Rosamund Tunnelly

"It is certain that Hobbits of old had strong Matriarchal tendencies, a fact which is still visible in the family organizations of many today, but in no place is this tradition still so strong as among the Tunnellies of Staddle." - Meriadoc Brandybuck The Tunnelly family dominates the small village of Staddle just around the curve of Bree-hill. Rosamund Tunnelly - locally referred to as "Grandmother" by the townsfolk big and little - is the Matriarch of her family and the leading figure in the town. She is fiercely insistent on Staddles independence from Bree, once going so far as calling up the young men of the village to secure the Mill when a former Reeve of Bree attempted to assert his authority over the little hamlet around the hill. This event - now a local joke called The War of Thursday Afternoon - was the closest the Breeland has come to internal violence, and the whole affair was over by dinner when the Reeve backed down. Nonetheless the event established Grandmother Tunnelly's reputation for fierceness, which continues to command the respect of all in Staddle today.