verbiage and many detailed maps. So it was decided that Twoody and his brother-in-law Clooty, both trustworthy and skilled at such matters, should take it upon themselves to establish a fair portion of lands to the south for the settlement.

   The hobbits of the Shire had not yet settled on the division of fields by acres as we now use. Units of length were known still by stride, or ranga, and the average Númenórean stride, the official measure at that time in the northlands, was roughly just a bit longer than the height of most hobbits. A mile, by our current standards, would consist of about sixteen hundred and fifty ranga. Working backwards using the distances and landmarks mentioned in this deed, we have a fair idea of the amount of land set forth in the settlement. Later histories also tell us that the land allocated for Childebrand Swiftook in Year Fifteen became developed into later and well-known towns; from Whitwell to Sackville and Pincup to Hardbottle according to maps of Bilbo’s day. If we measure the allotment using these later (and much more accurate) Shire maps we can see that this area covered about fifty square miles by our modern standards or, more precisely, about 32,000 acres. The Shire itself, while still largely underdeveloped, was considered to be just under 12 million acres in size.

   Twelve million acres is quite a lot of land for a people to settle in just fifteen years. There may have been as many as twenty-five thousand hobbits living in the Shire at this time but it should be remembered that they were historically a cautious and communal folk from their wandering history and tended to cluster in large family units with only a very few of the more intrepid amongst them (who were largely late-comers) traveling past the Farthing-stone and into the undiscovered countrysides. It may very well be said that the reason the Council so willingly gave up such a vast amount of land was because they honestly believed that they would never miss it. Whether or not Childebrand Swiftook ever dared to set his toes in the Shire again was a matter of some debate. But to give him empty lands which few hobbits had yet entered seemed a very good way to get rid of a rather vexing problem.

   The allotment, or “the Tookland” as it would be called, began south of the Buckland and the Green Hill County and ran southeast to the hills which border the Marish and also northwest to the edge of the White Downs. It carried away south to the still-undiscovered end of the Shire; a wide and fertile land with many open and flowering fields of low grasses, small hills, the scattered but strong growth of old shadetrees, and strong running streams. It was a beautiful land at the time it was given away and the only reason it had remained unsettled in Year Fifteen was simply that few people had chosen to try it. With the very few exceptions of Stock, Budgeford and the Buckland, all founded by the explorations of Gondo Oldbuck, most of the Shire-hobbits had settled along the Great Road going west rather than striking out on their own towards the south or the north.

   This land in the south had one other feature to it worth mentioning, and whether this was a factor in other Shirefolk choosing not to settle there (or in Childy’s acceptance of it) no one can say; for through this land and old roadway passed, running northwest from the southern ford to the distant western edges of the Shire.

   When Gondo Oldbuck discovered the ford in Year Two he saw the very head of this ancient road breaking off to the northwest but never had the opportunity to explore it. Twoody and Clooty found it again on their own expedition not far south of the Green Hills and followed it northwest toward the White Downs. They believed for a time, just as Gondo did, that this was the southern border of the Shire. But had they followed it south and back to the ford they would have found that the road split and another even older road was in fact their southern border.

   In this way Childebrand Took was given more of the country than was truly expected, for the deed said “THOSE LANDS SOUTH to THAT OLD ROAD at OUR SOUTHERN BORDER”. The finding of the further branch of the road meant that the Swiftooks, and the Shire itself, were greatly enriched. But that would not happen for another decade or so and is not recounted in this tale.

   After the reconnaissance was made Twoody himself wrote up the document for allocating these lands to Childebrand Swiftook. Clooty drew up maps for the document and copies were made by Alaura and her fellow scribes to be retained at numerous important public houses and offices in the Shire. It was the intention of the Council and all Shire-hobbits that this land should remain empty until Childy, or his family, should come to claim it.

   Many suspected that he would not come. How one family might settle that much land was one question of course, but whether “the Landlord” would dare to show his face again in the Shire was quite another. A settlement had been reached with him by the new government of the Shire, but it didn’t resolve the hatred and contempt which many hobbits felt towards their former business partner. It would be a brave thing indeed for Childebrand Swiftook to show his face in the Shire again and there were many who doubted that he ever would.

   They were, once again, only half-right.

   The Tookland lay unclaimed throughout the remainder of Year Fifteen. Twoody and Clooty’s mapping of the land had taken some months and, of course, the language and of the deed had to be ratified by the Council at their LetheDay assembly. Very soon after that a Letter of Agreement along with copies of the allotment and maps of its area were sent east to the Bree-land and the Inn of the Four Greenfields in the name of Childebrand Swiftook. These were signed for and kept at the inn by other members of Twoody’s own family. Autumn harvests came and passed, but no response came from Childy.

