Chapter 2 The Shire

In other parts of the wide world there was a place called the shire and it was a delight to my heart and my senses. This was one of the places where my part of the song came to be. The Shire,  A place of peace. A place that had so little of the dark in it, and that thought filled me with joy. Oh how I watched my little ones. I had a great interest to watch all that they would do .I wanted to see how they grew in to a great people.  Oh it is not a great people by the ways of men or elves or even the Dwarves. I think they would be a  great people because to my mind, greatness is the way that you live your life or how you treat others. I so wanted these children to escape the folly of the other great races and that folly comes from the desire for power. Over the years I had watched them wander away from the place that Gollum had found the one ring and through many travels they ended up in a quiet place. They called this place they called the Shire and it is here that they decided to stay. Most of these little ones built their homes in hillsides and they preferred round shapes in all that they did. Round doors and round windows and round faces and round bellies. Oh how they made me smile. They had given themselves the name Hobbits and that name stuck to them forever and always.  I had no idea where that name had even come from, except maybe from the heart of Eru.

Over the years they had gone away from thoughts of wandering and things like adventures. No adventures were not for these Hobbits. I knew that there was still a spark somewhere in their hearts or at least in the hearts of a few of these small ones. There were 4 families that brought great pleasure to my heart, the Baggins's, the Took's, the Brandybuck's and the Gamgee's. The Baggins's were great thinkers and dreamers. The Took's and Brandybuck's had a warrior spark inside of them. Though it was a spark that was suppressed and at times led them to get in to great mischief. If you cannot follow what is inside of you there has to be an outlet for it somewhere. The Gamgee's were a different story altogether, their strength went the way of devotion and faithfulness and that is one of the greatest of all gifts and it was this gift that would aid in the saving of Middle Earth.

One of my favorites was Bilbo Baggins. He was such a joy to my sight. He tried so hard to fit in and it was an almost impossible task from the beginning. His parents had died young for Hobbit kind and he never felt the need to marry. And quite far from being lonely he was a solid happy hobbit. One day I thought a thought and seeing that Olorion who was called Gandalf in Middle earth, was up to something with the dwarves I whispered to him to take Bilbo.. Gandalf heard me not with his ears but with his heart. Gandalf had known Bilbo for all his long life and I smiled to see him place the mark on the door that would bring the Dwarves to Bilbo. There was Bilbo a Hobbit that had convinced himself over the years that he didn't want adventures.  That adventures were "Nasty disturbing things make one late for dinner" And somehow you knew that he was just trying to convince himself…but secretly inside his heart he dreamt of adventures all the time. He loved the Elder race, the Elves and sought their company any time that he could. He spent a great deal of time pouring over his maps and wandering the Shire. So it was on a bright new Day That Gandalf came up and engaged him in a conversation and found that the thought that he had been given by me might actually work. Poor Bilbo had no clue when Gandalf came walking up to him how his life would change and all the deep wishes in his soul would come true. He was about to have an "adventure" He would have been appalled if he had known. And the night when the dwarves invaded his nice safe world, would be a thing that was long remembered by Bilbo Baggins of the Shire

Bilbo met the dwarves and survived the Dwarf invasion of his space and he felt the stir of his Tookish blood. For one small moment he felt the desire long repressed to go with these dwarves and have an adventure.  But by next morning the feeling had faded, and Bilbo had become sensible again.  If Gandalf had not roused him out of his house much that was to be would never have happened. Through many adventures Bilbo ended up in the caverns of the misty mountains and it was here, that Bilbo found the One Ring. The ring that had abandoned Gollum hoping to find some orc to carry it to its master. But no my brothers and sisters and I caused Bilbo to find it. It came in handy that ring on the adventure with the dragon.  Later after the Incident with the Dragon Bilbo brought the ring home with him. You see to Bilbo it was a just a magic thing that he could use to disappear from his nasty cousins the Sackville-Baggins. And it was because Bilbo used it for just this one thing that the power of the ring to cause evil was slowed. You see the One Ring corrupted the bearer of the ring according to the things of their soul. In Gollum it made him a dweller of darkness for it was in darkness that he found it. To Bilbo it was a thing to be used to avoid. bothersome relations and angry words.  Bilbo had a good heart and I was very fond of him. So the ring could find nothing to use against him and so it waited.

Bilbo had the ring in his keeping for 60 years and through the years it became apparent that he was not aging in a normal fashion. He lived comfortably and never married. And the Rumors of his great wealth grew in the shire and his cousins the Sackville waited for Bilbo to die so they could get their hands on all that he possessed, for he had no heir. No Heir that is Until his Cousin Drogo and his wife were killed in a boating accident and left their young son Frodo, an orphan, So I whispered to Bilbo to take the lad for his son and Bilbo Listened and adopted Frodo. It did not make the Sackville-Baggins's very happy but that is the reward that you get for ill thought and ill treatment. The Sackville-Baggins were as close as you could come to men's will for power. Frodo and Bilbo were good for one another. Bilbo needed someone to love so that he became a whole complete person and Frodo needed to be loved. For the both of them had much to do that would need all the memory of Love that they could find. It brought me pleasure to see their Joy.

Frodo was my darling Hobbit and I had spent much time waiting for him. So long in fact that there is no way possible to recount the ages that had passed. He did not look like other hobbits for there was almost an elven beauty in his features. Many remarked on that Elven quality and the many rumors were not far from the truth. There was a strain of Elven blood in Frodo. I remember how the elf blood had come in to his family but that is another story. Frodo was not like the other hobbits, there was a very serious side to him and his heart was so big that it would have been hard not to love him. My heart ached for him and I wondered which would be stronger his Took side or his Baggins side. His Baggins side wanted no part of the life of an adventurer and the Took Side craved adventure and deep inside a desire to fight for that which was right.  Strength was something that he would need for this part of the singing. So I whispered and waited to see which side would win.