Buckland

Buckland is a region of Hobbits east of the Shire proper, lying between the Brandywine River (the Baranduin) and the eaves of the Old Forest in Eriador. Though closely tied to the Shire and reckoned a part of hobbit-country, Buckland lies across the river and outside the four Farthings, a frontier land whose folk are thought a little odd and adventurous by other hobbits because they live so near the Old Forest and even, some of them, take to boats.

Buckland is the home of the Brandybuck family and their great dwelling Brandy Hall, and of Merry, one of the four hobbits of the Fellowship. It is ruled in its informal way by the Master of Buckland.

Geography

Buckland is a narrow strip of land on the eastern bank of the Brandywine, running from the Brandywine Bridge in the north to near the Old Forest in the south. Its chief settlement is Bucklebury, with Brandy Hall, the ancestral smial of the Brandybucks, dug into the Buck Hill. To protect themselves from the Old Forest at their backs, the Bucklanders raised the High Hay, a great hedge running the length of the land, and they keep their doors locked at night, a habit unusual among hobbits.

The Brandywine and the ferry at Bucklebury connect Buckland to the rest of the Shire, and the road runs on toward the gate in the High Hay that opens, perilously, into the Old Forest.

History

Buckland was settled by hobbits of the Stoor and Fallohide kinds who crossed the Brandywine eastward from the Shire, led by the family that became the Brandybucks (originally Oldbucks). They held the land long enough to be reckoned old and respectable in their own right, and the Master of Buckland came to be one of the chief figures of hobbit society alongside the Mayor and the Thain.

In the story

Frodo, to disguise his departure, buys a house at Crickhollow in Buckland and pretends to be moving there. From Crickhollow he and his companions set out, and to escape the Black Riders they pass through the gate into the Old Forest, beginning the strange adventures with Old Man Willow and Tom Bombadil. Later, during the Scouring of the Shire, Buckland shuts its gates against Sharkey's ruffians, and Merry returns there in the rising that frees the hobbit-lands.