   The Council met again just after Lethe in Year Sixteen and decided that if “the Landlord” had no further response then they had no new resolutions to make. A quick adjournment was almost made, but the question was asked about payment to the Chief Constable and his Reeves (for it had been eighteen months now that they had dutifully served). Once again, this topic was tabled for a later meeting, but it was agreed by all that these offices were very useful and should remain in place.

   Yule came and went and then the observance of the second anniversary of the First Shiremoot, the Fifteenth day AfterYule, drew the Council together once again. As “the Landlord” had still not bothered to take up his claim, much attention of the meeting was spent on how long he should be able to hold his rights to the given lands. No resolutions were passed on this subject as very few of the Council families had any concern about “those empty lands to their south.”

   What was resolved at this meeting was a more subtle but equally important thing. No one among the Shirefolk had anything bad to say about the services of Chief Constable Bunce and his twenty assistances. They travelled throughout the land to all of the settlements and did their best to aid the community in many of the ways that Gondo the Oldbuck had done. The issue of outside invasion seemed to have passed, but the undeniable usefulness of these thoughtful hobbits as arbiters, advisors and official messengers appealed to all of the community. The issue seemed to be how the folk of the Shire should pay them for these services.

   Twoody, still serving in the role of Chief Assayer, was called upon to offer a suggestion.

   “It seems that there is an UNDENIABLE NEED for OFFICERS of the PUBLIC GOOD,” he said in a speech later recorded in the SHIRE-RECKONING. “They SERVE A ROLE of PUBLIC USEFULNESS which TAKES THEM from THEIR OWN HOME AND FAMILY and makes them into STEWARDS, DEFENDERS, ADVISORS AND HELPERS which ENABLE the SUCCESS OF OUR COMMUNITY as a whole. But HOW SHOULD THEY BE PAID for THIS SERVICE? The PRACTICAL SOLUTION is simple; IF THEY ARE TO TRULY SERVE THE BENEFIT OF US ALL then THEY MUST BE PAID A FAIR WAGE BY US ALL. Some form of PUBLIC COLLECTION and DISBURSEMENT MUST be FOUND.

   “For it is the LEGITIMATE OBJECT of ANY COMMUNITY is TO DO FOR THE PEOPLE what NEEDS TO BE DONE, but WHICH THEY CANNOT, by INDIVIDUAL EFFORT, DO AT ALL, or DO SO WELL, for THEMSELVES.” ²⁹

   It may sound strange to all of us today, but hobbits of this time had never really had to consider the idea of taxes before. For generations unrecorded they had existed as large multi-family units, nomadic in nature and having little need for public works. In the Shire’s early days when a road was to be built or a well needed digging hobbits showed up and did their part of the labour. When bricks and lumber needed purchasing for such public works collections were taken up or the wealthiest of neighbours put forth what they could. In recent times some of the hobbits had learned the ways of Men, living amongst them in the north as many had done in the Bree-land and other places to the south and to the east, and Men had different ways of providing for the public good. But these were never large organized communities of the Big Folk and if the vague notion of taxes had ever come to them from the great cities they were seldom embraced or looked on with favour by the locals. A tax on businesses or individuals was by no means a new idea in the history of Middle-earth at this time, but it is an idea which was certainly new to hobbits.

   "WHEN a PEOPLE are TOLD THAT THEY MUST PAY FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICES of A COMMUNITY,” Alaura wrote in a later rebuttal, “are THEY TRULY the DECIDING MEMBERS of THAT COMMUNITY or have they, QUITE WITHOUT MEANING TO, BECOME THE COMMUNITY’S CUSTOMERS? If PAYMENT is to be the COST of having a BETTER COMMUNITY, have we not then BUILT FOR OURSELVES A ROOMINGHOUSE rather than a HOME? TOGETHER we NEIGHBOURS have BUILT ROADS and BRIDGES and SCHOOLS and WELLS. MARKETS and STABLES, MILLS and GRANARIES, FENCEPOSTS to keep our VISITORS out and STREETSIGNS to WELCOME THEM IN. Will we one day say, ‘why, I HAVE PAID MY TAXES for these things and I AM OLD or I AM TIRED or I AM TOO BUSY and WHY DO MY TAXES NOT PAY SOMEONE ELSE TO DO THIS WORK?’ ‘INDEED,’ we might say, ‘WHY DOESN’T MY PAYMENT OF TAXES ENTITLE ME TO HAVE NICE THINGS WITHOUT THE NEED TO WORK FOR THEM?’

