Editing Hobbit (section)

=== Foundation of the Shire ===

{{further|The Shire}}

In the year 1601 of the Third Age (year 1 in the Shire Reckoning), two Fallohide brothers named Marcho and Blanco gained permission from the King of Arnor at Fornost to cross the [[Baranduin|River Brandywine]] and settle on the other side. The new land that they founded on the west bank of the Brandywine was called The Shire. <ref name="Prologue on Hobbits" group=T/> Many hobbits followed them, and by the end of the Third Age most hobbits outside The Shire could be found in their village of Staddle on the southeastern slopes of Bree-hill. However, some also lived with Men in the village of Bree itself and in nearby Archet and Combe. <ref group="T">{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a|loc=At the Sign of ''The Prancing Pony''}}</ref>

Originally the hobbits of the Shire [[Feudal allegiance in The Lord of the Rings|swore nominal allegiance to the last Kings of Arnor]], being required only to acknowledge their lordship, speed their messengers, and keep the bridges and roads in repair. During the final fight against [[Angmar]] at the Battle of Fornost, the hobbits maintain that they sent a company of archers to help but this is nowhere else recorded. After the battle, the kingdom of Arnor was destroyed, and in the absence of the king, the hobbits elected a [[Thain (Middle-earth)|Thain]] of the Shire from among their own chieftains.<ref name="Prologue on Hobbits" group=T/>

The first Thain of the Shire was Bucca of the Marish, who founded the Oldbuck family. However, the Oldbuck family later crossed the Brandywine River to create the separate land of Buckland and the family name changed to the familiar "Brandybuck". Their patriarch then became Master of Buckland. With the departure of the Oldbucks/Brandybucks, a new family was selected to have its chieftains be Thain: the Took family (Pippin Took was son of the Thain and would later become Thain himself). The Thain was in charge of Shire Moot and Muster and the Hobbitry-in-Arms, but as the hobbits of the Shire generally led entirely peaceful, uneventful lives the office of Thain came to be seen as something of a formality.<ref name="Prologue on Hobbits" group=T/>

Hobbits first appear in ''The Hobbit'' as the rural people of the Shire; the book tells of the unexpected adventure that happened to one of them, Bilbo, as a party of Dwarves seeks to recover an ancient treasure from the hoard of a dragon. They are again central to ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', an altogether darker tale, where Bilbo's younger cousin Frodo sets out from the Shire to destroy the Ring that Bilbo had brought home.{{sfn|Kocher|1974|pp=22, 29-30}}