A family murder in Great Smials?

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

I agree that the Mayor wouldn't seem to have a place in such an investigation.
As for the Thain, the question of partiality notwithstanding, he looks to my eye to be more of a military leader, organizing resistance to outside threats.

If I may make a sidebar of this, I would dispute that the Thain is solely a military leader. For one thing, there's no evidence that a Thain ever organized a military action after the fall of Fornost--the only military activity attested was directed, not by the Thain, but by his larger-than-life brother Bandobras Bullroarer. Admittedly, he may well have been exercising his brother's authority, but that's a side point.

My real evidence is that "Thain" is clearly to be equated with "thegn," the Anglo-Saxon equivalent (give or take--I'm hardly claiming to be either a medieval or Old English expert) of "baron." One has but to look at the "Thane of Cawdor" in Macbeth to see the parallel usage. If I remember aright, Ivanhoe's father is also called a thane, denoting his Saxon nobility, in post-Conquest England (though, of course, Scott is no historian; nonetheless, he illustrates the usage).

A thegn/thane therefore is a vassal in the feudal system of the king, and is lord over a portion of the kingdom. This describes well enough what we know of the Shire: it is a portion of the kingdom of Arnor and it is ruled by a Thain--but under the King. After all, the Shire has sayings such as "they have not heard of the King" and when a King finally does come, the Shire acknowledges his overlordship.

Granted, a thegn/thane/thain in a feudal system is obviously going to have a marked military character; one of his major duties to the king is to raise troops (such as the alleged Hobbit archers who went up to Fornost). Nonetheless, thain is not a military title but a noble title. What is more, the circumstances surrounding the appointment of the first Thain Oldbuck show that he was basically appointed with powers of Regent, not unlike the Stewards of Gondor--a parallel that shows that plenipotentary, hereditary regencies had precedent under the laws of the Dúnedain.

It is, of course, an entirely pedantic nitpick, and as Inziladun even made the caveat of "more of a military leader," it was perhaps unnecessary of me to make it. But that's the joy of this site.