Stoors

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Stoors
People
Lidia Postma - Hobbits comparison.jpg
Hobbits by Lidia Postma
General Information
OriginsA group of Hobbits
LocationsVales of Anduin, Gladden Fields, Dunland, The Shire
Languagesnumerous; eventually Hobbitish
MembersGollum, Déagol
Physical Description
Lifespanc. 96 years
DistinctionsHeavier and broader than the other Hobbits; large hands and feet; only Hobbits who normally grew facial hair; used boats, fished, and could swim
GalleryImages of Stoors

The Stoors were one of the three breeds of Hobbits.

In their earliest recorded history the Stoors, like the other Hobbits, lived in the Vales of Anduin. They were a riverside people that dwelt in the Gladden Fields, and were fishermen.[1]

Characteristics

They were heavier and broader in build than the other Hobbits, and had large hands and feet. Among the Hobbits, the Stoors most resembled Men and were most friendly to them. Stoors were the only Hobbits who normally grew facial hair.[1]

A habit which set them apart from the Harfoots who lived in the mountain foothills, and the Fallohides who lived in forests far to the north, was that Stoors preferred flat lands and riversides.[1] Only Stoors used boats, fished, and could swim. They also wore boots in muddy weather.

Stoorish characteristics and appearance (large build, heavy feet and a down on the chin), could still be seen among the Hobbits of the Eastfarthing, Buckland (such as the Brandybucks) and the Bree-hobbits.[1]

The Stoors also had their own dialect of Hobbitish, owing to the fact that they spent some time in Dunland and adopted many strange words and names which they took to the Shire, and retained even until the late Third Age.

History

The Stoors are believed to have lived longer in the southern vales of Anduin.[1] During the Hobbit Wandering Days, after the Harfoots had migrated westward in T.A. 1050, and the Fallohides flew north first and then followed them about a century later, the Stoors long remained back in their dwelling in vale of Anduin, but in T.A. 1150, they, too, migrated west to Eriador.[2]

They took the Redhorn Pass and followed a southern route along the course of the Loudwater, where some Stoors branched off and moved to the Angle of Eriador south of Rivendell, and many settled long between Tharbad and Dunland; most went to Dunland (Swanfleet near Tharbad)[2][1] which most resembled their old lands. There they came into contact with the Dunlendings. This contact altered their speech slightly, mostly by picking up a few Dunlending words.

A hundred years later Angmar began to threaten Eriador and many Stoors of the Angle fled (T.A. 1356[2]T.A. 1409[3][note 1]) because of the wars and the evil climate of Eriador; however a few of them returned to Rhovanion.[3]

The Stoors of Dunland moved back north to join the other Hobbits in colonizing the Shire about T.A. 1630[2][1] and settled mostly in the Eastfarthing and Southfarthing. Some of these villages might have survived until the War of the Ring, when they were sought out by the Ringwraiths.[4] One result of the Stoorish influx was that places that were settled by Stoors have some slight linguistic oddities, due to their time of separation and contact with the Dunlendings. The three original Hobbit-kinds merged and blended in the centuries since the settlement of the Shire, but regional variations remained with Stoorish characteristics seen in Eastfarthing and Buckland.[1]

Stoors of Wilderland

The Stoors who returned to Rhovanion in T.A. 1356 settled the Gladden Fields by the Anduin, becoming a riverland people of fishers.[3] They lost contact with all other Hobbits and nothing is known about their culture[5] other than what Gandalf inferred from his interrogation with Gollum.[6] While their cousins in the Shire developed a more settled and elaborate social life, it is possible that they reverted to a more wild and primitive lifestyle.[5]

It was possible that their women tended to preserve better the past and so were of special importance. By T.A. 2430 their community was ruled by a "matriarch" of high repute; possibly a dominant grandmother who had outlived her husband. Among those Stoors were Déagol and Sméagol, who rediscovered the One Ring, lost since the dawn of the Third Age.[5][6]

By the War of the Ring the settlements of the Stoors had been deserted.[7] What became of those Stoors and whether they rejoined their folk in Eriador, no history tells.

Etymology

Stoor is supposed to be a special Hobbitish word that did not exist in Westron during the War of the Ring.

Early English stor, stoor means "large, strong", referring to the fact that these Hobbits were of heavier build.

Notes

  1. The Tale of Years suggests that the migration started or happened around the death of Argeleb I; The North-kingdom suggests that it happened during the early reign of Araphor.

References

External links