The Shire: The Places of Middle Earth 

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“The Shire is not home as we know it , but home as we remember it.” Nailed it (again!). Everything is delightful commentary.

The filming location in New Zealand completely captures the feeling of the Shire from the books, and the fact that they preserved it by rebuilding it with more permanent materials for the Hobbit trilogy makes it an essential stop on any NZ trip. Highly recommend going and taking the tour, and trekking out to find more remote filming locations if you ever get the chance. My personal favourites aside from Hobbiton were hiking up Mount Sunday where the Edoras set was built, and the Glenorchy area, where the helicopter landscape shots for Isengard were filmed.

It's like Terry Pratchett wrote in A Hat Full of Sky: "Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colours. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving."

Mole from The Wind in the Willows is literally a hobbit. His house is called, "Mole End."

I'm deeply glad they kept it built rather than tearing it down. I wish that Paramount had kept Star Trek sets preserved in museums.

The depiction of the Shire in Jackson's movies is so convincing that a minor oversight - the distant range of mountains visible in the scenes where Frodo and Sam have just set out on their journey - stands out more than it might otherwise have done. Tolkien had an acute grasp of how landscape can influence character, and knew that the Shire's rolling countryside with its wooded hills and restricted vistas would have played as big a part as anything else in making the Hobbits so insular and unadventurous.

Everytime I see the anual "where in fantasy would you live? " question goes around the answer is always easy. The Shire

Your comment on how the very fact of going out and of changing makes home a very different place really hit me. I went to meet some friends from New Zealand last year and since I've returned, home just hasn't felt the same. It doesn't feel like home anymore. I am continually reminded of Bilbo's quote from the beginning of The Followship. "I want to see mountains again, Gandalf, Mountains!". As cringey as it sounds, I yern for adventure again, I yern to leave this place for somewhere beautiful, to venture out on my own without relatives looming over me continuously as Bilbo did. I actually had the best, most fun, and most enjoyable time of my life being over there and seeing the sights, being on top of mountains, and and exploring valleys with a couple of my best friends.

33 seconds into the video and I was inspired to mention that I really love and appreciate the effort and beauty of all your outfits, hairstyles and accessories. It makes each week a wonderful treat and surprise! Thanks Jess!

I lived more of a Tom Sawyer life in my youth. My family lived in a very small mining community. My father worked in one of the Copper Smelters. my mom was a home maker, and my brother and I spent our free time with the other youths our age exploring, hiking, and mostly swimming in the river. Summers were idyllic in the mid 70s and our group even spent nights around a small fire in one of many hidden camp spots along the banks of the Gila River. When I drive out there now I remember what is was and what it is now just does not match. It will never be the place where we delved abandoned mines and ruined mill works, and rode the trains back and forth, stopping in at the local store for 25 cent sodas when we had the scratch.

I remember hearing Sam's voice telling me "if I take one more step, I'll be the farthest from home I've ever been." when I was driving trucks around the USA, and then traveling around the world. My home was never the same after all of my travels, and it will never return...but that's how it is for world-weary adventurers!

I live on the Edge of the New Forest in Hampshire, UK. And I have to admit, there are areas that feel very "Shireish" We even have a pub called the Green Dragon near here.

I used to read the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings in the 90's a lot, a few times a year every year before the movies came out. I was addicted to the feeling of the Shire while reading it, I always looked forward to rereading the books for it and ending on the Shire was the perfect feeling. Even with the movies it's some of my favorite parts.

My cousin is the one that did all the landscaping for Hobbiton. I live only a 20 min drive from there. He still works as the gardener there to this day.

I could certainly retire to the Shire 🙏

My Friday is complete. It's another Jess of the Shire thoughtful video essay.

I'm fortunate to have a Sarehole-in-reverse for a hometown. What I remember was industrial, a mining town, railroad tracks and grit along the waterway. Now, fifty years after the copper mines closed, it's green parks and bike paths. These old rust belt towns can be cleaned up and made tourist attractions if the local planning councils are smart.

A great video, as always. Fun fact; the word "sheriff" comes from the word "shire". (Reeves were officials appointed to collect taxes and uphold the king's laws in an area. So, they were the shire-reeves).

Hurray! Bree next! Bree next! Bree is also very Hobbity, though the Shirefolk call them outsiders.

