|Hobbits by Lidia Postma|
|Origins||A group of Hobbits|
|Locations||Vales of Anduin, Gladden Fields, Dunland, The Shire|
|Languages||numerous; eventually Hobbitish|
|Lifespan||c. 96 years|
|Distinctions||Heavier and broader than the other Hobbits; large hands and feet; only Hobbits who normally grew facial hair; used boats, fished, and could swim|
The Stoors were one of the three breeds of Hobbits.
They were heavier and broader in build than the other Hobbits, and had large hands and feet. Among the Hobbits, the Stoors most resembled Men and were most friendly to them. Stoors were the only Hobbits who normally grew facial hair.
A habit which set them apart from the Harfoots who lived in the mountain foothills, and the Fallohides who lived in forests far to the north, was that Stoors preferred flat lands and riversides. Only Stoors used boats, fished, and could swim. They also wore boots in muddy weather.
The Stoors also had their own dialect of Hobbitish, owing to the fact that they spent some time in Dunland and adopted many strange words and names which they took to the Shire, and retained even until the late Third Age.
The Stoors are believed to have lived in the southern vales of Anduin. During the Hobbit Wandering Days, after the Harfoots had migrated westward in Third Age 1050, and the Fallohides followed them about a century later, the Stoors long remained back in the vale of Anduin, but between T.A. 1150 and 1300 they, too migrated west to Eriador.
Unlike the other Hobbit-kinds they took the Redhorn Pass and followed a southern route, where many Stoors branched off and moved south to the Angle of Eriador south of Rivendell and mingled with the Harfoots and Fallohides that lived there; but most went to Dunland (Swanfleet near Tharbad) which most resembled their old lands. There they came into contact with the Dunlendings. This contact altered their speech slightly, mostly by picking up a few Dunlending words.
A hundred years later Angmar began to threaten Eriador and many Stoors of the Angle fled west and south (T.A. 1356–T.A. 1409[note 1]) because of the wars and the evil climate of Eriador; however others returned to Rhovanion.
The Stoors of Dunland moved back north to join the other Hobbits in colonizing the Shire about T.A. 1630 and settled mostly in the Eastfarthing and Southfarthing. Some of these villages might have survived until the War of the Ring, when they were sought out by the Ringwraiths. One result of the Stoorish influx was that places that were settled by Stoors have some slight linguistic oddities, due to their time of separation and contact with the Dunlendings. The three original Hobbit-kinds merged and blended in the centuries since the settlement of the Shire, but regional variations remained with Stoorish characteristics seen in Eastfarthing and Buckland.
Meanwhile their cousins who left for Rhovanion settled the Gladden Fields by the Anduin, becoming a riverland people of fishers. There they had a matriarchal society which Déagol and Sméagol belonged to (c. T.A. 2430). What became of those Stoors and whether they rejoined their folk in Eriador, no history tells.
Early English stor, stoor means "large, strong", referring to the fact that these Hobbits were of heavier build.
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, "Prologue", "Concerning Hobbits"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, "The Third Age"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, "The Númenorean Kings", "Eriador, Arnor, and the Heirs of Isildur"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), Unfinished Tales, "The Hunt for the Ring"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, "The Shadow of the Past"