O rio Brandywine (Brandevin) limita o Condado pelo leste. Hobbits também vivem em Buqueburgo, que fica a leste do rio e a oeste da Hedge que protege o Condado de invasões através Velha Floresta; No entanto, Buqueburgo não foi reconhecida formalmente como parte do Condado até a Guerra do Anel, quando foi oficialmente cedida ao Condado pelo Rei Elessar. Pelo norte e pelo oeste, o Condado é limitado pelas antigas estrada sul e estrada leste e por traços geográficos como os Tower Hills.
O Condado é descrito como uma terra pequena mas bonita e frutífera, amada por seus habitantes. Os Hobbits possuem um extensivo sistema de agricultura no Condado mas não são industrializados. Vários recursos podem ser encontrados no Condado, incluindo cereais, frutas, madeira.
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).[7]
The original territory of the Shire was bounded on the east by the Baranduin River, on the north by uplands rising to old centre of Arnor, on the west by the White Downs, and on the south by marshland south of the River Shirebourne. 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 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.
The original parts of the Shire were subdivided into four Farthings ("fourth-ings" or "quarterings"): the Three-Farthing Stone marked the point where the borders of the Eastfarthing, Westfarthing and Southfarthing of the Shire came together, by the East Road (Iceland was traditionally also divided in Farthings, or "fourth parts", as the Shire is).
The Northfarthing is the least populous part of the Shire. It is where most of the Shire's barley crop is grown, and the only farthing where heavy snow is common. The historic Battle of Greenfields was fought here.
The western and most populous part of the Shire. :
* Long Cleeve was the home of a splinter of the Took clan known as the North-Tooks, descendants of Bandobras "Bullroarer" Took, who settled here after the Battle of Greenfields.
* The village of Hardbottle was the home of the Bracegirdle family, to whom Lobelia Sackville-Baggins belonged. Some maps, especially Karen Wynn Fonstad's Atlas of Middle-Earth, erroneously place Hardbottle in the Southfarthing.
The western and most populous part of the Shire.
* Michel Delving on the White Downs is the chief town of the Shire. Its name means simply "large excavation". The Mayor of Michel Delving, with a seven-year term, is the only elected official of the Shire.The current Mayor of Michel Delving is Will Whitfoot, an exceptionably plump individual.Michel Delving is also home to the mathom-house--a hobbit equivalent to a museum where old and unwanted items are stored, including Bilbo Baggin's Mithril chain mail coat.
* Little Delving is a village to the north of Michel Delving.
* Waymeet (spelled "Waymoot" on the Shire map in the Prologue of The Lord of the Rings) grew up at the junction of the Great East Road with the older South Road that crossed the Baranduin at Sarn Ford before the Brandywine Bridge was built.
* Tuckborough is the centre of the Took homeland where most Tooks dwell. The Thain's extended family lives here in the Great Smials.
* Bywater is a village situated a short walk east of Hobbiton. It is best known for two inns, "the Green Dragon" and "the Ivy Bush". It was also the site of the Battle of Bywater on November 3, 3019 T.A., the last battle in the War of the Ring.
* Hobbiton is the village where Bag End is located, above the lane of Bagshot Row. This is the home of Bilbo Baggins, Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee, where both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings begin and end. Tolkien borrowed "Bag End" from the name of his aunt's farmhouse in the tiny Worcestershire village of Dormston.[16] In the books, it is supposedly a translation of the word Labin-nec in the fictional Westron language. This had much the same meaning, and a similar relationship to Labingi (the Westron form of Baggins) as Bag End to Baggins.
On the north bank of the Water in Hobbiton was "The Mill", with a large water-wheel and a yard behind it. Sandyman the Miller owned the Mill and operated it with the help of his son Ted Sandyman. Lotho Sackville-Baggins had the Old Mill knocked down and the New Mill built in its place. The New Mill was an ugly red-brick building with a tall chimney. It was bigger than the Old Mill and full of wheels and strange contraptions to increase production. The New Mill straddled the Water and poured pollutants into the stream. It was operated by Men, and Ted Sandyman stayed on to help them. When Saruman came to the Shire in September of 3019, the Mill was no longer used for grinding grain but for some industrial purpose; and loud noises, smoke, and filth issued from it. After Saruman was killed and the Chief's Men defeated at the Battle of Bywater, the New Mill was removed.
The Southfarthing is the site of Longbottom, where the best pipe-weed was grown, owing to the area's warmer climate.
