Is Devon the basis for the Shire?

I recently visited Devon and I thought that it was remarkebly like my vision of the Shire.What say you? By the way I am from the U.S. by way of Wisconsin.

welcome to Entmoot, Landroval!!

i cannot help you in this question cuz i´ve never been in Devon.

i think that somewhere Tolkien said the Shire was inspired by the small town in England where he lived as a child; whether that was Devon or not i don't know. what i've seen of the English country does look & feel like a slightly modernized Shire.

of course, the word "shire" means "a self-governing area of land," as in the English provinces, so Tolkien's using that word isn't surprising.

if our resident Elven Loremaster stumbles on this post, he'll give you a much better (& longer, & more thorough) answer.

and welcome to the board!

aryne *

Well, I'm not the resident Elven Loremaster, but I do know the
small town that the Shire is based on is not in Devon. JRRT was
born in South Africa, but when he was around 5 his father died
and his mother moved back to England (where both JRRT's parents
were originally from). His mother first went to Birmingham but
then to the hamlet of Sarehole (just outside Birmingham). The
mill at Sarehole was the mill JRRT mentions in the intro to LOTR.
The Shire in general is based on the West Midlands region. JRRT'
s mother's family originally came from Evesham in Worcester,
and JRRT latched onto the idea that this country was his "
true home". He wrote: "Any corner of [Worcester] (however
fair or squalid) is in an indefinable way 'home' to me, as no
other part of the world is."

thanks Eruve!

aryne *

For what it's worth, Tolkien wrote "[the shire] is in fact more or less a Warwickshire village of about the period of the Diamond Jubilee" in Letter 178. In Letter 181 he wrote "There is no special reference to England in the 'Shire' -- except of course that as an Englishman brought up in an 'almost rural' village of Warwickshire on the edge of the prosperous bourgeoisie of Birmingham (about the time of the Diamond Jubilee!)."

I think the Diamond Jubilee to which he refers was Queen Victoria's fiftieth year as Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. I'm not sure of when that year was, but sometime around 1900 maybe.

[Old toby's wicked weed]

mr M be reet no?

[Old toby's wicked weed]

apart be from the ireland bit?

happen Mr M know not his facts here?

Lordy!

[The Gaffer]

Steady the buffs. She was at the time.

Ireland got its independence after she died in 1921.

[Forkbeard]

Originally Posted by Landroval 1st

I recently visited Devon and I thought that it was remarkebly like my vision of the Shire.What say you? By the way I am from the U.S. by way of Wisconsin.

Not Devon, but Warwick, Worcester would be more the ticket, though to be honest I've not been to Devon so can't tell you what the difference in landscape is. They aren't that far apart.

Oh my word....I just realized how old this thread is, sorry chaps.

[sun-star]

Wow, this is old. Hardly seems worth pointing out that Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee was in 1897, and that it's actually the 60th anniversary of a monarch's accession.

Most of southern England resembles the Shire, or would have done in Tolkien's childhood - Warwickshire certainly, but also Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Hampshire etc. They are the "shire counties", after all. Devon's perhaps less similar because of its coastline(s).

[Butterbeer]

where you from Forkbeard btw?

Technically you would be looking at Warwickshire.


No, not really comparable with Devon.

Beautiful place though devon!

[Butterbeer]

Hampshire???

Hampshire???

(it's STILL sunny despite the W word! )

[sun-star]

I knew someone would pick out Hampshire if I mentioned it What's wrong with Hampshire? Jane Austen lived there and it was once the centre of Wessex. Let's have no county-bashing, if you please

[Forkbeard]

Originally Posted by Butterbeer

where you from Forkbeard btw?

Technically you would be looking at Warwickshire.


No, not really comparable with Devon.

Beautiful place though devon!

I'm originally from Montana, USA. Nothing at all like the Shire, more like the Misty and White Mountains. I occasionally get over to London/Oxford/Cambridge/York, but not much beyond those places unfortunately.

[Butterbeer]

Harry redknapp??

Scummers?

....................

some of the better places there Forkbeard!

[sun-star]

You've got me, I can't argue with football reasons (scummers = Southampton?)

But Tolkien also lived in Hampshire (Bournemouth) so I maintain it can't be all bad