J.R.R. Tolkien named the fictional country where The Hobbit begins the Shire.
The Shire is the homeland of the Hobbits in the northwestern part of Middle-earth. Bilbo Baggins lives there at Bag End, his comfortable home in Hobbiton, when Gandalf and Thorin Oakenshield arrive to recruit him for the journey in The Hobbit.
The Shire is portrayed as a peaceful, agricultural land with villages, farms, inns, and locally governed communities. Its ordinary domestic life contrasts with the dangers Bilbo encounters beyond its borders and with the wars affecting the wider world.
The Shire is not the same place as Bree-land or Eriador. Bree is a separate settlement east of the Shire, while Eriador is the much larger region containing both areas. The Shire’s distinctive culture and landscape also return to the center of the story near the end of The Lord of the Rings.