The location that comes to mind immediately to compare and contrast with the Shire is the Last Homely House West of the Mountains and East of the Sea. The Shire is a dream of rural England from a native perspective. Rivendell is something else - it's a guesthouse - the last safe stop in the Hobbit before venturing into uncertainty and danger, and where even Dwarves are welcome despite the strained relations between them and Elves, and the promised haven at the end of book 1 of Fellowship. But it is also a place of learning and scholarship, of art and lore. It's no coincidence that Bilbo spent his last couple of decades in Middle Earth there, growing old among Elven lore, sharing his small talent at Westron verse, and compiling translations for the Red Book. There are echoes of the Cottage of Lost Play - the framing device of the earliest version of Tolkien's legendarium - an elvish house where Aelfwine the mariner stays for a time and is told the tales of elder days. If the Shire is a collection of hamlets and villages scattered across the English countryside, perhaps Rivendell is a lodging house or maybe a Fellow's view of a university - a place where meals are served on time, interesting conversation is assured if you join the company in the senior combination room, and if you are struck by intellectual curiosity at pretty much any hour, day or night, you can find someone who either knows the answer or at least is willing to investigate with you... You don't even need to give lectures!

I grew up out west in the United States when I was younger and developed a love for the natural world from a young age. I also have family in the United Kingdom and used to live in Scotland, so I have a fondness for the beauty, tranquility, and comfort of the countryside. Thus, I will forever love Tolkien's descriptions of the shire. I do love adventures, so perhaps I would be an eccentric and adventurous Took who loved exploring but still knew they could come back to a field of flowers in bloom babbling brooks, good food, and old friends.

Girl I am SO IN on these "places of Middle Earth" videos! ❤

If you ever go to Hobbiton, they do a dinner at the Green Dragon Inn and a breakfast at the mill as part of special tours. You have to book far in advance, but I can tell you the dinner is one of the most magical things I've ever done. The food is incredible and the atmosphere is just spectacular. And you get to walk back around the lake, looking at Hobbiton all lit up after dinner.

When you end up making a LOTR pilgrimage, I would recommend timing your Hobbiton visit for September 22nd (International Hobbit Day). There is an amazing evening event with loads of entertainment, food & drink (it's Hobbiton after all) And, almost everyone dresses up and has an absolute blast. I've been for the last couple of years and it is simply magical.

My sister visited Hobbiton when shewas in New Zealand Last year, absolutely loved it.

Here in italy, in abruzzo, there is a little hobbitton It s called "la contea gentile"

The Shire still exists. It's "North-West of the Old World, east of the sea." Basically, in England. Speaking as someone who has drunk regularly in the Green Dragon and the Ivy Bush, and lived on the chalk downs, with their barrows, next to an old forest (called the New Forest), it all feels very familiar.

Being from New Zealand I can confirm a visit to hobbiton is magical

Oh, frabjous day, I can tell alone that this piece will bring much delight to me, as finally the grassy fields and trees regain their color, from a rather long winter - I enjoy how your ideas come together, Jess!

Another lovely video Jess. Particularly loved your recollections about a childhood spent in an English village..... Yourself, In Deep Geek and Nerd of the Rings are some of my favourite Tolkien based channels on RU-vid.. Thank you XX

I first visited the Hobbiton set in 2012, just before they started upgrading and rebuilding it for the Hobbit trilogy. You could do a set tour in those days but it was pretty basic; just a guy walking you around the leftover set and talking about the production of the original films. It was fun, but to be honest the place didn't really _feel_ like the Shire back then. Last summer (over a decade later) I decided to go back. I even put off the trip for another six months because they were doing construction/upgrades and I wanted to see it after they'd finished. The difference was astounding; the place now looks and feels exactly as the Shire should, and the attention to detail is off the charts. Every door and front garden you pass has been dressed up with decorations, props and set dressing to give clues about the identity and profession of the hobbits who live there. The highlight of the tour (and the result of all that construction work last year) is the two houses you can enter and walk through, fully furnished and filled with props and little knick-knacks to make them feel like real lived-in homes. I can't really describe the attention to detail; I don't think I'm overstating things to say it has to be seen to be believed. I even managed to hit my head on one of the door frames (twice) for the authentic Gandalf experience. The tour rounded off with a free drink and buffet lunch at the Green Dragon, and considering the meal was included in the tour price I was surpised by how good the food was (I guess it stands to reason, they can hardly serve a bad meal in the Shire). As for the Green Dragon itself, I'd drink there every night if I could. It even had a resident cat, who was very understanding when a group of tourists surrounded him wanting to say hello (to be fair it was a very hot summer day and he was probably feeling too lazy to care). It probably helped that I went in the middle of summer, when the place was looking especially green and idyllic. The downside to that was that it was also incredibly busy; we were one of many large groups being guided through the place, and they occasionally had to hurry us along when members of our group (including myself, at one point) were dawdling to take more pictures and they needed to bring the next tour through. Still, the tour guides knew their stuff and did everything they could to make the experience fun and memorable, cheesy jokes and all. Even our bus driver (it was a package deal with one of the local bus companies) kept us entertained with local history and anecdotes, all the way from Auckland to Matamata and back. And of course I spent more at the gift shop than I did on the rest of the tour. Overall, the experience exceeded my expectations (which was hard to do). Hope you get to see it soon, Jess.

