Did Hobbits Ever Live in Tribes?

Q: Did Hobbits Ever Live in Tribes?

ANSWER: There is no definitive statement from J.R.R. Tolkien in any published writing of which I am aware concerning tribal societies among Hobbits. Some readers have equated the three Hobbit kindreds (Fallohides, Stoors, and Harfoots) with tribes through the years but he does not portray an actual tribal life style among the Hobbits, except possibly in the Buckland, which was founded by Gorhendad Oldbuck, the last Thain of the Oldbuck Line.

A tribal society is a group of families and/or clans who share a common culture, spiritual belief system, and leadership. The tribe generally lives within a specific geographical area and they form common cause in dealing with disaster and war, sometimes in conjunction with other tribes as coordinated through tribal leaders.

But the word “tribe” is used anthropologically to describe cultural groups ranging in size from a few dozen members to hundreds of thousands. Historically, especially in European history, large tribal nations actually included “sub-tribes” and “vassal tribes” or “allied tribes”. A single tribal leader might draw several other tribes together under his leadership for a series of wars, and then the tribes would go their own ways again.

Tolkien originally used the word “tribe” to describe the different groups of Elves in The Book of Lost Tales but by the time he published The Lord of the Rings he was only using “tribe” to describe different groups of Orcs. He divided men into “houses” (e.g., “the three Houses of the Edain”) and only used “tribes” to refer to small groups of “Wild Men” (Druedain) living in western Middle-earth. Linguistically he allowed for a use of “tribe” in Quenya with the word nore (derived from ono), which (according to Note 25 in “Quendi and Eldar”, published in The War of the Jewels) had the meaning of “family, tribe or group having a common ancestry, the land or region in which they dwelt”.

This internal scholarly recognition of the concept of the “tribe” seems to imply that Tolkien had made an intentional change in his idiom (the words and expressions he used to describe things and people in Middle-earth). We can only guess at what his intention might have been. For my part, I believe he felt that a modern (western) reader would think of a “tribal” society as unsophisticated, untutored, and primitive. Although tribal society tends to give way to urban society as populations grow, even in ancient Greece and Rome many families continued to recognize tribal relationships with each other and their ancestors. But this is a subtle point that the casual reader would not be expected to recognize, much less dwell upon.

Hence, tribes are primitive, less sophisticated societies in Middle-earth — living on the periphery of or giving rise to civilization, which led to the fading of tribal distinctions. In some ways, however, family groups became more insular as they lost their tribal identities. Hence, the Elrosians and their close relatives (such as the Lords of Andúnië) treasured their common ancestry from Elros Tar-Minyatur, which made them distinctive even in the Númenórean civilization. Likewise, the descendants of the great Elf kings also took pride in their special ancestry, distancing themselves from the rest of their “tribal” peers.

Among Hobbits, however, tribalism would have been challenged by their close relationship with and dependence upon Big Folk, including both the Dunedain of Eriador and the Northmen of the Vales of Anduin. While the Hobbit clans retained strong familial identities they don’t appear to have developed into fully independent tribes, with the possible exception of the Bucklanders (who anthropologically appear to be distinctive in a tribal sense, even down to including secondary families that were subservient to or otherwise dependent upon the Brandybucks).

Hobbit clans seem to have taken ownership of their own special regions both within and outside the Shire. Not only is there the Buckland to serve as an example, but also Sméagol’s people, the Stoors of the Gladden Fields. His immediate family appears to be dwelling in a clan society. Tolkien does not say whether there was more than one clan, although in “The Hunt for the Ring” (published in Unfinished Tales of Númenóre and Middle-earth) there is a brief mention of deserted “villages of the Stoors by the Gladden”.

Given that there were three distinct kindred groups of Hobbits, however, it is reasonable to infer that there must at one time have been three distinct tribal groups — probably before they settled in the Vales of Anduin in the early Third Age. Once the Hobbits began living close to Men, their societies transformed. The most conservative groups appear to be the Stoors, who often chose to live on their own (such as in the Angle, in Dunland, in the Buckland, and by the Gladden Fields).

Between the Third Age years 1600 and 1636 there were three groups of Stoors: those living in the Shire, those living in Dunland, and those living in the Vales of Anduin. The Shire Stoors came from Dunland and presumably were closely related to them. These appear to be the most tribal among late Third Age Hobbit groups, in my opinion.

See also

When Did Hobbits become Divided into Fallohides, Stoors, and Harfoots?

What Is the Earliest Date Hobbits Could Have Settled in the Vales of Anduin?

Where Did Hobbits Live in the First Age?

Did Hobbits Live by the Anduin?

Where Do Hobbits Live in Middle-earth?

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