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Geography
According to
Tolkien, the Shire measured 40 leagues (193 km, 120 miles from the Far Downs in
the west to the Brandywine Bridge in the east, and 50 leagues (241 km, 150
miles) from the northern moors to the marshes in the south. This is confirmed
in an essay by Tolkien on translating The Lord of the Rings, where he describes
the Shire as having an area of 18,000 square miles (47,000 km2).
The original
territory of the Shire was bounded on the east by the Baranduin River, on the
north by uplands rising to the old centre of Arnor, on the west by the White
Downs, and on the south by marshland south of the River Shirebourn. After the
original settlement, hobbits also expanded to the east into Buckland between
the Baranduin and the Old Forest, and (much later) to the west into the
Westmarch between the White Downs and the Tower Hills.
The Shire was
originally divided into four Farthings. The outlying lands of Buckland and the
Westmarch were formally added after the War of the Ring. Within the Farthings
there are some smaller unofficial clan homelands: the Tooks nearly all live in
or near Tuckborough in Tookland, for instance. A Hobbit surname often indicates
where the family came from: Samwise Gamgee's last name derives from Gamwich,
where the family originated. Buckland was named for the Oldbucks (later called
the Brandybucks).
The Shire is
described as a small but beautiful, idyllic and fruitful land, beloved by its
inhabitants. The Hobbits had an extensive agricultural system in the Shire but
were not industrialised. The landscape included small pockets of forest (again
similar to the English countryside). Various supplies were produced in the
Shire, including cereals, fruit, wood and pipe-weed.
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