Michel Delving
Also calledDelving
Michel Delving is the chief town of the Shire, set on the White Downs in the Westfarthing. It is the seat of the Mayor, the home of the Mathom-house museum, and the site of the Lockholes in which Lotho's Men imprisoned hobbits during the War of the Ring.
Description
Michel Delving, the Great Delving, is the nearest thing the Shire has to a capital. It stands on the White Downs in the Westfarthing, west of Hobbiton, and is the seat of the Mayor, the one elected office in the Shire and in practice the only officer of any consequence in ordinary times. The Mayor presided at banquets, ran the Messenger Service and the Watch, and was chosen every seven years at the Free Fair held on the White Downs at midsummer.
The town's best-known building was the Mathom-house, the Shire's museum, where hobbits deposited the mathoms, objects of no immediate use that they could not bear to throw away, that accumulated in every hole. Bilbo's mithril-coat hung there on loan for years before he took it with him to Rivendell. The Town Hole housed the Shire's records and the Mayor's business. Beneath the town ran the old storage tunnels called the Lockholes, which acquired a grim new use during the troubles of 3019.
The Shire-moot and Shire-muster, when they were called at all, belonged to the Thain rather than the Mayor, so that the Tooks' town of Tuckborough and Michel Delving shared between them the little formal government the Shire possessed.
History
Michel Delving's history is the Shire's history in small. It grew as the market town of the White Downs, gained its Mayor and its Mathom-house, and saw nothing more dramatic than a contested election for centuries. Its notoriety came in 3019, when Lotho Sackville-Baggins's ruffians and later Saruman's Men turned the Lockholes into a prison. Mayor Will Whitfoot was the first hobbit shut up there, for objecting to the new order; Fredegar Bolger, Lobelia Sackville-Baggins and many others followed. After the Battle of Bywater the travellers rode to Michel Delving and released the prisoners, and Frodo served briefly as Deputy Mayor until Will Whitfoot recovered. Sam Gamgee was elected Mayor in S.R. 1427 (Fo.A. 6) and was re-elected six times, holding the office for forty-nine years.
Geography
A town on the White Downs in the Westfarthing of the Shire, on the Great East Road west of Hobbiton and Waymeet.
Associated figures
Ruled
Ring-bearer
Samwise Gamgee
HobbitsSamwise Gamgee, Frodo's gardener, was the companion who carried the Ring-bearer to Mount Doom and briefly bore the Ring himself. He restored the Shire after the Scouring, was seven times Mayor, and at the last, as the final Ring-bearer, sailed into the West.
The Shire
Imprisoned in
Mistress of Bag End (briefly)
Lobelia Sackville-Baggins
HobbitsLobelia Sackville-Baggins, born a Bracegirdle of Hardbottle, spent eighty years coveting Bag End and feuding with Bilbo, only to be imprisoned by her own son's ruffians when she attacked them with her umbrella. Released a heroine, she gave Bag End back to Frodo and her fortune to the homeless.
The Shire- Hobbits
Fredegar Bolger, called Fatty, was the conspirator who stayed behind at Crickhollow as Frodo's decoy, raised Buckland against the Black Riders, and later led a band of rebels in the hills of Scary until the ruffians shut him in the Lockholes.
The Shire
Timeline
- T.A. 3019, November
Prisoners released
After the Battle of Bywater the Lockholes are opened; Frodo becomes Deputy Mayor.
- T.A. 3019
The Lockholes become a prison
Mayor Will Whitfoot and other hobbits are imprisoned in the old storage tunnels by Lotho's Men.
- Fo.A. 6
Sam elected Mayor
Samwise Gamgee is chosen Mayor at the Free Fair for the first of seven terms.
Sources
- The Fellowship of the RingPrologue, 'Of the Ordering of the Shire'; Book I, chapter 2
- The Return of the KingBook VI, chapters 8 and 9
- The Lord of the Rings: AppendicesAppendix B, 'Later Events'
See also
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