SIRAGALE

Towards the western shores of Eriador between the tower hills and the Tyrn Gorthad is the land of Siragale. This ancient land was covered in forest and woodland and a kingdom of Nandor elves. Later the elves began to withdraw towards the isolation of Lindon in response to the migrations of men. With the coming of the Numenoreans, the land became part of the kingdom of Arnor and then a disputed territory between Cardolan and Arthedain. Eventually, the land was granted to Blanco and Marcho Fallowhide and so the SHhre was founded.

Geography

The land that becomes the Shire was always blessed with a mix af fine soil and good grazing. dense forest, and herb-covered glens. Deer, wild sheep, and smaller animals wander freely through its woods. Of old it was Elvish country. untouched by the plow and axe. Under Arthadan rule, its cornlands and vineyards flourished. until they were decimated by the fires of the Witch-king's Orcs. To the newly arrived Hobbits. the ruins of fields and orchards prove how vital this land once was. Properly tended. it might live again.

Because Eriador is fashioned of a vast limestone basin, it is a predominantly dry region. The porous nature of this rocky platform causes the country's abundant rainfall to run offinro the seamuch too quickly to saturate soil or fill ponds. As a result. treeless downlands stretch across central Eriador, and chalk prairies dominate the un­ friendly landscape Bilbo viewed from Weathertop. The sites most blessed in Eriador are well below the level of the downs-their combination of rich soil and plentiful water makes them especially attractive to farmers.

On the east, the Shire is bordered by the mighty river Brandywine, easily crossed at only the Bridge of Stonebows and Sam Ford. Beyond lies the grassy Kingsland. the perilous Old For­est, and the rough Eriadoran clans of the Red Hills (S. Pinnath Ceren)' To the west and south are the concentric rings of the White and Fox Downs. dividing the Hobbit­ lands from that part of Siragale still claimed as Elvish hunting grounds. Nestled between these downs lie several smaller valleys whose rivers drain through rocky gaps in the downs (in T.A. 1 640. these are not yet part of the Shire)' The North Moors, forming the Shire's boundary with the Tarma lands and the rest of Arthedain. are a jumbled mixture of downlands and moderate slopes-the southern reaches of the Twilight Hills.

The Shire itself consists of quiet river valleys intersected by small clusters of hills. Its two prominent hill formations. the Hills of Scary and the Green Hills (S. Pinnath Gelin), have solid granite cores. Although travel does tend to fol- low the natural causeways of the valleys. passing overhill is hardly difficult; roads and trails are gentle and as well maintained as any in Middle-earth. The landscape of the new Hobbit colonies. like its people, does not pretend to any grandeur. TheVale of the Water (the valley of the Formensiril) provides a lowland path for travelers on the Great East Road that links the Bridge of Stonebows to the gaps in the White Downs at Michael Delving and Lirtle Delving. This. the most substantial valley in the Shire, is no more than twenty miles wide at any point.; a swift rider can travel the sixty miles from river [0 downs in a single day. The twin valleys of the Fayne and Reedly in the Southfarthing are half this size. In the Northfarthing, the streams do little more than interrupt a jumbled series of low. rolling hills.

Though neither as fertile as the great river valleys nor as grand as the high mountains elsewhere in Middle earth the lands of the Shire offer richness and beauty on their own small scale. Lowlands and hillsides support either crops or herds. Forests and groves spring up, save on the downs, everywhere the axe and plow allow them. As in olden times, the Hobbits love leaf and branch for its own sake, while valuing the timber. nuts, and game a woodland provides. Their fields and villages are interspersed with auseful mix of tree growth. The marshes along the Brandywine and the lesser swamplands of Mistvale and Covenvale, in the Westfarthing, support an abundance of waterfowl and fish. The downs that surround the Shire on threesides rise with magic splendor out afforest, meadow, and heather. Though a nuisance to foot and cart traffic, they provide clean, stone-filtered water, flint and stone quarries, and limy soils ideal for vineyards of the highest quality.

In the first century of the Shire's settlement, the Hobbits have yet to turn their new homeland into a proper place oforderly business. Much ofthe country still serves as a forested haven for wandering Elves and Men. The smials and huts of the newcomers have a hasty, unfinished look; their fields lack fixed borders, as though their keepers are unsure how much acreage to claim. The surrounding woods have yet to be tamed-their shadowy depths still harbor beasts, unruly men, and things more strange and fierce.

Fauna of Siragle

In their past homelands, Hobbits had been obliged to live near large and dangerous animals. The wolves and bears of the Misty Mountains and the chatmoig, or great cats, ofRhudaur and Hollin had always stalked Hobbits in the wild and in their villages. Wild boar -and cattle also posed a threat; these animals showed no fear of creatures as small as a Halfling. They usually charged and trampled, any Hobbit who failed to give ground.