I love how much care is put into the sets of your videos, it's like your sitting in your own little piece of Hobbiton.

It takes us back to the coziness of favorite childhood places.

Like Tolkien, like you briefly did, I had the immense blessing of growing up in an unspoiled village in the Shire (specifically, perhaps, on the Far Downs - the Malvern Hills, the western edge of the Worcestershire/Warwickshire/Oxfordshire corner of the world on which the Shire was based, just as the Far Downs are at the western edge of the Shire). You've absolutely nailed the feeling of the remembered perfection of home that I now have when I am away; the grass is never quite as green, the rain as soft or the sky as blue when I return as it is in my memories. And, while I'm somewhat Took-ish in my desire for adventure, I have like Frodo the remembered Shire as a source of strength when I'm away, and somewhere I will always return to. There's a Welsh word - which, I'm sure, Tolkien would have loved - which describes this memory of home made perfect in hindsight: Hiraeth. My own travels have led me far from home, but your words have deeply stirred that hiraeth in me - excellently written!

I think most of us would choose the Shire as our mailing address!🤣. I love that you're doing Places of Middle Earth as a series! I'd love to see Rivendell next, but you should just do in any order you want, we're going to watch them all anyway! Love your channel and thanks so much! ( I'm subscribed by the way 😉👍). 🖖😎🤘🇨🇦❤️

My hometown of Gilbertsville, PA reminds me so much of The Shire, right down to the kind of people who live there. Rolling fields, working farms, clusters of neat yet modest little homes, and blue skies. I miss it so.

Many of the thatched cottages in England are so Hobbit-like in their construction it's hard not to see them as an inspiration for Tolkien. I worked on the cottage garden of one, it was very evocative of Hobbiton, the owner however was an airline pilot!

So many books on your bookshelf have shaped my happy place in life. I love your videos thanks for all your insight into these classic novels.

Thank you Jess of the Shire! You are one of the few channel creators who is a joy also to watch. Seeing that photo of you in your childhood bedroom, I thought, "yup, you've grown up to be the person the young you truly wanted you to become." What a joy. As for where next... well of course, the haunts of Tom Bombadil, the mines of Moria, and a place I've never heard described more than fleetingly, Sauron's Dark Tower.

I've only just noticed, and have now become enamoured by your dapper mouse portrait.

there was something very cozy about this video the whole way through, matching the coziness of the Shire, don't know if it was a deliberate choice but if it was it's fantastic attention to an otherwise small detail, very excited for the rest of the series !

That was a beautiful rendering of what the shire is.. was... Can only be in our minds eye. As you said, even home is only that which we remember of it. I've gone back to where I grew up. It was much smaller than I remembered. The places are there, as my memory holds, but they are not the same. I can not look on them as a youth, filled with the wonder of the big, wide world that was home. Thank you for reminding me of this... Thank you!

There are very few things I enjoy more than sitting down with my coffee and windows open to watch a Jess video. Especially when it's about the shire. The last 5 minutes of this video reminds me of a paper I wrote in college about home and how it's impossible to ever really go home. Home is always the most perfect in our memories. Everytime we go back, it's different.

Now I'm emotional about my own home. Great idea for a video series, and great job with this video! I wouldn't mind seeing you do this for the settings from the rest of Middle Earth's history too, especially Valinor, Doriath, and the Helcaraxe.

Thank you for reminding me of the magical places I was lucky enough to have had as a child. I cherish your uploads. ❤

Definitely do this series in the order that the Hobbits encountered them! (Im not yelling, just excited lol) That would be so cool to feel like we're going through it with them so to speak

I just sent your video to my best friend who also had, along with me and apparently you, similar childhood homes and locales. Wonderful touching video!!

Just the tonic I needed for today, thank you.

Many parts of rural England today are not much different to what they were in Tolkien's time. Tolkien captured so well how it feels to live here. If you ever make it to England, I would recommend spending some time in the countryside.

👍👍 I remember a small farm in Central New Hampshire; a great place to grow up. So, I can appreciate The Shire.