* At Longbottom (meaning "long valley") Tobold Hornblower introduced the cultivation of pipe-weed to the Shire with plantations in his garden in T.A. 2670.
* The Green Hill Country, a region of rolling countryside in the central part of the Shire, extends into both the Southfarthing and the Eastfarthing.
* The Overbourne Marshes, a swampy area along the western bank of the Baranduin, lies across the river from the inflow of the Withywindle. The River Shirebourne flows through the marshes into the Baranduin just south of Haysend.
* Sarn Ford is the stony ford across the Baranduin on the southern borders of the Shire. A road leaving the Great East Road at Waymeet crosses the ford and meets the Greenway farther east. By this road Khamûl the Ringwraith entered the Shire during the Hunt for the Ring.
Eastfarthing borders Buckland and contains the towns Frogmorton and Whitfurrows and the farms of the Marish. The farmers near the Brandywine largely acknowledged the authority of the Oldbucks, even after the latter moved across the river and became the Brandybucks.
* The Marish is the name of fertile but marshy farmlands along the Brandywine River. Farmer Maggot lived at Bamfurlong in the Marish.
* Stock is the major town of the Marish and the location of "the Golden Perch", an inn with a reputation for excellent beer.
* The Yale is a low-lying farming area shown on the Shire Map between the Stock Road and the East Road. This was the homeland of the Boffin family, and several Boffins in a genealogical table (deleted from Appendix C before publication) came from the Yale.
* Scary is a village in the northern part of the Eastfarthing at the southern feet of the Hills of Scary. A road ran south from Scary to cross the Water at Budge Ford and join the Great East Road at Whitfurrows. During the War of the Ring, provisions were stored in the quarry east of Scary by the Chief's Men, and after the Scouring of the Shire the Hobbits took advantage of these stores for the Yule holiday.
Buckland is located east of the Baranduin (Brandywine) river. The hobbits living in Buckland grew the 'High Hay', a hedge, to protect themselves against evil from the nearby Old Forest, which borders Buckland to the east. Buckland is bordered in the north by the Buckland Gate, the only entrance to Buckland near the Brandywine Bridge. In the south the borders of Buckland follow the High Hay until the Withywindle joins the Baranduin near the village of Haysend. The most important town of Buckland is Bucklebury where the Brandy Hall is located, home of the Master of Buckland, the hereditary chieftain of the Brandybuck family.
The Buckland Gate is, for all intents and purposes, the eastern gate of the Shire. Located at the eastern end of the Brandywine Bridge, the gate stood on the Great East Road as it approached from the town of Bree some thirty miles east of the Shire. Beyond the gate lay the Brandywine Bridge, which crossed the Brandywine River or Baranduin, and also the road which led south into Buckland. The road to Buckland split off from the Great East Road just beyond the western side of the Buckland Gate but before the Brandywine Bridge. The gate itself was made into the northernmost end of the High Hay, the great hedge that separated the Old Forest from the hobbit-populated region of Buckland.
The High Hay is the name given by Hobbits to the great hedge-wall that separated the Old Forest from the Hobbit-populated region of Buckland along the Brandywine River. It ran from the Buckland Gate in the north ending at Haysend in the south, at the point where the Withywindle flowed into the Brandywine.
An important landmark is the Bucklebury Ferry, a raft-ferry used as the second main crossing point of the Brandywine River from the Shire to Buckland, after the Brandywine Bridge (which is said to be twenty miles further north; the number is believed to have been a mistake by Tolkien, and newer editions of The Lord of the Rings correct it to ten miles). It is apparently left unmanned to be used by hobbit travellers as needed. En route to the new house at Crickhollow, Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin, crossed using the Ferry just before the arrival of a Black Rider, who was forced to go around to the Brandywine Bridge since there were no boats kept on the western bank of the river. (In the film version by Peter Jackson, the encounter is more immediate.)
Crickhollow was a village in Buckland. After selling Bag End, Frodo Baggins moved to a house in Crickhollow. Meriadoc Brandybuck and Fredegar Bolger prepared the house ostensibly for Frodo to live in retirement, but instead the purchase of the house was intended as a ruse to allow Frodo and Samwise Gamgee to leave the Shire unobtrusively. Merry and Pippin lived together for some time after their return to the Shire in the house at Crickhollow.
Assunto: Condado 
Dom Jan 03, 2010 11:52 pm
