My look at whether the Shire and the Bree-land from the Third Age of Tolkien's Legendarium are 'more anachronistic' than other countries and lands in the Westlands of Middle-earth during the Third Age.
The Hobbits of the Shire in J. R. R. Tolkien's Third Age works... It has
been often commented on that they seem anachronistic compared to the
rest of Middle-Earth. More of an 18th, 19th or early 20th century,
"English country folk" type of nation, plucked out of such a setting and
dropped into the middle of a more overtly medieval fantasy world.
Though I can see it, I think there is an in-canon explanation for that
whiff of anachronism we occassionally feel when reading about them and
the Shire.
First of all, there is a similar phenomennon occuring with the people of
Breeland, local Men and Hobbits alike. Bree and her three smaller
sister villages tend to be described with an atmosphere reminescent of a
late-medieval and early modern atmosphere, thus somewhat slightly more
archaic than what we read about or deduce about the Shire. If Bree and
the other villages are also somewhat anachronistic compared to most
other human-inhabited lands of the Third Age, what causes that
anachronism in-universe, outside of authorial intent ?
I think the answer is simple. Tolkien explicitly mentions how hobbits
and the early history of the Shire were quite heavily influenced by them
being subjects of the Arnorian kings. Bree-land was also a part of
Arnor, in fact close to the heartland of the pre-division kingdom.
Tolkien tells us Bree itself was an important trading town already long
before Arnor fell. He also noted in no uncertain terms that most of the
less-traditional architecture (i.e. not hobbit-holes) and tech
innovations of the Shire hobbits came from Arnorian influences and
cultural/commerce exchange. From what we know of Bree, by and large the
same sort of things happened there, but things like architecture were no
doubt closer to the architecture of human (Mannish ?) Arnorians.
Bree-land always seemed majority-human, so the architecture of the local
Men contrasted with that of the Shire, the traditional architecture of
hobbits from Bree-land being both less numerous and possibly even more
blended in with Big People architecture than examples from the Shire.
(Remember, even in the Shire, many hobbits lived in normal period houses
and cottages, not every village or town was composed of only
hobbit-holes.) Bree being one of the largest surviving towns of Arnor,
I'd go as far as to say many different market towns and trading towns
throughout Arnor (during its heyday) looked similar to what Bree looks even centuries later. In the illustrations and adaptations, Bree is consistently shown
as something highly reminescent of a 15th/16th century western European
rural town. (Then there's the fact that descriptions of the Shire town
of Michel Delving, including that of the town hall, give the impression
of hobbit-sized versions of the Mannish architecture from Bree. It
might be named a Town Hole, but I don't think it was the usual
burrow-house.) The large cities of Arnor are long gone, but a few surviving towns or re-established towns are remnants of its vanished "urbanisation".
Arnor, like Gondor in the southern parts of western Middle-Earth, was a
monarchy and empire founded by descendants of Númenorean loyalists who
survived the cataclysm and returned to Middle-Earth. Even after the
destruction of Númenor, they remained the most technologically and
economically advanced human nations of Middle-Earth. After Arnor ceased
existence during the war with Angmar and the Witch-King, much of Eriador
became depopulated, with many densely inhabited regions and old cities
falling into ruin. By the time of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings,
much of Eriador feels like a medieval-ish post-apocalyptic setting.
Except for a few cultured, organised holdouts. Two such non-elven states
are the Shire and Bree-land, which in fact neighbour each other.
The additional centuries after the fall of Arnor added to the natural,
standalone evolution of Shire and Bree-land vernacular architecture and
material culture. Hence, we have these two lands including elements
that, in the real world, could range from anywhere in our 13th century
to our 19th century. With these two little countries being the only
organised states left in Eriador (aside from elven and dwarven city
states and a possibly more tribal state in far away Dunland), it is no
wonder that they progressed while the rest didn't. There were no other
major countries around to see any sort of progress, even minimal. The
Shire and Bree-land people also grew somewhat unprepared to face outside
threats, as the Dunedain secretly protected their borders even after
the fall of Arnor. That sort of "not having to face wars and raids
regularly" scenario could lead to an out-of-place seeming, pacifist
rural society.
Pipeweed and potatoes and hobbits adding to their popularisation ? My
guess is that Númenoreans brought potatoes to Middle-Earth from Númenor !
Dwarves and Men don't eat only cereals, bread and cram, you know. The Dwarves have (or had) something called "earth-bread".