While stalking beasts roamed throughout Siragalc in the I7th century of the Third Age, generations of man­nish and Elvish hunters made them wary of speaking beings. Wild cattle, some as large as the massive great­ horses used by the knights of Atthedain, were hunted by wandering hidesmen, and trappers profited from the fur of the smaller predators. Temperamental boars were the special target of the Dunadan nobility; these dangerous beasts were seen as a fitting challenge to their hunting skills.

Despite their love of nature, Hobbits settling in Siragale aim to control the numbers and habits of wild animals. They eradicate large predators and hunt small ones into small manageable populations. Grazers are driven back into wood and marsh as a protection for cultivated fields and gardens. This policy ofcontainmentputs the Hobbit immigrants in conflict with the knights of House Tarma and the frontiersmen scattered across the province who hunt wild animals for sport and sustenance. While Men, Elves, and Hobbits quarreloverthepolicy, undomesticated animals grow ever more wily and elusive. Like the Hobbits themselves, the beasts adapt to the new landscape of the Shire.

Fauna & Flora

PLANTS OF THE SHIRE

In the Elder Days, the land that would become the Shire was covered by a vast forest, the Taur Druinod, or "Faerie Wood," of Eriadoran legend and song. The primaeval woodland fell into decline toward the end of the First Age due to the baneful effects of Morgoth's war upon the Elves and the lessening power of magic in the world. In the Second Age, the Numen6reans ofWesternesse cut down most ofEriador's forests to provide timber for their vast fleets of ships. In the Third Age, the less ruthless heirs of Numenor, the Dunedain, took greater care of their wood­ lands, managing and taming them in the service of farms and towns.

At the time of the Shire's founding, all that remains of the Taur Druinod is the Old Forest (S. Taur Iaur) east of the Shire and the trees of the Black Cape (S. Rast Vorn) at the mouth of the Brandywine. Both woodlands are haunted by ancient powers eclipsed by the rise of mortal men to power. Siragale and Lindon, protected from the worst of mannish rapacity. nonetheless, show signs o fthat ancient anger. The traveller who confines his wanderings to the settled areas, made safe by centuries of mortal presence, might never feel it strongly; it remains in the background, however, lurking in shadows and enlivening the tales told at night around comforting fires.

Scoured by glaciers in the time of Morgoth's dominion, the country north ofSam Ford was never home to forests as dense as Greenwood the Great. Beyond its lowland river valleys, Siragale was covered by what became known as "silvan" woodland-mixed forests in the well-watered vales and flower-covered glades on the drier hilltops and grassy uplands. Logging and grazing have contributed to the spread of moors and prairies; much of the land settled byHobbits already shows signs of past wastage that limits new growth. Away from the roads in the Green-hill country, where the Elves had long been concentrated, the silvan woods retain their ancient lushness.

The forests of the Shire, both ancient and new-born, are mostly hardwood. White and red oak, elm, ash, beech, and hemlock grow straight-trunked and talI where the ground allows for large, dense stands. On open hillsides like the one in front of Bag End and along the borders of streams and fields, these hardwoods grow in abundance. In areas of mannish commerce, or those that suffer harsh winds, grey­ barked aspen or poplar and white-barked paper-birch trees are more common. These smaller trees grow quickly on the cleared ground, and their seeds can find a niche in any ruin or rock face with a little water by it. Willows and cottonwoods crowd arolU1d major watercourses; smaller high-bush roses, hawthorn, hazel, and branching buckthorns spring up among weeds, beginning the cycle of new woodland formation wherever grazing lags. Evergreens do thrive in certain parts of the Shire, typically where the soil is harsh. Yew and larch are found on sandy ground, particularly in the Northfarthing. Scrub­ pines and silver-edged spruce, their boughs good for bedding and their cones for starting fires, find root in the lee of the steepest downs. Tamarack stands grow densely on the dry hillocks in alkali bogs, providing refuge for deer and bandits alike.

Fruit-bearing trees are more useful to the settled inhab­itants of the Shire, however. While they are found scat­tered throughout the country, particularly at the sites of abandoned mannish farms, the Hobbits prefer to plant and nurture them in groves and orchards. Apple, pear, and cherry trees, as well as blueberry, heatherberry, and rasp­ berry bushes are a central part of any prosperous Hobbit farm.

Low-lying growth in the Shire is varied. Grasses rang­ ing in height from the ankle to the shoulder of a Hobbit engulf open glades and meadows more densely even than the prairie country beyond the Brandywine. Mixed with the grasses are a great number of flowering weeds, which burst into a riot of colourful blossoms through the spring and summer. Along with weeds. low shrubs like heather, gorse, billow-pine, and hollow-berry help stave off ero­sion; this dense undergrowth also provides shelter for animals and creates vast stretches of fragrant purple and yellow flowers during their summer bloom. Ferns, mosses, and cat-tails dominate bogs where the ground is too soft for grass or shrubs. On the northern frontier where the soil is scarce, lichens and mosses cover the rocky ground.