   “Shall we, AS TAXPAYERS then, slowly become UNRULY and DEMANDING CUSTOMERS at THE EXPENSE OF OUR COST and, eventually, EMBITTERED CHASTIZERS of NEW WORKS which might not MEET WITH OUR APPROVAL? Might THE MEMORY OF ALL WHICH WE HAVE DONE TOGETHER as A COMMUNITY FADE when, AS TAXPAYERS we do not feel WE ARE GETTING OUR WORTH?”

   Still the decision needed to be made as to paying for the services of the Constable and his cohort of public servants or suspending them until the next uprising or natural catastrophe should arise. It is important to remember that the deciding body, the First Council of the Shire, was made up of twenty-seven individuals representing the largest families in the new land. Many of these families had come with Oldbuck and the Pioneers in Year One and owned significant holdings of land or businesses within the Shire. This did not make them all wealthier than their neighbours per se, for the economy of the time was still very much one of local trade and barter and a quick-witted and newlycome entrepreneur had as great a chance of success as a stubborn first generation landowner. But, unlike the younger and newer settlers, the twenty-seven members and their families were largely hobbits of much greater means. As such they saw very good reasons for having reeves and constables to help protect their interests and could, despite Alaura’s argument, very well imagine the helpfulness of a fund for the development of more roads and bridges.

   So it was decided in the summer of Year Sixteen that Twoody, as Chief Assayer, should assign a system of taxes on all newly deeded lands which should “be FAIR to NEWCOMERS and PROVIDE for the COMMON GOOD.” He did just that, but he also created a small tariff on all shipping within the land; in this way even the original settlers and well-to-do business-hobbits would also contribute to public services. Things were indeed moving quite fast for the newly formed government of the Shire and, though he never spoke of the burden, Twoody was shouldering a lot of the work of the changes which were being made.

   Year Seventeen came and went without incident. No word had yet come from Childebrand regarding the settlement and some of the Shirefolk began to feel that it might never happen. Most were content with the current situation of taxes and therefore turned their eyes far from the south and towards the western and northern areas of the land. Two great settlements were established along the Road and in the area of the White Downs, “the Delvings” they were called for now and Clooty had been sent there to plan for a great western city of hobbits. Some miles north of the Downs the Bywater split and turned both north and south so that hobbits found good irrigation and well-forested areas for new construction. They were not yet at the western edge of the Shire, but in just seventeen years they had managed to create a string of small settlements that were better than thirty miles from the Farthing-stone. And still the hobbits grew in number.

   Twoody and Alaura had their last child together that year, Deidre, and even at birth she had a lock of lustrous black hair like her mother.

   Horris Bunce added ten new Reeves to the payroll, for the distance they needed to cover had become too great for his usual stalwart company. During the past year many of his deputies had become largely responsible for the collection of taxes rather than their former services as advisors and peacekeepers. Tax collection had become such an important part of the Shire’s growth that the only answer which the Council could find for covering more area was the hiring of more tax collectors.

   Horris finally moved his own Office of the Constabulary back to his home in the Buckland where it stayed for many long years just south of Sarehole and near to Assayers Office. Together he and Twoody had suggested that other public servants should also be added to the Shire’s payroll roster; teachers and cartographers (who were badly needed) and engineers and roadworkers (who were never enough in number) and postal carriers (who provided the most beloved of Shire services). Alaura, Postmistress herself, rather strongly objected to this idea, saying; “TO PAY a hobbit for THEIR OWN rather CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY of TEACHING OUR CHILDREN or the rather PERSONAL ENJOYMENT of SHARING NEWS WITH A NEIGHBOUR is a GREAT MISUNDERSTANDING of PLAIN HOBBIT VALUES. ANY TEACHER or NEWSCARRIER who would NEED TO BE PAID for SUCH an IMPORTANT PUBLIC SERVICE has indeed FORGOTTEN WHY SUCH VALUES are important amongst OUR OWN FOLK and I WOULD ALWAYS WONDER about their INSPIRATION for TAKING ON THE JOB.”

   Needless to say, no teachers nor postal carriers were, at this time, added into the Shire’s payroll. But budgets were set by Twoody and Horris and Clooty, acting on the Council’s behalf, for construction of public works and many young hobbits were paid fair wages for helping with tasks which the first settlers had formerly done for free.

  At the Council’s summer meeting, held on the First day of After-Lithe in Year Eighteen, Rangfred Bolger offered his resignation as Chairman. He was quick to say how honoured he was by the opportunity to do such fine work as they all had done together, but he was older than many of his peers and felt that the job of running a young nation was more burdensome than that of running his own bakery. No provision for such a thing as his retirement had yet been established, so it was agreed that the Council should discuss this matter and offer some ideas at their next meeting in AfterYule.

