Narya and the Shire

[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?

[Pitchwife]

Indeed, our beloved enigma in yellow boots was the first thing that came to my mind in my first reading of the passage quoted. Cf Glorfindel in LotR Book II, The Council of Elrond:

'I think that in the end, if all else is conquered, Bombadil will fall, Last as he was First; and then Night will come.'

He also constantly lived close to the Shire, which can't be said of Gandalf.

Anyway, I take Gandalf's words power of another kind to mean a power different from that of the Great Rings, whether Elrond's or his own.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Pitchwife

Anyway, I take Gandalf's words power of another kind to mean a power different from that of the Great Rings, whether Elrond's or his own.

That is the key, I think, regarding that quote, and Tom seems to fill the bill admirably. I see nothing else that would be a plausible possibility.

That said, I don't think Tom was the main reason the Shire was so little known to many non-Hobbits. I still think their 'smallness', not merely speaking of physical size, but also their overall lack of involvement in the affairs of Middle-earth prior to the War of the Ring, was the primary reason they 'flew under the radar' for so long.

[Fordim Hedgethistle]

I don't think we really need anything other than distance and the presence of an ongoing war to explain why it took Sauron a while to find the Shire. Mordor and Hobbiton are about as far apart as Oxford and Zagreb, and with the information he had Sauron only knew that the Shire was somewhere west of the Misty Mountains, which meant he had to scour a chunk of landmass the equivalent of western Europe with extremely limited resources... Sure he had armies at home but he can't rely on them (orcs marching around the West asking for the Shire is going to tip the other guys off...and not be terribly effective).

So he has some spies and the Nazgul and with them alone he has to find a place that even his closest neighbours (who are his enemies and unlikely to tell him) barely believe in!

Imagine being told the name of a single county (or canton, or province, or whatever) somewhere between the Atlantic Ocean, the Arctic Circle, the Mediterranean and Poland and now you have to find it with a handful of spies on horseback (if you're lucky) who have to ride all the way back to you at the Black Sea to report on their progress. I'm surprised he found it at all!

[Morthoron]

Hmmm...it has always seemed to me a stunning inconsistency (one of hundreds) that the WitchKing was unaware of the Shire prior to Gollum's interrogation. War between the Dunedain and Angmar lasted centuries, and a contingent of Hobbitish archers even went to battle. The armies of the Angmarrim swept across Eriador on several occasions while the Shire was in existance (the Hobbits migrated from Bree under a grant of land beyond the Baranduin by King Argeleb II in TA 1601, whereas the WitchKing wasn't fully defeated until the Battle of Fornost in TA 1975 -- almost 400 years). So much for geographical knowledge in a general of the WitchKing's caliber. *Shrugs*

There seems to be a general obliviousness to the Shire among all powers concerned: Gandalf is witless of the Ring's true character for decades, Saruman only spies on the Shire because he is jealous of Gandalf, and Sauron and the WitchKing haven't the slightest clue of hobbits and the Shire. Perhaps the true power of the Shire lies in its mundanity and worthlessness (after all, Bilbo's mithril shirt is worth many times the value of the Shire). The War of the Ring was lost due to misunderstanding, underestimation and shortsightedness -- the hallmarks of poor leadership -- which is why I always counter arguments that Sauron was more powerful than Morgoth by simply pointing out Sauron's sloppy management style. Morgoth actually won his war against the Eldar and Edain, and was only countered after the fact by the lazy Valar; whereas Sauron, although he won many battles, effectively lost both major wars he took part in.