Domesticated plants and crops grow well in the Shire, though they can fail if not carefully tended against the erratic weather. Even in good years, planting binds the farmer to the endless cycle of seasons. Hobbit cornlands produce thick-grown fields of wheat, oats. and coma, a hardy Arthadan grain resembling barley. Hobbit gardens are replete with all kinds of vegetables, including the ita, a type of grey potato brought from the rocky vales of Anduin. The region also favours garden fruits, such as strawberry, chokecherry, and bush crabapple. Farmers keeping animals over the winter must, of course, cultivate clover and grass hay for livestock.

The spring and summer season in the Shire is domi­nated by typical farming activity: planting, haying, collec­tion of early vegetables and fruits. and then the grain harvest. In the fall. surplus stock is driven to market. meat and vegetables are cured. pickled. or dried for storage. Firewood is split and stacked when the trees dry out in late autumn. The land is manured and turned in anticipation of next year's planting.

Fauna

PREDATORS

Wolves, BLACK BEAR, Red Fox, Madratine, Racoons Badgers, ferrets, and weasels. Otters, minks, and fishers

Herbivores

Auroch, Boar, Deer,

Small mammals

Rabbits are the most common small animal in the Shire. They share the woodlands with squirrels, gophers, ground squirrels, (or chipmunks) and field mice (voles). The slightly larger opossum, hedgehogs, and woodchuck are somewhat less common.

Birds and flying creatures

Eriador supports a great variety and number of birds. The migratory birds of the north, gathering twice a year in enormous flocks. are the most numerous and useful to hunter and farmer alike. Four types constitute the majority of the flocks that crisscross the Shire during spring and fall: the ice goose and three varieties of duck--the split­ tailed, the blue-headed, and the red-headed. The ice goose is a large black-and-white bird that summers in Forochel and winters south of Eriador. Its migration in late spring and mid-fall follows the coastline or the banks of the Brandywine River. All three common varieties of duck nest along the waterways of the Shire at some point during the year. In the late spring, the red-headed duck gathers in the Midgewater Marshes and migrates to the lakes of the Far North. Blue-headed ducks do the same over open water in the swamps of Siragale. The split-tail duck forms smaller flocks that gather on Lake Evendim for their spring and fall migration to and from Forochel.

Other species of birds include the various songbirds that enliven the forests of the Shire, as well as the lark and the blackbird that thrive in the open lands. Crows and ravens flock in large numbers, while several varieties of small, dun-coloured hawks also fly the skies of the Shire. Large and small owls hunt the woods at night; they are widely thought to be intelligent and magical, having once served, according to legend, as a border watch for GiI­ galad in the days of the Elf-kingdom.

Reptiles

Venomous serpents are rare in the Shire. The Northfarthing shelters a few varieties of turtles, tortoises, and lizards, as well as some harmless, rodent-eating snakes and small vipers. The other farthings have a richer population of reptiles, but, even so, their furtive habits make them hard to spot.

Despite this scarcity of dangerous reptiles, adventurers who dig in ruins, bogs, and rocky lairs are likely to discover anyone of four dangerous snakes. TIle white adder called the nathair ardor (pI. nethairin erdyr) by the Dunadan, is the most prevalent. This cream-coloured viper, shorter than a pony's foreleg, is a smaller cousin of the true nathair ofthe Cardolani prairies. Not especially venomous, prone more to frightening display than to attack, it lurks in the rocky terrain across northern Eriador. Far more danger­ ous are the rock viper and its woodland cousin, the coireal. The rock viper, about as long as a Hobbit's arm, inhabits downs and hills, often sunning itself on rocks. The coireal, only a few inches in length. favours the coolness of rotting logs and leaves deep in the woods. Both snakes are marked by yellow rings on a black background. They carry a potent nerve venom and are dangerous to handle.

The water-whip, or nathrach, is larger than any of the dry-land snake and can be found in the Marish and other marshy areas along the Brandywine. Its rusty scales are crossed with broad bands of brown; the water-whip's length ranges from three to five feet; its body is thicker than most snakes. The serpent's name derives from the "whipping" wave effect that is its signature in still water and from the sharp muscle pains associated with its venom. Like most poisonous creatures. the water-whip presents a greater threat to Hobbits than Men because a full dose of venom does greater harm to a smaller body.

Domestic animals

Food animals

Sheep, cattle, pigs, goats

Dogs

Hunting dogs, Sheep dogs, ratters, rabbit hunters.

Draft animals

Ox, Pony, HOrse

Alternative Name(s)

The Shire

Type

Forest, Temperate (Seasonal)

Owner/Ruler

Arveleg II

Owning Organization

Arthedain

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• Family Quarrels or "Did you hear what he said about our Ada?"