Archmaesterjimmie: Place/location article, book-canon (Corvus)

2026-06-14T02:18:49Z

Place/location article, book-canon (Corvus)

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'''The Shire''' is the homeland of the [[Hobbits]] in the northwest of [[Middle-earth]], a small, fertile, and peaceful country in the region of [[Eriador]]. A land of green fields, farms, woods, and rivers, dotted with villages and the round-doored holes in which many hobbits dwell, the Shire is a place of comfort, plenty, and quiet content, largely untouched by and ignorant of the wider perils of the world. It is the home of [[Bilbo Baggins|Bilbo]] and [[Frodo Baggins|Frodo]], and the starting point of the great quests of ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''.

The Shire's hobbits are a homely, unadventurous folk who love good food, good ale, peace, and the tending of their gardens and fields. They keep little memory of kings and care nothing for the great affairs of Elves and Men, yet from among them come the unlikely heroes who bear the [[One Ring]] to its doom.

== Geography ==
The Shire lies in Eriador, east of the Far Downs and west of the Brandywine River (the Baranduin), which forms its eastern boundary near the land of [[Buckland]]. It is divided into four Farthings, North, South, East, and West, with the chief town at Michel Delving in the Westfarthing. Notable places include Hobbiton and Bywater in the central Shire, where [[Bag End]] stands; the Green Hill Country; the Marish in the boggy east; and the Three-Farthing Stone at the land's center. The road through the Shire runs east toward [[Bree]].

Much of the land is given over to farms and gardens, with the hobbits dwelling in holes dug into hillsides or in houses built in the same low, comfortable style.

== History ==
The Shire was settled by hobbits in the Third Age, granted to them by the King at Fornost in the days of the northern kingdom of [[Arnor]]. After the fall of that kingdom, the Shire continued to govern itself in the kings absence, keeping the forms of the old order, a Mayor, the Thain, and the Master of Buckland, while watched over, unbeknownst to most hobbits, by the [[Rangers of the North|Dúnedain Rangers]] who guarded its borders against the dangers of the wild.

== In the story ==
From the Shire, [[Bilbo Baggins|Bilbo]] sets out on the adventure of ''The Hobbit'' and returns with the One Ring. Years later [[Frodo Baggins|Frodo]] inherits it and leaves the Shire with [[Samwise Gamgee|Sam]], [[Merry]], and [[Pippin]] to bear the Ring to [[Rivendell]] and beyond. At the end of the War of the Ring, the four hobbits return to find the Shire despoiled and enslaved under the fallen [[Saruman]] (going by the name Sharkey), and they raise the hobbits to cast out the ruffians in the Scouring of the Shire, restoring their homeland to peace.

[[Category:Places]]
[[Category:Lord of the Rings]]
[[Category:Eriador]]

The Shire - Revision history

Archmaesterjimmie: Place/location article, book-canon (Corvus)