The shire was founded under the rule of the king of arnor, as a semi independent shire. So aragorn was technically king of the shire.
this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2025
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Every time I see this meme, I'm reminded of this, which basically argues that the shire is just a specific type of feudal system, that looks like a place of rulerless plenty because the main characters are mostly that systems informal equivalent of nobility.
Full disclosure: I have not read your link yet, but I intend to.
How can a gardener be nobility? Frodo, definitely could see. But then there are the Tooks and Brandybucks going out and stealing produce and foraging for mushrooms? Not exactly nobility activities.
But then there are the Tooks and Brandybucks going out and stealing produce and foraging for mushrooms? Not exactly nobility activities.
Another way of looking at it is that they don't have to work and is using their past time doing crime just for kicks. That kind of dickishness sounds very much like that of the spawn of nobles.
Remember, they are still pretty much children in Hobbit society. Both the Tooks and Brandeybucks hold fair bits of land, it's just their wild kids running around giving the farmers trouble. And of course there's never any real consequences for them beyond a slap on the wrist.
Look Tolkein liked monarchy, what can you do about it. The Shire is still an anarchist commune, when it's not on fire
I'm not sure it really fits the bill there. It had a largely-ceremonial hereditary monarchy (which Pippin inherits from his dad about 15 years after the ring was destroyed) which can call assemblies to discuss matters, an elected mayor (which Sam served as several times over after the ring), and law enforcement in the form of the shiriffs. Tolkien does describe it as "hardly any" government, yes, but to me it seems perhaps unsurprisingly more like a miniaturised version of the British system
I mean, medieval communities were often somewhat self-managed due to the simple fact that judicial courts were far away, and the local bailiff had to enact the laws. Every-day law was mostly on a by-case basis, and if they didn't notice or care, there was no law.
They have a healthy system of vegetable competitions and scowls to keep the order.
That’s all most neighbourhoods and small groups need.
Only because they were a client state of Arnor and their militant successors, the Rangers of Dunedain! Who keep all the "riffraff out."
The Shire is a redlined suburb, wake up sheeple.
Did hobbits support the death penalty?
They killed wormtongue so I'm going to go with yes
Denethor was a Mordor asset. He had to be removed.
Honestly, that makes them even more of a CIA analog; removing one autocrat in favour of another, who is more aligned with their interests.
The only thing that makes them not a CIA analog, the plan actually worked and no one was secretly dosed with LSD.
We don't know what's in lembas bread
Meth.
It's meth bread.
Gives a man the energy to march and fight all day with a single bite?
Please.
hobbits not feeling any of it after eating a bunch of it?
Total meth heads with tolerance
that's what they want you to believe.
Hey the man removed himself
Let's keep the people believing that, good citizen!
Gondor had like 30 Kings before that ...
I don't think that's true, is it? I think Gondor had a small handful of kings before the line was broken and had a long string of stewards. Didn't Isildur sail from Numenor and establish Gondor himself? So, one single king, right?
No, isildurs nephew led the line of kings in gondor for two thousand years before the plague and civil war weakened gondor and it ended when the witch king nazgul killed the last king of gondor.
So did France but they figured out how to break the cycle (eventually)
Gondor has no ~~pants~~ king, Gondor needs no king.
lol, the secret lives of Hobbitses. GOLLUM WAS RIGHT
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