A Vestige of the Shire

Abstract

Some scholars have tried to determine where certain locations in the Lord of the Rings may have been based on, and author Jessica Kemball-Cook believes that the Shire is based on J.R.R Tolkien’s childhood village of Sarehole. Tolkien made comment on his home, and its inspirations in the Shire. The Scouring of the Shire was based primarily on how Tolkien’s boyhood home was taken over in an ugly manner by buildings, and even a thriving cornmill had been lost to time. The cornmill itself, Kebmall-Cook concluded, reminded her greatly of Tom Bombadil’s willowpond.