Chapter One
Migration and Settlement
Those who venture beyond the bounds to the east, should they stay true to the road, shall come to the village of Bree. It is a place of the Big Folk, who build their towering homes from timber and thatch upon both sides of the road. Look closer, however, and within the Bree-hill more familiar dwellings are to be found. For an age have the Bree-hobbits lived alongside the Big Folk (who call themselves Bree-men, who in turn call their hobbit neighbours the Small Folk). It is apparent that the Big Folk here are in far greater numbers than the Bree-hobbits, although this is not the case in the nearby village of Staddle. This was not always the case (or, at the very least, it was not as obvious as it is today), as once many more hobbits once dwelled here.
Legend and tradition tells us that it was Marcho and Blanco, two Fallohide hobbits brothers from Bree departed their ancestral home (whether this was Bree or Staddle is much debated) and led a following of their kinsmen westwards. What has confounded many through the centuries is why this happened. Why indeed did Marcho and Blanco abandon the dwellings of their ancestors? Perhaps more importantly, how did they convince many others to join them? Hobbits still reside in Bree and its surrounding villages, which indicates that not all in Marcho and Blanco’s time followed them west. The further implication of this is that the reason for the migration was not due to strife in the Bree-land, but rather the promise of something greater that prompted them to leave their comfortable lives and heritage behind.
It is clear that Marcho and Blanco did not wander westwards in search of nowhere or nothing in particular, but instead travelled with clear intent and conviction. It was what lie across the Brandywine which they sought: what we today call the Shire. What, then, was the great appeal of the Shire to the Bree-hobbits? Perhaps for most of Marcho and Blanco’s following, the vast fertility of this land was most attractive. Although Bree does not lack for agriculture, any farmer worth his plough would tell you that the soil there is measly compared that of the Shire. There may also have been a desire among the Bree-hobbits to have a land of their own; although it is unlikely that they suffered by dwelling alongside the Big Folk, one can sympathise with the wish to live independently among your own people, where your own customs might come into their own. But another, darker factor must be considered. The hobbit population of Bree, it is said, was comprised of those who had fled west from the wrath of Angmar some three centuries before the time of Marcho and Blanco. It is therefore plausible to assume that the Bree-hobbits sought to migrate even further west, since that fell kingdom still endured in this time to the east.
The Shire-reckoning began when Marcho and Blanco received permission from the King of Arthedain, Argeleb the Second, to cross the Brandywine River (then called the Baranduin) and settle in the land that is today called the Shire. By tradition, Marcho and Blanco are said to have ventured far to the north to petition the king at his capital, Norbury. In return for this generous grant, hobbits swore fealty to the king. So too were they to keep the bridges and roads in good order, so to speed the king’s messengers through the land. The following of Marcho and Blanco soon went about cultivating the land, and effort concentrated in the east, close to the Brandywine (the reason why many of the Shire’s oldest families hail from the Eastfarthing). In short time word began to spread throughout the lands of this new country – a land for hobbits. From distant places hobbits followed these tidings and came to settle in the Shire. Within thirty years, when the Stoors of Dunland finally arrived from the south, the Shire was fully settled.