Your voice is so saccharine and soft; like a lilting viola. ☺️ Your story-telling style and cadence is lovely, welcoming, and warm; like the orange glow of a smoldering fire on a winter's night ☺️☺️😌😌🥰 Thanks so much for creating and letting us enjoy it!

Your old home here in England looks fabulous. I can see why you would remember it fondly. This new series is a good idea, and a chronological approach is as good as any. I will look forward to the Mines of Moria and Lothlorien.

This was such a well written video about such a special place. You've touched my heart. Thank you, Jess.

@jessoftheshire I have always watched the films a few times a year, and read the books a few times. But since your channel, I want to watch it monthly and read annually, lol Thank you for my fav channel! It's so clear, all the time, effort, and love you put into these videos!

I have many, many fond memories of the town that I grew up in. One of the favorites was that they had planted maple trees along the curb of most houses, so that most streets between late spring through late fall had a canopy of leaves shading you. The lush green carpet of trees is a signature of home for me.

And I live in it! The rural English Midlands.

Of course I left a like so that you can have a pilgrimage to Hobbiton hihihi. Very nice Video. I would be especially interested in Rohan, but also Rivendell, so chronological in order would be just fine. But I was wondering, will you include the old forest and Tom Bombadil? Also I was always curious about the burrows and the history of that land behind Toms place.

Jess, thank you for a great video! Ever since reading The Hobbit, decades ago, I have loved the Shire and Hobbiton! I, too, dream of one day journeying to New Zealand. As for where to go next, I think Bree would do nicely!

Always look forward to your uploads!

I read LotR and The Hobbit at age 26 or 27. But in the third grade, I had a friend whose dad was a huge fan, so his house and yard was patterned after Bilbo's. In fact, my friend even had two middle names that each began with R.

Fantastic work as always!

Thank you for the video! The personal angle really adds to the experience and makes it that much more meaningful. Can't wait for the next part, I like the idea of following Frodo's journey in terms of the order!

Deep Respect 🙏 and appreciation from one born in a Shire. Victoria is the City of Gardens. Butchart Gardens, Hatley / X Men Castle & Gardens. Vancouver Island the Island of Whales 🐋... The Pacific Northwest of Canada 🇨🇦. Hampshire ... Oak Bay... Trail Island Light House. Walbran Park, Dallas Road, Goldstream, Swan Lake... to name a few...

Excellent as always, Jess

Another really cool video. Excellently done.

I hope that you get to go to New Zealand and Hobbiton sometime soon. The Green Dragon Inn looks like a good place to have a pork pie or a ploughman's sandwich or a muffin or two. Or even all of the above, since it's Hobbits we're talking about, and they tend to eat quite a bit. 🥘🍺☕🥔🧀🍅🍞🍎

This is great! Thanks so much for your videos. They are some of my favorite LOTR videos for sure!

Another interesting, well researched, and watchable video. Good work!

Great idea Jess, should be a great series knowing you.

Thanks, as always, one of the bright spots in my week!

I grew up in the Shire myself... right before it was scourged. I now live in Alaska. It's not the Shire that I love, but it's the next best thing.

Its so funny how you talk about peter jackson nailing the feelings of a remembered home. I just started the hobbit and only watched the LOTR movies for the first time a couple years ago. But last night while reading I texted the LOTR buff in my life that the shire and the music that comes with is weirdly nostalgic even though I hadnt seen anything about middle earth until my 20s

Even though it only took up a small part of the movies and books, I would love for you to feature Bree in a video or at least part of a video. Your videos are always one of the better parts of my day and I hope you'll keep making them for a long time yet

creating a location series sounds delightful ! and i am certain anywhere you bring us next will be just as wonder full as was this excursion to Tolkien town.

You are wonderful. Doing it in order makes sense. Love you 😍

Thank you for this video

Another great vid Jess. Never felt so happy listening to a youtube video. Also, I never thought of the Shire being based off of Tolkien's childhood. Certainly a beautiful place, The Shire is. Can't wait for the next vid!

I love this episode and the idea of doing this as a series.

Such an innocent place, that Shire. Great video.

wish y'all could have seen my jaw DROP at Morgan and Morgan coming up. I remember when they were Morgan Calling & Gilbert lmao.

I would just like to compliment you on your channel being just as you describe the Shire. The soothing nature of your voice, the calmness of your outro music, the love and warmth felt in the depth of your content and analysis... listening to you always feels like coming home - like returning the Shire. I know they're not Tolkien's words (but Jackson's), but the steadfastness they instill is the same, and your channel is one of the things they're talking about... "There's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for.”

Another wonderful video. Thanks!

