the saying for the lord of the rings ring

The only real official in the Shire at this date was the Mayor of Michel Delving (or of the Shire), who was elected every seven years at the Free Fair on the White Downs at the Lithe, that is at Midsummer. The custom endured, nonetheless, of referring to the head of the family as The Took, and of adding to his name, if required, a number: such as Isengrim the Second, for instance. The latter qualities, however, were now rather tolerated (in the rich) than generally approved. The Took family was still, indeed, accorded a special respect, for it remained both numerous and exceedingly wealthy, and was liable to produce in every generation strong characters of peculiar habits and even adventurous temperament. The Thain was the master of the Shire-moot, and captain of the Shire-muster and the Hobbitry-in-arms but as muster and moot were only held in times of emergency, which no longer occurred, the Thainship had ceased to be more than a nominal dignity. It is true that the Took family had long been pre-eminent for the office of Thain had passed to them (from the Oldbucks) some centuries before, and the chief Took had borne that title ever since. For they attributed to the king of old all their essential laws and usually they kept the laws of free will, because they were The Rules (as they said), both ancient and just. Yet the Hobbits still said of wild folk and wicked things (such as trolls) that they had not heard of the king. But there had been no king for nearly a thousand years, and even the ruins of Kings’ Norbury were covered with grass. There remained, of course, the ancient tradition concerning the high king at Fornost, or Norbury as they called it, away north of the Shire. In other matters they were, as a rule, generous and not greedy, but contented and moderate, so that estates, farms, workshops, and small trades tended to remain unchanged for generations.

Growing food and eating it occupied most of their time. Families for the most part managed their own affairs. The Shire at this time had hardly any ‘government’. 98) and the Westmarch added to the Shire in S.R.

Outside the Farthings were the East and West Marches: the Buckland (p. Nearly all Tooks still lived in the Tookland, but that was not true of many other families, such as the Bagginses or the Boffins.

The Shire was divided into four quarters, the Farthings already referred to, North, South, East, and West and these again each into a number of folklands, which still bore the names of some of the old leading families, although by the time of this history these names were no longer found only in their proper folklands.

The saying for the lord of the rings ring