These might be turnips, a form of beet, maybe even something like
less-spicy horseradish. It's somekind of tuber, at any rate. I'm one of
those who hold the opinion that "earth-bread" is simply the dwarvish
colloquial name for "taters" (to quote Sam). Potatoes and meals made
from them, a thing the hobbits know about and grow. Correct me if I'm
wrong, but pipe-weed originally grew in southern Gondor and it arrived
into Arnor via export, then the hobbits adopted it as a cash crop.
Presence of New World plants explained. Of course, maybe the terms are
just figurative translations, but if they do describe plants known in
the real world, they would make sense.
Given the inheritance of Númenorean knowledge and praxis via Arnor, and
all the unique post-Arnor developments, hints of anachronisms in both
the Shire and Bree-land make a lot of sense, IMHO. Despite all the "up
to the 19th century" anachronisms you can occassionally find in the
Shire, Tolkien makes no mention of hobbits having semaphores,
telegraphs, stagecoaches, advanced wagon suspension, photography,
newspapers, steam engines, modern smelting and ironsmithing methods,
gunpowder, etc., etc. All of those "present by the 18/19th century" tech
innovations are noticeably absent, despite one expecting them in an
ostensibly "merry old rural England 1700-ish, 1800-ish" setting like the
Shire. The most advanced thing ever seen in the Shire were Gandalf's
fireworks, and it's implied those were invented or improved by the
dwarves, with Gandalf as customer. Ergo, the Shire is like an early
modern setting that developed socially and in terms of agriculture
(think "England out of an Austen novel"), but technologically didn't
leave the early modern period (think "Tudor England" or "early Stuart
England").
I've recently discussed this topic in an online literary discussion, one in which several of my foreign acquaintances took part in. One of them made these observations concerning this particular topic:
The Hobbit and LOTR show the following things to exist in the Shire, and
by extension quite possibly in Bree-land, too: Umbrellas, clocks, golf,
clarinets and matches, in addition to the postal service that exists in
the Shire and very likely in Bree-land as well.
My interpretation has always been that the reason for the existence of
such things is that they are either a holdover from Arnor or they are
dwarven inventions, like I could very well imagine matches as being
invented by the dwarves. Golf is mentioned in The Hobbit as being a
Hobbit invention, and I could imagine Arnor having used a postal service
in the old days - a sort of Middle-Earth "pony express" - and likewise
Gondor too, in their days of glory. As for the other stuff... Well,
Tolkien clearly indicates in his works that Númenor's civilization was
highly advanced, so it only makes sense that those sorts of things would
have been invented by them in ages past.
If a postal service existed in Gondor too, it seems to have fallen by
the wayside by the time of LOTR. Which would be understandable, since
the previous millennium or so hasn't been very kind to them, what with
the wars, invasions, plagues and so on. That would also explain the lack
of all the other stuff in Gondor that's found in the Shire, that their
civilization has gradually but steadily regressed, focusing more on the
needs of warfare and defence than civilian things. Kind of like the
Eastern Roman Empire between 600 and 800 or so.
Another of my foreign acquaintances who took part in the discussion also voiced the following opinion:
And talking about the Lord Of The Ring and Middle Earth: It is my
opinion that in the stories the Hobbits are the actual 'humans' of
Middle Earth. If not for anything else they behave more like an average
human does.
I provided the following reply:
My personal view is that it's more of a case of authorial intent. However, even
in-universe, this is consistent with the "anachronism" of the hobbits:
They are "out of time" compared with the rest of Middle-Earth's humans.
The hobbits have attitudes closer to contemporary ones, while non-hobbit
humans have, accordingly, more medieval-esque attitudes to things (with
the occassional added fantasy layer). The hobbits feel collectivelly
more down to earth because we see relatively little of the more ordinary
social classes of humans, and because hobbits themselves don't have
much in the way of aristocracy (rich people, yes, noblemen not so much).
'But wait...' you might say. 'Didn't the author make it clear that hobbits are meant to be something of a stand-in for more contemporary human readers, as an audience surrogate ? Making them more the 'ancestors' of modern humans than even the human ('Men') characters of the Legendarium ?'
I tend to view that as more of a case of authorial intent. However, even
in-universe, this is consistent with the "anachronism" of the hobbits:
They are "out of time" compared with the rest of Middle-Earth's humans.
The hobbits have attitudes closer to contemporary ones, while non-hobbit
humans have, accordingly, more medieval-esque attitudes to things (with
the occassional added fantasy layer). The hobbits feel collectivelly
more down to earth because we see relatively little of the more ordinary
social classes of humans, and because hobbits themselves don't have
much in the way of aristocracy (rich people, yes, noblemen not so much).
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You can also read the Slovak translation of this article here:
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