   And it seemed to many, in the Council and among the folk at large, that growth within the Shire went on quite well in all of Year Eighteen; that certain matters had been put to rest by their chosen officials, certain rules had become established by their most respected peers, and cordial agreements had been made regarding numerous unexpected problems. Taxes and tariffs were now being collected, but they were considered fair to all and clearly resulted in better public services. Indeed, most of the citizens felt that business within the Shire was buzzing along quite nicely and all the hobbits who wanted to build a home in the new land had a great opportunity to do so.

   When the Council met again in AfterYule of Year Nineteen they discovered they had very little to talk about. There were simply no new developments nor disputes and very little business for them to preside over. Matfrid Bolger was named to represent his family’s seat at this meeting and his uncle Rangfred was thanked for his three years of service and praised for his characteristically calm and even manner. Hubert Sandheaver, from another Great Family who had holdings in the South near Stock, was named to take his place as the new Council Chairman. As Chief Assayer, Twoody revealed to the Council the open records of his budget, the anticipated flow of income from taxes, and where it was earmarked to be spent. It might be said that the trust the Council had in Twoody far exceeded their attention to his voluminous documents. As Chief Constable, Horris suggested that some money should go to provision an exploration of the Shire’s further borders to the south and to the north. This met with less approval for it meant the hiring of additional sheriffs with the purpose of exploring new lands. Clooty, who had taken up the bulk of the work in the western settlements called “the Delvings” was named Chief Builder, and all the Council members were very happy to bestow upon him this new and unique honour. Many hobbits among the Council found the building of a bigger western community to be a potentially very profitable endeavour and voted for the necessary increase on taxes. Projections were made for the budget of the coming year and promptly agreed upon. The whole agenda of Council business took only four hours to complete (not counting, of course, the three breaks for meals and the inevitable banquet which followed).

   It was suggested that two Council meetings a year were not entirely necessary and that the Seventeenth Day of AfterYule, the anniversary of the first Shiremoot, should be chosen for an annual overview of any important matters. This continued from Year Nineteen on, and the citizenry turned the occasion into a feast day which all the Shirehobbits eagerly anticipated. In this way the civic duties of the Council’s decision-making had fallen into an annual celebration of their former decisions.

   And then, in the springtime of Year Twenty-one, the Swiftooks returned to the Shire.

end of interlude

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Chapter End Notes

Notes

1)  It should be said here from the beginning that Tolkien leaves us with little to no history regarding the settlement of the Shire. The entire section here is fiction of my own and layered over the few things which we do have from his stories, notes and letters. But in many ways Tolkien’s Shire is a very realized depiction of good country living and seems to stand well outside of the events in the larger world; it is kind of stuck in some idealized agrarian culture of late 18th century England. I’ve tried to keep that model in mind as I’ve worked to create a history of settlements becoming towns.

2)  Little is known through Tolkien’s writing about Hobbits before they came to the Shire and I’m going to respect that as best I can. But the 2022 television show, The Rings of Power, while very much a mess that many Tolkien fans despise, does have an interesting take on Hobbits from the Second Age. I’ve drawn on it here a bit for how I depict hobbit families living before the Shire, but very... carefully. Why kick a simmering pot?

3)  The idea of “Free Post Office” is an echo of Benjamin Franklin and the notion of a Free Library which we ALL should agree is so important to a nation formed on liberty and cultural access.

4)  While I come about it sideways for my talk about bridges, some of this language is meant to echo the “friendship with the earth” comments found in the prologue of LoTR.

5)  This is an allusion to “The Long Expected Party” of course. Bilbo knows his history (and diction) better than any hobbit of his day and I’ve tried to expand on that little scene here.

6)  Going back through my edits to this later draft, I feel like a note belongs here. The Fallohides are a strain of Hobbits which seem to have Elf-like characteristics which may come from some exposure to the Eldar. I’m expanding on it here to suggest that they don’t have the same kind of family structure that other hobbits had; the Elves referred to them all as “periannath” which, in their own tongue, might have got turned to “Fallohide.”

7)  This description of the Fallohides comes directly from Tolkien Gateway. Some of you might remember that I made an early decision within this story to suggest that Marcho and Blanco (remember them?) were not Fallohides. This is why I made that change. I told you I would explain it all later, didn’t I?

8)  We’ve not yet gotten to the link between hobbits and the old horse lords of the North who became the Rohirrim. I’m suggesting that Maggot's ancestors came from that part of the world and brought the ponies of the Shire with them.

9)  “Cotton”, as a surname, has nothing to do with the plant but is indeed a softening of “catton”, a family name in in England from the Old Norse word “káti” meaning “boy” and the Old English word “tūn” meaning enclosure or settlement.

