Q: Did the Shire Have an Army or a Military?
ANSWER: Yes, the Shire had an official military. Most people are surprised to learn this about the Shire. My 2011 article “Did the Shire Have an Army?” was a little less precise than what follows. I stand by what I wrote then but this article may explain things a little better.
What confuses many people is the fact that the Shire did not have a standing army. You could say that the Shire had an authorized army or the King’s authority to contribute soldiers to his army.
But there was no “king” after Third Age year 1975. Arthedain (which had reclaimed authority over all the former lands of Arnor) was destroyed by Angmar and Aranarth, son of Arvedui, decided not to restore the kingdom. He instead took the title Chieftein of the Dunedain of the North but also remained Lord of the Dunedain of the North and Heir of Isildur as well as Heir of Elendil.
When Argeleb II granted the Bree hobbit brothers Marcho and Blanco permission to establish the Shire in T.A. year 1601, he only lay upon them to obligations to keep the roads and bridges in repair and to speed the king’s messengers. The hobbits who settled in the Shire remained Argeleb’s subjects and they acknowledged his authority.
The first mention of any armed hobbitry in the Shire comes during the final war with Angmar. They sent some archers to defend Fornost and they were never seen again. When Cirdan and Eärnur led an army eastward from Mithlond and Lindon to attack Angmar, more hobbits from the Shire joined them.
After the war the chieftains of the Shire clans elected a Thain “to hold the authority of the King” (until such time as the King returned, according to Tolkien). The Thain led the Shire-muster when the Hobbitry-in-Arms were summoned.
We don’t know how often the Thain used this authority. Tolkien mentions that the last formal call prior to the War of the Ring was when Bandobras “Bullroarer” Took led a hobbit army against invading Orcs at the Battle of Greenfields.
What Was the Hobbitry-In-Arms?
Tolkien Gateway describes the Hobbitry-in-Arms as a militia. I’m not convinced that is exactly what J.R.R. Tolkien had in mind. The word militia has a very specific meaning in warfare. But in historical English usage the Militia were an authorized army raised by the various counties. The Militia were first authorized in 1660 and last martialed in 1815.
Men were chosen to serve in the Milita by ballot, and balloting continued to 1831, so the Militia were drawn from a draft system but they had officers appointed by their county Lord-lieutenants (royal representatives appointed for each county).
I’m not well-versed in Great Britain’s military history but it’s my understanding that the offices of the Lord-lieutenants predated Charles II’s ascension and lasted in some form until the early 20th century. Or some types of offices using these titles were maintained for the counties for several centuries, either appointed as needed or for specific periods of duty.
I cannot find anything like these details in The Lord of the Rings, Unfinished Tales, or The Peoples of Middle-earth, which are our primary sources for information about the Shire.
So I would say that the Shire-muster was somewhat less formal than a proper British Militia force.
On the other hand, the Shire-muster or Hobbitry-in-Arms would have been the only defensive force the Shire could rely upon. Tolkien doesn’t say the Rangers ever fought a battle on behalf of the Shire.
If I had to guess, I would guess that each folk-land was responsible for raising a company of hobbits that would attend the Shire-muster, wherever that was held. The Thain would decide how many companies were needed for an emergency.
I use the words “company”, “companies” loosely – meaning only an organized band of armed hobbits who answered to the authority of the Thain.
Pippin Led a Company of Tooks to Help Frodo
After Frodo returned to the Shire and Merry decided to rouse the Hobbits against the half-Orcs, Pippin took off for the Tookland, promising to “return with an army of Tooks”.
I don’t think Tolkien meant that figuratively. Farmer Cotton had already explained that Pippin’s father – Paladin Took II, the rightful Thain of the Shire – had closed off Tookland to Sharkey’s ruffians, saying if anyone would be boss it would be him. For whatever reason, Paladin didn’t call the Shire-moot or the Shire-muster. He simply fortified the Tookland and waited.
Obviously for the purpose of telling the story, Tolkien contrived things so that Paladin only took direct action when his son returned and told him what was transpiring in Bywater. But Cotton’s story implies that the Tooks had mustered their own force and were strong enough to keep the ruffians out.
So did the Hobbitry-in-Arms Ever Train?
I can’t imagine any Thain of the Shire ever summoning hundreds of hobbits for training camp and practice maneuvers in the field. But I can imagine the various heads of families with folklands maintaining some sort of traditions for the Shire-muster for centuries.
Maybe by the time of the War of the Ring only the Tooks were still doing this. One need not read that much into the story. We know the Tooks had a large population at Great Smials. It may have been simple enough for them to organize a defensive force quickly. They didn’t try to take back any territory from the ruffians until it was clear that the Shire was rising up. Clearly Paladin wasn’t leading a big army or practicing any strategy.
But I think it’s fair to imagine that the Tooks kept up their bow skills, most likely through hunting, and that they probably had designated group-leaders who had an idea of what to do in times of emergency.
Some people might feel it’s acceptable to call that a militia force.
