The Shire was the fictional land where J.R.R. Tolkien’s Hobbits lived. It was a peaceful, fertile region in the north-west of Middle-earth, known for farms, villages, inns, gardens, and small communities.
The Shire was divided into four main regions called the Farthings: the North, South, East, and West Farthings. Important settlements included Hobbiton, Bywater, Michel Delving, and Buckland, which lay near the eastern border across the Brandywine River.
Bilbo Baggins and Frodo Baggins lived in Hobbiton, while Samwise Gamgee’s family also came from the area. The ordinary routines of Shire life provide a deliberate contrast with the dangers of the wider world and help establish what the characters are trying to protect.
The Shire is not the whole of Middle-earth and is not interchangeable with other famous regions. Rohan and Gondor are human kingdoms, while Beleriand was an earlier land that was destroyed at the end of the First Age.