I like your idea of revisiting the places of Middle Earth, and I think starting with the Shirr is a good idea. I have a couple of ideas for you about you could proceed. You started with the Shire to highlight all that is good and wholesome in Astra, now you could go to the other extreme do a video about Mordor, a place as un-Shirish as it gets in the story, or you could go through the story and visit each place as it happened in the narrative. I look forward to seeing how you present this series.

Super excited for this new series Jess, I love listening to you tell stories and I am not a person who likes listening to podcasts at all , I think perhaps its the tone and cadence of your voice that keeps me riveted and the subject of course . Thank you for the great content

I think the series going in chronological order with the books is a great idea! Can't wait to see more! I love your content so much and it has inspired me to actually read the books after loving the movies for so many years!

If you get injured in the Shire, I think Grubb, Grubb and Burrowes might serve you better, as they are more experienced in Shire Law.

im lucky enough to live in NZ and in fact studied horticulture some years ago where we got to not only visit but work on helping maintain the landscape and gardens for the hobbiton set, truly awesome experience. your comment about the shire being a memory of home really resonates with me though, you don't appreciate it as much until you leave, often after moving out when things were stressful I would dream about running away home but when I did and now having moved back home temporarily its not quite the same. Great analogy and such a lovely video.

Thank you for this beautiful video! One thing I would have wished for, is a little history of the Shire. So, what was there before the Hobbits came, when and under which circumstances did they come, etc. But beside of this a very nice video like always! I am exited to learn more about the different places of Middle Earth! 😊

This is a great idea for a series, I'm looking forward to what you'll bring us. My personal favourite area in Middle Earth is Edoras with the Golden Hall as its centrepiece. NZ (Hobbiton, to be accurate) is the number one bucket list item I have - maybe see you there one day! The Shire, I think, is the closest that the Middle Earth continent gets to the perfection that Valinor has. Both have been marred by bad-intentioned naughty folk (Saruman and Melkor respectively) but have recovered most of their former glories and since Frodo is unable to rest easily in the Shire after his quest then he is rightly given the honour of going to Valinor. (Will you review Valinor for us?) Great video, Thanks Jess.

Brilliant conception and delivery! You have achieved a certain tone and style and poetry of words and ideas that draws upon the heart and mind. Please continue! Sam's line in the movie encapsulated it best: "Some things are worth fighting for!" Hobbiton is that exactly because it is NOT important to world events in the usual sense, and so the importance of life itself can shine through instead. If you look at what made Aragorn and the northern rangers worthy to re-establish the high kingdom, it is precisely because they had learned this lesson after losing their worldly renown and kingdoms, and by humbly protecting the Shire for many years. They had learned that guarding what is good is better than all the glory of kings and sorcerers, and that made them worthy. In the Shire, you can truly see what may emerge if you "throw Sauron down and have no one take his place." The Shire is very much what Laotse (i.e. The Tao Te Ching) describes as "The Small Paradise" ca 400bc, a place where neighbors hear the crowing of each others chickens and share small news amongst themselves, where the Rulers do not consume too much tax-grain to impovorish the land, and where the people celebrate their personal holidays and news above all else. Frank Herbert also wrote about such a place in "The Santaroga Barrier" with his own more modern spin on how such things may occur. Just as hobbits have a great liking for mushrooms, so it has turned out that the mushrooms themselves may come to like and influence a people... which is in fact fairly well in line with what contemporary science is discovering about the relationships among lives. Did the hobbits make the Shire, or did the Shire make the hobbits, and is there really any difference after all?

I didn't know that you spent time in England as a child. I'm glad you liked our little country! 🙂

I think Tolkien has an amazing knack for taking memories of his childhood and translating them into a place that resonates with other readers on a universal level. Can you do Mordor next?!

Please please please when you get to Hobbiton, you should make a vlog of the entire journey and it would be very helpful how you booked flights and where you stayed ❤ love your videos, always look forward to seeing them pop into my feed

Maybe it's just me but I'm delighted that the Hobbiton Film Set is on Buckland Road.

Another excellent reflection !! ... Unfortunately all the Shires of England are now just memories of what they used to be - Indeed many such places across the world are becoming homogenised and concepts like "home" and "community" are frowned upon and replaced by "compliance" and "consumption", "acceptance" and "powerlessness". Stories of such quality need to be remembered and shared so that each generation gets to be reminded what are the truly important things in life, who the real custodians are, and how they're worth fighting for !

Well done!

More of young Jess, and the little village, please.

I grew up in southern Appalachia so I always felt very connected to The Shire. There's lots of rolling hills and mountains. So I guess Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton would be our Bilbo and Frodo.😂

Thank you, Jess. ❤❤