Any Force the Thain Called up Would be “the Shire’s Army”
Paladin had the authority to appoint officers for the Hobbitry-in-Arms. That should be clear. And when he sent Pippin back to Bywater with over 100 Tooks they were acting under his authority.
So for all intents and purposes the Shire did have an army during the War of the Ring, even if it didn’t accomplish much for most of the time and had to be supplemented by last-minute volunteers from Bywater and probably other villages.
The hobbits clearly had the advantage of numbers. The Tooks had a leader who was willing to stand up to the ruffians. Maybe the only reason why Saruman was able to seize control of the Shire was that he used Lotho (“the Boss”) to infiltrate the Shire in advance, making it impossible for a muster to assemble.
But it could also be that only the Tooks still maintained enough of a tradition to be able to muster anything like an army. If I had to guess Tolkien’s intention, that would be my guess.
At the very least, we know the Thain held the authority of the King (within the Shire’s boundaries) and therefore he had the only permanent military office in the Shire. All other officers the Shire needed would be appointed by the Thain during the Muster.
So, yes, the Shire had an army and even a bare-bones military tradition. But they had become complacent by the end of the Third Age and were completely unprepared for any kind of invasion, especially a stealthy invasion such as Saruman pulled off. And that is why most people are surprised to learn about the Shire’s army.
See also …
What Is the Capital of the Shire?
Of Thegns and Kings and Rangers and Things
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Have you read our other Tolkien and Middle-earth Questions and Answers articles?
As Tolkien wrote:
“Though slow to quarrel, and for sport killing nothing that lived, they were doughty at bay, and at need could still handle arms. They shot well with the bow, for they were keen-eyed and sure at the mark. Not only with bows and arrows. If any Hobbit stooped for a stone, it was well to get quickly under cover, as all trespassing beasts knew very well.”
And we do know that they hunted, using bows, not to search far, Sam’s cousin Hal hunted often in Northfarthing and worked for Mr Boffin in Overhill :). Even Bilbo was said to practice his aim with various games of throwing or shooting type:
“…his time at quoits, dart-throwing, shooting at the wand, bowls, ninepins and other quiet games of the aiming and throwing sort…”
So at the very least the aim and skill with projectiles of a Hobbit would be maintained in addition to their natural senses helping in this regard. Hobbitry-in-Arms could have a flavor of national guard or similar, though even less formal, called up only in emergency.
Depending on how you define a “battle on behalf of the Shire”, you might have the rangers fighting one. In Appendix B, Tale of Years, concerning September 22nd, 3018, we have
“22. The Black Riders reach Sarn Ford at evening; they drive off the guard of Rangers. Gandalf overtakes Shadowfax.”
And then for the next day
“23. Four Riders enter the Shire before dawn. The others pursue the Rangers eastward, and then return to watch the Greenway. A Black Rider comes to Hobbiton at nightfall. Frodo leaves Bag End. Gandalf having tamed Shadowfax rides from Rohan. ”
Which certainly implies some sort of struggle, although whether or not you count a bunch of rangers contesting in some unnamed fashion against 9 ringwraiths as a “battle”, even to the point where a slightl majority of the Nazgul are willing to delay their primary mission of looking for the Ring to pursue these fleeing enemies.
The hobbits were at any rate never wholly unprepared for defense. In addition to the Shiriffs for internal matters they had the Bounders, who (according to Sam’s relation at the Green Dragon) were at least capable of turning away troublesome outsiders before the War of the Ring. The Master of Buckland also kept guards at the North Gate, and the Brandybucks had a horn signal to rouse the populace during emergencies. According to “A Knife in the Dark,” the horn signal hadn’t been heard since the Fell Winter, but that’s hardly possible; they must at least have practiced the call on occasion, otherwise no one would know how to blow it (or even recognize it when blown). One can speculate that the Master customarily had the horn call sounded when the Bucklanders were gathered to celebrate holidays (or something along those lines).
The Hobbitry-in-Arms sounds more like a levée en masse–a muster of the entire able-bodied adult male populace–than any kind of formal military organization, but the hobbits obviously had some inkling of how to behave in those circumstances, presumably based on oral traditions of past emergencies.
In England each Shire (County) would have a Lord Lieutenant who was appointed by the king to raise, train and command the local militia. Lieutenant in this meant a person acting in the name of the King. In the days before fast communications an invading Scottish or Welsh army could have seized half the country before the news reached the court. Every able bodied man was expected to train at archery at least once a week. The Lord Lieutenant would have a store of weapons and every freeman would have a bow and a dagger. Agricultural implements such as a sickle could soon be fastened to a pole and turned into a billhook which could be used to drag a knight off his horse and floundering on the ground he was vulnerable.
This was not just a precaution against invasion as in the borders there were bands called Reivers who would launch cattle raids across the border. In the North East the local commander was the Bishop of Durham, The Prince Bishops has their own armed bands and acted in the Kings name. In many areas this was largely ceremonial but in the Welsh marches, Northumberland and Westmoreland it was a deadly serious matter.