A Story Of The Fourth Age - Preface

Stephen Foulk - [email protected]

Preface    Many things changed in the Shire with the ending of the Third Age; the great evil had been banished but many lesser evils were set free to roam. Built by hobbits, the High Hay had been the Eastern defence of the Shire; a living fence that ran in a curve from the Brandywine Bridge along the edge of the Old Forest to meet the Brandywine River in the south it had been grown as defence against the wild things that always inhabited the Old Forest. After the War of the Ring the numbers of those wicked things, despairing and lost upon the death of Sauron, increased greatly and they sought out the dark places to hide and so it was that the Old Forest became home to many and many of them and the High Hay was not defence enough against them. So it was that Buckland became a debatable land despite the best efforts of hobbits and the King’s men sent to their aid in the reign of Aragorn (also known as Elessar Elfstone). After the death of Aragorn the eyes of the new King were less inclined to look to the little land in the West and so it was that the Sire began to turn even more unto itself; Buckland was abandoned and the Breandybucks became a dispossessed people. The fate of the ancient guardian of the Old Forest, older than the song of elves, older than the tears of dwarves was lost to hobbit ken. The eastern boundary was now the Branduin River defended and patrolled constantly and around the rest of the Shire a new boundary was being grown

(238 Y.A. – 1638 S.R.)

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Stephen Foulk - [email protected]

- the great forest fence know as the Plashings deepened and expanded each year. The Plashings became miles thick in places and the Shire became more and more hidden and inaccessible. Hobbits had always been a shy folk and the sufferings at the end of the War of the Ring had made them more so. They became even more wary of men, ‘the big folk’ as the hobbits called them, who they generally found to be aggressive, scheming and without any real appreciation of the land or nature. “Bad as an orc or a man from Bree” became a general term of abuse for anyone lacking subtlety.

Around the

same time as Buckland was being abandoned the hobbit settlements in Bree and Archet were also given up and although relations between the Shire and Breeland were maintained they grew less and less frequent. Perhaps it was a coincidence but the demise of the rings of power and the leaving of the elves from Middle Earth coincided with a diminishing of hobbit folk. By the time of our tale hobbits were tending to marry later in life and fewer and fewer were the hobbit babies born. There was also an, almost imperceptible but general, reduction in stature of the hobbits at this time. It was as if by withdrawing from the world they were diminishing within the world. That said there was still much merriment and contentment in the Shire and hobbits were still the woolly-footed, well meaning gardeners that they had always been at heart. They were still quick to laugh and always ready for their next meal, preferably with ale and finished off with a pipe and good company.

(238 Y.A. – 1638 S.R.)

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