Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, "The Third Age" ![]() Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, " Prologue", " Of the Ordering of the Shire" Unknown number of unnamed Thains of the Took line, who continued it in the Fourth Age Son of Peregrin and Diamond of Long Cleeve, who took Thainship after his father's abdication The eldest son of Paladin II and Eglantine Banks, who abdicated Thainship to his son The eldest son of Adalgrim, first cousin of Ferumbras III, great-grandson of Gerontius I The eldest son of Fortinbras II and Lalia Clayhanger, who died childless The younger brother of Isengrim III, second son of Gerontius I and Adamanta Chubb The eldest son of Gerontius I and Adamanta Chubb, who died childless The first Thain of the Took line, who was elected by the Hobbits after his predecessor's abdicationĨ unnamed Thains of the Took line (including Isumbras II, Isengrim I, Ferumbras I, and Paladin I) The last Thain of the Oldbuck line, who abdicated Thainship after the removal to Buckland and became its first Master The first Thain of the Oldbuck line, who was elected by the Hobbits after the dissolution of Arthedain 1979, to Faramir I, who took on the title in Fo.A. It is known that there were at least thirty-three Shire-thains, from Bucca of the Marish, who became Thain in T.A. Pippin's great-grandson (not known if he was a Thain himself) requested a copy of the Thain's Book, completed for him by Findegil. Peregrin's successors continued the custom of gathering many Gondorian manuscripts mainly copies or summaries of legends relating to Elendil and his heirs, and the libraries of Great Smials were the only place in the Shire with sources of Númenorean interest. The fact that both he and his father Peregrin Took are recorded as the first of that name shows that there must have been more Thains after this time, and the office clearly lasted well into the Fourth Age. The last recorded Thain was his son, Faramir Took I, the thirty-fourth to hold the title of Shire-thain. įrom Isumbras I, the line of the Took Shire-thains continued unbroken to the time of the War of the Ring and beyond with Peregrin I when thainship became also a Counsellor office of the North Kingdom. Indeed, there was no "government" in the Shire as the clans managed their own affairs. 2912), the title ended up as nothing more than nominal. ![]() īut as the times of emergency in the Shire were rare, as the need for the muster and the moot (the only battle was fought in T.A. ![]() Īs a rule, the Thain was also the head of the Took clan (known as "The Took") and the Great Smials, but the two offices were not identical one example illustrating the difference was the case of Thain Ferumbras III: He inherited the Thainship from his father, Fortinbras II, but his mother Lalia Clayhanger remained the head of the Tooks. With his departure, the Thainship passed to a new line, the preeminent Tooks, and specifically to Isumbras Took I. The twelfth Thain, one Gorhendad Oldbuck, left the Shire and crossed the River Brandywine to found Buckland. īucca and his descendants, a family known as the Oldbucks, served as Shire-thain for twelve generations. In origin a military office, Thainship passed strictly through the male line. They remedied this by choosing a new leader from among themselves, Bucca of the Marish, who was given the title thain, a word simply meaning "chief" in their dialect. 1975, leaving the Shire-hobbits without a ruler. Ultimately, Arthedain fell to the forces of Angmar, and its last King, Arvedui, was lost in T.A. ![]() The spelling "thane" appears in the verse from “The Muster of Rohan” which begins "From dark Dunharrow in the dim morning/with thane and captain rode Thengel’s son."įor nearly four hundred years after its foundation, the Shire had been part of the lands of Arthedain, and under the rule of that land's King. The word is derived from Old English þegn, which meant a person holding lands from the king in exchange for military service. Thain is an alternative spelling, found in Middle English texts, of the Early Modern English word thane.
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