Stoors

The **Stoors** were one of the three breeds of Hobbits.

In their earliest recorded history the Stoors, like the other Hobbits, lived in the Vales of Anduin. They were a riverside people that dwelt in the Gladden Fields, and were fishermen.

## Characteristics

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.

While few Hobbits could swim and they were known to be afraid of rivers and boats (let alone of the Sea, a token of fear and death for them which few had ever seen), the Stoors preferred flat lands and riversides.

Stoorish characteristics and appearance (large build, heavy feet and a down on the chin), could still be seen among the Hobbits of the Eastfarthing, Buckland (such as the Brandybucks) and the Bree-hobbits. The Hobbits of the Eastfarthing wore dwarf-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.

## History

The Stoors are believed to have lived longer in the southern vales of Anduin. During the Hobbit Wandering Days, after the Harfoots had migrated westward in T.A. 1050, and the Fallohides flew north first and then followed them about a century later, the Stoors long remained back in their dwelling in the Vale of Anduin, but in T.A. 1150, they, too, migrated west to Eriador.

They took the Redhorn Pass and followed a southern route along the course of the Loudwater, where some Stoors branched off and moved to the Angle of Eriador south of Rivendell, and many settled long between Tharbad and Dunland; 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 (T.A. 1356–T.A. 1409) because of the wars and the evil climate of Eriador; however a few of them 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 had 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.

### Stoors of Wilderland

The Stoors who returned to Rhovanion in T.A. 1356 settled the Gladden Fields by the Anduin, becoming a riverland people of fishers. They lost contact with all other Hobbits and nothing is known about their culture other than what Gandalf inferred from his interrogation with Gollum. While their cousins in the Shire developed a more settled and elaborate social life, it is possible that they reverted to a more wild and primitive lifestyle. They made little boats of reeds with which they sailed the River, they fished, and they even swam (something not common among the other hobbits).

By T.A. 2430 their community was ruled by a "matriarch" of high repute; possibly a dominant grandmother who had outlived her husband, as she belonged to a large and wealthy family. Among those Stoors were Déagol and Sméagol, who rediscovered the One Ring, lost since the dawn of the Third Age. Sméagol caused mischief becoming invisible, learning secrets and later stealing, and eventually his grandmother expelled him from the family and their hobbit-hole.

By the War of the Ring the settlements of the Stoors had been deserted. What became of those Stoors and whether they rejoined their folk in Eriador, no history tells.

An isolated village of Stoors called Maur Tulhau still exists in northern Enedwaith, which in-game corresponds to the area just north of Dunland proper. The Stoors of Maur Tulhau prefer to avoid the Big Folk whenever possible, but are still known to them and over the centuries have adopted some elements of Dunlendish clothing and language (which in-game is based on Welsh). They are discovered by Grey Company and the player on their journey south; later the player helps an adventurous Hobbit Bingo Boffin to establish the contact between Maur Tulhau and their cousins from the Shire proper.