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Tip-toe Through the Toponymy - Page 11

© Michael Martinez

But it also becomes apparent that, though Tolkien probably did not draw up lists of Hobbit families and regions of origin, he did seem to envision a mingling of linguistic traditions which he represented with Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Frankish, and Norse words and names. The more Celtic families would have been those which had lived the longest in or near Bree, or in Dunland (both of whose peoples were descended from the Gwathuirim of the Second Age). The families with the most Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Frankish words and names may have been largely descended from Hobbits who had dwelt in eastern Eriador longer than others. Both the Stoors and the Fallohides entered Eriador about 100 years after the Harfoots. Although the Harfoots were the largest group of Hobbits, since the Fallohides provided many leaders, Fallohide naming conventions may have had an advantage over Harfoot naming conventions. It may therefore be reasonable to conclude that most of the Fallohides stayed in Rhudaur until the first war with Angmar in 1356. We can also infer that the Hobbits probably were capable of maintaining some sort of armed forces at least until the overthrow of Arnor. If Bucca of the Marish and an early Took leader did establish fortified towns, burghs, the story about the Shire Hobbits sending warriors to help defend Fornost Erain and later to help overthrow Angmar become more credible. In The Peoples of Middle-earth, Tolkien does say that "in their unrecorded past they must have been a primitive, indeed 'savage' people" (Cf. "Of Dwarves and Men"). Their savagery would not have been a ferocious savagery, but merely an untutored state -- all Edainic men in the Vales of Anduin would have been equally "savage". Of course, some people might quickly point out that the Shire Hobbits could have reinstuted martial customs in the aftermath of the war with Angmar, for Appendix A in The Lord of the Rings does say that the Shire was overrun, and that the Hobbits fled or went into hiding. Whatever the case may be, the Shire toponymy raises many interesting questions. The right answers may be more mundane than those we are wont to contrive, but I think Tolkien did indeed see something of the Hobbits' past, and he used that to guide his choices in making their place-names. There may have been no intended connection between the Bracegirdles and Girdley Island, but Tolkien was certainly fond of slipping linguistic jokes into the nomenclature every now and then. If for no other reason than that we can see so many things embedded within the names Tolkien used, it is worthwhile to look upon them and ponder, and perhaps to tread lightly in his footsteps across the moors and fens of the Shire, or through the hills and grasslands of Rohan.

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