10)  I went a long way for this little joke. Farmer Maggot is the first “unusual" hobbit Sam meets and he doesn’t take to him very quickly. In my little fantasy the world of the Shire becomes just that much smaller as Sam marries into an indirect relative of Old Maggot’s.

11)  “The Subjugation by Sharkey” is, of course, the Shirefolks own limited perception of the great events in the War of the Ring. Sam and the others told their friends about their journeys, but it doesn’t seem like most of them either understood or believed the tales. But the events in the Shire itself were harrowing enough to stay in the long memory of any hobbit.

12)  We have a good number of references to money in the Tolkien Legendarium, but very few details on its value or its use in different parts of the world. We do know that the chief unit of currency in Gondor was called the “castar” which is called a “mirian” in Sindarin. There were smaller coins which were divisions of the castar called “tharni” or “canath”. Mirian may be derived from “mîr” which means jewel is Sindarin. But according to Tolkien the Hobbitish word “kast” and the Rohanese word “kastu” relate to the word “mathom”, a thing of value. I’ve decided to use “kast” here in the early days of the Shire, but what money may’ve been called by Bilbo’s time remains anyone’s guess.

13)  A “pledgebroker” is the root word for a pawnbroker and it seems particularly more hobbit-like.

14)  It seems that the origin of the word “bankruptcy” can be found in the act of breaking the bench or stall of a moneylender.

15)  Arrears has the obvious legal meaning of “backpayment” but I just liked the sexua lpun of “Took in arrears”.

16)  The famou sShire phrase “they have not heard of the King” is, in my writing, used fo rthe first time by my own little social justice champion Alaura Fairheart. These are the kind of moments which make writing fanfic so rewarding.

17)  The appendix for LoTR and Tolkien Gateway do indeed claim that the Battle of the Bywater is the second battle of the Shire’s history. I don’t want to ignore that, but I’m going to play with the edges of counterfactuality here just a bit. Please indulge me.

18)  The story goes that Bullroarer Took, brandishing a mighty club, knocked  the head of the Goblin king Golfumbil clean off his shoulders and into a nearby hole and thereby invented the game of golf. It seems clear to me that this was an anecdote Bilbo (or Tolkien) told for that whimsical invention and not likely a traumatic experience on par (pardon the pun) with the Scourging of the Shire.

19)  For those who may have read the first part of The Fall of Arnor it is my intention to suggest tha tthis captain may indeed be a Black Númenórean with some power of the Voice of Command.

20)  February 20th in our current reckoning.

21)  There is, of course, a little play here on Bilbo’s speech at the Birthday Party. As I spend more time on this project I enjoy the subtle in-joke that Bilbo, a very widely read hobbit, may in fact have been freely quoting things said by own characters.

22)  Uhhhmn, fans of Joyce’s ULYSSES might recognize that little Easter Egg of “a people all living together in the same place.” I couldn’t resist it.

23)  ”Reeve” is an Old English predecessor of “sheriff” and just another way of following theTolkien word-nerdery. A “sheriff”, in its original sense, is a person who has local governmental control particularly in the collection of taxes. But it is believed that this word, “sheriff”, comes from the older meaning of “reeve”; to pull or to yank.

24)  This is another of those Tolkien-teases; as I write this I have no clear idea who Hincmar would be meeting with. But as this story links itself to The Fall of Arnor, in which Bree, and this very inn, is a place of some importance, I’d like to suggest that a relationship which I’m developing there goes further back.

25)  As mentioned in previous notes I have set the fictional date for the discovery of these lost and fictional texts for my stories in the year of my birth, 1961, referring to it blandly as “our present age.” Since most of the likewise fictional history of Tolkien’s “discovered” material was allegedly excavated from the Undertowers and then translated, I have decided to place that discovery in the year of his own birth, 1892.

26)  Much of the text in this letter comes from Virginia Woolf. I knew, over a year ago, when I was first creating Alaura, that Woolf would be part of the model. Alaura does not have the same political leanings of course, but her thoughts on Twoody are meant to echo Virginia’s thoughts on her husband Leonard.

27)  “Creant” or “creanter” come from the Old Anglo-French which seems appropriate to Hobbits.

28)  Google tells me that this is the Middle Dutch word for “gift” and, to my eyes, it looks a lot better than some of the other possibilities I might have chosen. Tolkien never gave us any history to the hobbits prior to the Shire, but his linguistic choices for names and the few surviving Hobbit words suggest the language had many origins.

29)  This bit towards the end comes from Abraham Lincoln. That seems right for poor old Twoody.