Northfarthing

From Tolkien Gateway
Northfarthing
Region
Kay Woollard - The Pedlar of Medicines.jpg
"The Pedlar of Medicines - Cottages and Cottagers near Hardbottle" by Kay Woollard
General Information
LocationThe Shire
TypeRegion
People and History
InhabitantsHobbits
EventsBattle of Greenfields
GalleryImages of the Northfarthing

The Northfarthing was the cold northern Farthing of the Shire.

Geography[edit | edit source]

The Northfarthing is the only one of the four farthings that does not end in the Three-Farthing Stone; its southernmost point lay about eleven miles north of it[1] and along its northern border were the high North Moors.[2]

It had fresh and fragrant air; when Frodo and Sam entered Ithilien for the first time, the air of the region reminded them of the uplands of the Northfarthing.[3]

The North Moors was the only place in the Shire where heavy snow was common.[4]

Geographic features[edit | edit source]

The farthing contains Bindbole Wood, a river (perhaps the Norbourn), and the Northway Road that led to the town of Oatbarton.

Northfarthing was rocky, and settlements like Hardbottle were delved in or made from its stones.[5]

A branch of the Took Family called the North-tooks lived in a town called Long Cleeve.[6] Given the reference to the north (when most Tooks lived in the Westfarthing), Long Cleeve was probably located in the Northfarthing.

History[edit | edit source]

The only notable historic event that ever occurred in the Northfarthing was the Battle of Greenfields (T.A. 2747).[7] It was the only battle fought with the boundaries of the Shire until the Battle of Bywater.

Around the time of the War of the Ring, Halfred Gamgee moved to Northfarthing.[8]

References