Prologue 3: Of the Ordering of the Shire
After the digression of the last sub-chapter, Tolkien returns to the general business of describing Hobbit society, briefly laying out the nature of it’s incredibly simple and ideal government.
The Shire is a Constitutional Monarchy, acknowledging the overlordship of the High King at Fornost, or Norbury as it is called in Hobbit language. (A linguistic point from Tolkien the linguist: I believe that Fornost is the Sindarin word for, well, Norbury, being made of root elements north+town.) Of course the king no longer actually exists in any form other than a casual tradition. It is not clear that the insular hobbits are even aware that he does not exist and indeed has not existed for a thousand years. The King is where all their laws have come from; they acknowledge his overlordship and that’s that. Like the UK, there is no written constitution; the laws are the laws and that’s that. There is really no need for a constitution or developed government in people so peaceful, comfortable and inherently good. Of course, from the first sub-chapter, we know that the Hobbits exist in such idyllic simplicity only due to the efforts of the Guardians.
Inside the Shire, there are really only two offices.
- The Thain, who is meant to be a leader of the Hobbits in times of duress; a sort of war-leader. This office is hereditary and at this stage of the story is carried out by the Head Took, the chief of a FAllohidish Hobbit clan of the Tooks. However, since there is never any need for him to do anything, the office is mainly just acknowledged.
The Thain at this stage of the story is a farmer who “farms the fields around Tuckborough”, according to his son, Pippin, (also a major character: the fact that Pippin will one day grow to be the Thain of the Shire is never really emphasized by any of the characters: in hobbit society that kind of thing is, but is not that important. Wealth is respected, and the Tooks are wealthy, but station is not really a big deal. Your place is your place, perhaps and it doesn’t really matter.) Indeed, how does such a society divide wealth? I mean it is one thing to accept all this as idyllic, but the fact is there are classes and some families are wealthier than others. Perhaps there is no class friction because no one is really oppressed; and therefore no one is pushed to think outside of their box.
As I said in the entry on Prologue 1, it seems that post-Marxist notions of class simply don’t fit in this world. Because if they did, there would be sinister undertones when examining the haves (the Tooks) and the have-nots(the Gamgees.) Even more sinister when you consider that the “haves” of the Shire are nearly all of Fallohidish extracts; while the others (like the Gamgees) are mainly of Harfoot stock. So there is actually this racial element added to all this. The Fallohides, who seem to be rather Celtic, in a way, loving adventure and songs are the richest, the rules; the Harfoots and Stoors, the ruled. However, it seems, again that this is the wrong way to look at things. Because the Rulers seem to be truly benevolent; and the Ruled seem content and happy, overfed and, if not exactly idle, also not particularly ambitious. Tolkien was an intellectual. In the early part of the twentieth century he can’t have been unaware of Marxist attitudes and beliefs. Maybe that side of things was simply not interesting to him. In writing this story he was drawing from somewhere deep inside him where the problems of modern capitalism did not exist: he consciously created a world where these ideas did not have to exist.
Anyway, the hereditary office of the Thain is not all there is to Shire-government. Because there is also…
- The Mayor. The Mayor is an interesting office. Unlike the Thain, the office of Mayor is not hereditary. The Mayor is elected by hobbits. His main duty is to “preside over banquets”…he is sort of like the President of a modern Parliamentary Democracy, I suppose. Mainly symbolic, but with some authority. Mainly, his authority is that he is in charge of the Postal Service, which we learned is much-used by literate hobbits, who write constantly; and the Police Force. As a testament to how very peaceful the Hobbits are there are only 12 policemen, or Shirriffs, as they are called in the entire Shire. One for each farthing, and there are only four farthing. They don’t need any more than that; and their main job seems to be herding stray cattle and livestock. But there is another police force called the Bounders. These hobbits guard the borders. And at the time that this story begins we learn that their number has been greatly increased, due to the sights of strange creatures or beasts at the border.
Again there is this sense that the world has it in for the Shire; they are xenophobic, but not without reason. And the implication is that the Guardians, mentioned at the end of sub-chapter 1 are failing in their duty or being overwhelmed. Shit is going down.
(And perhaps Tolkien means to subtly draw a line between the Pipe-weed bit and this fact; and that is why the Pipe-weed bit is mentioned in the first place: because as re-readers we know that Pipe-weed is the connection between the Shire and Isengard; and that the ruler of Isengard, Saruman, definitely does not mean the Hobbits well…even if he enjoys their pipe-weed.)
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