[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Mansun

An amusing comment is used by Pippin in the game BFME, "We are Warriors of the Shire!". In relation to the book, beyond the obvious Hobbits like Frodo and Co., who are these warriors? Hobbits are generally too timid and slow to be such warriors, yet the likes of Pippin ended up being worthy of being a Hobbit Prince in the eyes of the men of Gondor. Are there any others in the Shire that could step up to this mantle?

While Hobbits are not warlike and never fought amongst themselves (so the Prologue tells us), Hobbits do not have a pacifist history; look at the story of the Bonfire Glade for example, or The Battle of Greenfields. They are curiously tough. And we are told,

Originally Posted by Prologue, LotR

Though slow to quarrel, and for sport killing nothing that lived, they were doughty at bay, and atneed could still handle arms. They shot well with the bow, for they were keen-eyed and sure at the mark. Not only with bows and arrows. If any Hobbit stooped to pick up a stone, it was well to get quickly under cover, as all trespassing beasts knew very well.

David did beat Goliath with a stone, remember.

But more significant than this toughness is the nature of their society. While not classless, The Shire tends not to have highly specified, differentiated labour groups. It is still largely an agrarian form of social organization, even with its veneer of Edwardian customs (sans the fox hunts). And unlike the English Empire, The Shire is still settling its own uninhabited land and territories. Such an agrarian society could not financially support and maintain an armed elite trained and dedicated solely to warfare. In fact, it even lacks a formal governing organisation.

Originally Posted by Prologue

The Shire at this time had hardly any 'government.' Families for the most part managed their own affairs. Growing food and eating it occupied most of their time. . . . The Shirrifs was the name that the Hobbits gave to their police, or the nearest equivalent that they possessed. They had, of course, no uniforms (such things being quite unknown), only a feather in their caps; and they were in practice rather haywards than policemen, more concerned with the strayings of beasts than of people.

It is, indeed, a form of fantasy social organisation, but it is one which looks much like agrarian societies which rely upon all able bodied men to accept a call to arms when necessary.

Not unlike, one might say, the farmers and sons of farmers who took up the call and led the fight at Vimy Ridge, and The Battle of Hill 70, and Ypres, who proved so much more staltwart than their pig-headed military commanders from long lines of military training.