But what about all the MANY other places that lay claim to being the inspiration for pieces of LOTR ? Could any of these also possibly be Middle-Earth Shire?
Right across England and Wales - there are multifarious links - many of them entirely credible ( see also GARTH) - including :
- Malvern (JRRT visited friend George Sayer ; walked in the Malvern Hills)
- Birmingham (Edgbaston Waterworks Chimney, Perrot's Tower - started as a joke)
- Dorset (JRRT holidayed in Dorset: Clavell Tower)
- The Severn Estuary (on route to Wales)
- Warwickshire (Sarehole and Moseley Bog)
- Lancashire (Stonyhurst College and Ribble Valley)
- Nottingham (Sherwood Forest, Trent Valley)
- Yorkshire ( the Yorkshire Dales and Moors)
- New Zealand…. ( the films and the fan club!)
And did Tolkien EVER hint at the real‑world latitude of middle-earth Shire?
Tolkien was famously evasive whenever pressed about the real‑world sources behind his inspiration. HOWEVER - in a 1967 letter (#294, Carpenter) , Tolkien equates the latitude of Hobbiton with that of …
So this doesn’t just kick the other candidates into a cocked hat — it stuffs them in, neatly folds the brim, and hangs it on a peg. Tolkien's Middle-Earth-Shire can only be the little corner of Western Oxfordshire where he had his Rivendell - his place of sanctuary - and that he visited frequently.
In the 1930s, Tolkien's "green and pleasant land" WAS the Shire (both real-earth and middle-earth) of small hamlets, hedgerows and meandering streams through woodland, gardens heavy with produce, where humans and hobbits could feel at home; with warm fires in winter, good beer and home‑cooked food. A safe place to come home to - until it wasn't....
And as the views from Folly Hill and Folly Tower attest - the beautiful Vale of the White Horse countryside has changed little since Tolkien's time - still as hobbitty as ever.
In the 1930s, Tolkien's "green and pleasant land" WAS the Shire (both real-earth and middle-earth) of small hamlets, hedgerows and meandering streams through woodland, gardens heavy with produce, where humans and hobbits could feel at home; with warm fires in winter, good beer and home‑cooked food. A safe place to come home to - until it wasn't....
And as the views from Folly Hill and Folly Tower attest - the beautiful Vale of the White Horse countryside has changed little since Tolkien's time - still as hobbitty as ever.
