Narya and the Shire

[Nogrod]

I think one needs to take a longer perspective here.

Defending a place with a Ring means committing one to the place for real I'd suppose (like in the cases of Elrond and Galadriel) as it is not any "instant magic" you can just put into use whenever you wish (like "puff, you're invisible!"). It means also rooting into that place, keeping it there and safeguarding it... and even if Gandalf loved the hobbits why would he have used such an extraordinary gift of the ring to protect the hobbits when there was nothing of interest for anyone there - none even for Gandalf himself until the things stated rolling and he realised the Ring was there - and then it was of course too late to protect Shire as the Nazgûl were already in there as well knowing the same thing...

So any speculation of Narya protecting the Shire should not speak of Bilbo or the master Ring but the decades before it was found... and there I think it would be possible... even if a bit unbelievable asthe Shire's safety can be explained by the remotedness of it and with the guardianship of the rangers more than well...

[Tuor in Gondolin]

An interesting idea. Of course, Sauron had no need or
interest to learn about or find hobbits before Gollum
was tortured, and Saruman had access to the Shire via
spies and purchasing (tobacco) agents early on.

The three rings might indeed be pictured as a sort
of "cloaking agent". Perhaps periodic visits by Gandalf
would be enough to psychologically discourage persons
from visiting it, while allowing for travelers such as dwarves
to pass by. Recall Gloin's and Thorin's contempt for hobbits
in UT:

"What!" cried Gloin. "One of those simpletons down
in the Shire? What use on earth, or under it, could he
possibly be?"

(Thorin) This is not advice, it is foolery! I fail to see
what any Hobbit, good or bad, could do that would repay me
for a day's keep, even if he could be persuaded to start.

[Ibrîniðilpathânezel]

Other than those who actively moved through the Shire, it doesn't seem that much anybody in Middle-earth had any significant awareness of their existence. The people of Rohan consider them a legend, the Ents don't even know they exist. I suspect that if some Elves didn't pass through the Shire en route to the Havens, and if the Dwarves did not travel through it, they'd have about as much awareness of them as the Ents or Rohirrim. Hobbits came to Sauron's attention only because of Gollum, and Gollum wasn't going to be much help locating the Shire, since he had never been there, and in his youth before the Ring, they lived in a different area. Moreover, there is in my mind a real question as to how much Sauron had truly "pulled himself together" by the late Third Age. Tolkien tells us he did have a body (not a beautiful one), and his mind was working well enough to focus on matters of war, but without the Ring, was he as strong or as sharp as he had been before?

Well, that's off the original topic. As to a link between the Shire's protection and Narya, I would agree with those who have said that Gandalf would need to reside there for Narya to be effective -- if it could have been effective at all. The power of the Three was in knowledge, understanding, and preservation, and unlike Lothlorien -- which Galadriel was attempting to preserve in a state akin to her memories of Valinor from her youth -- the Shire didn't require such an active intervention to keep it from the natural cycle of fading and dying in ME. The kind of preservation the Shire enjoyed was of a more mundane sort, which the Rangers provided. There did not appear to be anything extraordinary or "magical" in force. I believe that in the appendices, Tolkien says that before the end of the Third Age, it was suspected that two of the Three were in Rivendell and Lothlorien, and that many felt the third was probably with Cirdan at the Havens. I don't recall if he said it (the book is upstairs, and my knees don't care to make the climb at the moment ), but I presume that is because the Havens of the Third Age appear to be largely untroubled by forces of the Enemy. Whatever the case, there is no suspicion, even among those who know of its existence, that the Third is in the Shire. Perhaps Saruman, after he became aware of the fact that Gandalf had been given Narya, thought that he was using it to protect the Shire -- especially after he deduced that the One was there -- but if he did, Tolkien never mentions it.

Now, that went on longer than expected...

[JeffF.]

I don't think Gandalf's ring necessarily provided protection for the Shire. THe Shire was relatively small and the population was small, Eriador alone was an immense area (the distance from the Shire to Morder being equivalent to that between England and Bulgaria) and by the time of the War of the Ring there were few servants Sauron could call upon in these lands.

The most protection seems to have been provided by the Rangers, Dunedain of the North, who Gandalf asked to keep watch on the Shire and whose efforts appear to be the main reason why Sauron's servants could not find it. Sauron also had incomplete information as Unfinished Tales, the Search for the Ring shows, he thought the Shire might be in the Vales of Anduin and possibly withing Galadriel's realm.

[Flame of Anor]

I was just re-reading The Fellowship of the Ring and in the Chapter Many Meetings, when Gandalf is replying to Frodo's questions of Rivendell's protection and Glorfindel's power and Gandalf says:

Indeed there is a power in Rivendell to withstand the might of Mordor, for a while: and elsewhere other powers still dwell. There is power, too, of another kind in the Shire.

This is just speculation but it seems to me that Gandalf is implying that there is an actual POWER at work protecting the Shire of similar but different power to the one protecting Rivendell. This could refer to my aforementioned proposition that Gandalfs ring could be protecting the Shire the same way Elronds ring is protecting Rivendell.

[Flame of Anor]

I should have finished the quote, it continues:

But all such places will soon become islands under siege, if things go on the way they are going. The Dark Lord is putting forth all his strength.

What power could be protecting the Shire enough that when everything else falls it could be one of the last remaining outposts. I mean the Rangers of the North are skilled and very adept but are they really enough power to be able to withstand the Dark Lord for so long when all is failing, and also i doubt they would keep concentration on the Shire that long if everything is going down the crapper, they would most likely focus on their own survival.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Flame of Anor

What power could be protecting the Shire enough that when everything else falls it could be one of the last remaining outposts.

Tom Bombadil, perhaps?