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.

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. Only Stoors used boats, fished, and could swim. They also wore boots in muddy weather.

Stoorish characteristics and appearance remained 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 in the southern vales of Anduin. During the Hobbit Wandering Days, after the Harfoots had migrated westward in Third Age 1050, and the Fallohides followed them about a century later, the Stoors long remained back in the vale of Anduin, but between T.A. 1150 and 1300 they, too migrated west.[2]

Unlike the other Hobbit-kinds they took the Redhorn Pass and followed a southern route, where many Stoors branched off and moved south to the Angle of Eriador south of Rivendell and mingled with the Harfoots and Fallohides that lived there; but most went to Dunland (Swanfleet near Tharbad) 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 south to their kin in Dunland where they became a woodland people;[3] others returned to Rhovanion and settled the Gladden Fields, becoming a riverland people, which Déagol and Sméagol belonged to (c. T.A. 2430). There they had a matriarchal society[4]. What became of those Stoors and whether they rejoined their folk in Eriador, no history tells.

The Stoors of Dunland moved back north to join the other Hobbits in colonizing the Shire about T.A. 1630 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.[5] 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]

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.

External links

References